HaiLuoYin
This review may contain spoilers
The worst HIStory so far
There are things about this that I didn't hate, but the awful parts are sooooo incredibly awful that the entire series becomes irredeemable.
I could accept a step brothers who fell in love premise, but what I can't accept is a premise about a stalker and rapist where everyone is aware of him being a stalker and rapist and it's not a big deal and there are no consequences for his actions besides a happy ending where he and his "lover" live with their parents. Every scene with the family made me uncomfortable and no amount of back story could redeem Yong Jie. While watching all 20 episodes, I wanted to save Xing Si not see him end up with the very man who assaulted him in a home with parents who raised the monster that fell in love with him. The father was the only rational person in the family, but in the end, he submitted to the will of the others just to maintain peace within the family. This was a tragedy.
Li Cheng and Mu Ren were fine but their story felt outdated. I thought we'd moved past the "I'm only gay for you" BLs a few years ago. And the obsession with top/bottom that resulted in the most predictable outcome felt stale. Also, the attack by the vice president and then him being exposed only after he went after Li Cheng months later felt odd and very wrong. It was clear that the vice president was a preditor, but it was only a concern for the company after he lied about Li Cheng. I have so many questions about the way that company was run but in the end this story was still better than the one with Xing Si and Yong Jie and that's sad.
I liked Mei Fang. Most fujoshis are portrayed in BLs as loud, obsessed, delusional stalkers, but she was a normal person who liked BL and I appreciated that. Rarely are the female side characters the best characters in a BL, but she was one of the few good aspects of this series.
All in all, this was very bad. The writers should be ashamed because they had solid actors and 2 good premises but used outdated harmful clichés to tell their story instead of creating something compelling and interesting. Stepbrothers who fall in love and co-workers/roommates who fall in love could both be strong stories, but that didn't happen in HIStory 4.
I could accept a step brothers who fell in love premise, but what I can't accept is a premise about a stalker and rapist where everyone is aware of him being a stalker and rapist and it's not a big deal and there are no consequences for his actions besides a happy ending where he and his "lover" live with their parents. Every scene with the family made me uncomfortable and no amount of back story could redeem Yong Jie. While watching all 20 episodes, I wanted to save Xing Si not see him end up with the very man who assaulted him in a home with parents who raised the monster that fell in love with him. The father was the only rational person in the family, but in the end, he submitted to the will of the others just to maintain peace within the family. This was a tragedy.
Li Cheng and Mu Ren were fine but their story felt outdated. I thought we'd moved past the "I'm only gay for you" BLs a few years ago. And the obsession with top/bottom that resulted in the most predictable outcome felt stale. Also, the attack by the vice president and then him being exposed only after he went after Li Cheng months later felt odd and very wrong. It was clear that the vice president was a preditor, but it was only a concern for the company after he lied about Li Cheng. I have so many questions about the way that company was run but in the end this story was still better than the one with Xing Si and Yong Jie and that's sad.
I liked Mei Fang. Most fujoshis are portrayed in BLs as loud, obsessed, delusional stalkers, but she was a normal person who liked BL and I appreciated that. Rarely are the female side characters the best characters in a BL, but she was one of the few good aspects of this series.
All in all, this was very bad. The writers should be ashamed because they had solid actors and 2 good premises but used outdated harmful clichés to tell their story instead of creating something compelling and interesting. Stepbrothers who fall in love and co-workers/roommates who fall in love could both be strong stories, but that didn't happen in HIStory 4.
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