This review may contain spoilers
Came for Wang Ziyi, stayed for Qin Lan and Godfrey
Plot: I thought this series provided viewers with insight into the darker BTS of the entertainment industry. They covered everything from manager-celebrity relations, secret dating, celebrity contracts, buying hot searches for celebrities, controversies, deceit, live vs recorded acting to the difficulties in film production. My interest and understanding of the entertainment industry in China increased after watching this series. I found the love story between Mo Xiangwan and Mo Bei to be kind of boring (it was unrealistic how they haven't moved on from each other despite being separated for 20+ years), but the actor and actress made it work okay.
I also think this series gets major brownie points for the storyline of Mo Xiangwan's dad after he gets released from prison! I wish they elaborated on it even more, because it depicts an important issue that is not often portrayed in movies/dramas. The only scenes I cried in were the scenes with the dad! The main issue that subplot addresses is how convicts readjust to life after being released from prison. It was never something I really thought about until watching this series. Time keeps passing, but life stops moving in prison. The outside world continues to progress, but convicts are usually living very routine and disconnected lives in prison. There is a jarring transition phase once they are released (especially if they are in prison for a long time). Although some may have saw the dad's subplot to be a generational gap thing (he didn't know how to use any technology), but I think the addition of him being scammed shows how he feels like the world has progressed without him. He feels that the world has changed so much, and he has become a burden to his kids (this is where I see the generational gap come into play). His attempts to reconnect with his children and keeping his illness a secret depicts a more talked about issue of the challenges China's aging population's is facing (loneliness, disconnect from busy child, increasing pressure on child bc of one child policy).
Characters:
- Mo Xiangwan is strong and independent. Qin Lan is also a great actress, so it was easy to like the female lead and root for her. She comes up with effective solutions to keep her celebrities safe despite being met with so many setbacks. The only thing that confused me was her character inconsistency. The story is that she used to be cold hearted and then starts to care for her celebrities as people, but I thought she was fighting for her celebrities since the start? I never saw her coming off as cold hearted.
- Mo Bei is a good person from start to finish. He is a supportive boyfriend and a kind human being. He is a likable character, but comes off as having no character development because he doesn't really change much (he was already good to start with).
- Xu Ling was not on screen enough (I really like Wang Ziyi lol). I like his character a lot more than Xiang Xiang. At first I thought his character was a bad guy because he wanted to switch management companies secretly. But in the end, he proved to be a very loyal and genuine celebrity (he did so much to help Mo Xiangwan).
- I really dislike Xiang Xiang and found her to be pretty annoying for the entirety of the series. She was delusional in love and had a princess complex. She was a hot shot celebrity who owed all of her fame to Mo Xiangwan being a good manager. She had her ass saved so many times by Mo Xiangwan-- well more accurately, she would throw fits and create problems that her manager had to solve. I know that Mo Xiangwan is nice to Xiang Xiang bc Xiang Xiang signed a long time contract with her during the lowest point of her career. However, a contract is a professional relationship yet it felt like Xiangwan was raising Xiang Xiang like a child the entire time. Xiang Xiang did not have the qualities to be a good celebrity. I had to skip a lot of her scenes bc I really didn't like her weak character when it came to love, and I found her shitty behavior to everyone around her to be very disrespectful. She was only nice to her ex and gave everyone else attitude bc she is self-important. The movie tried to make her come off as this pure/innocent child that was wronged by the world to make viewers empathize with her suicide. She is an adult and a professional, she should have more emotional control than a child. She basically throws all logic away when it comes to her ex despite all the support by her side to help her get better. I couldn't understand her conflict bc she created all of it herself. She is an actress, but it seems like she doesn't care for her craft nor her fans throughout the series. She treats her fans as an ATM (her fanbase was also toxic af) and shits on Xiangwan until she needs a favor. She half asses her acting roles and only gets serious when she is acting with her ex. The only time I appreciated Xiang Xiang was in the scene where she is filming for a wedding scene and finally tells her ex that she is gonna let him go bc she finally realized she can be better than that. I was really proud of her for that and actually thought her character finally had some development from that. However, in the episode right after, she basically reverts back to her old, detestable self... that was when I decided to fully abandon all hope for this character. The only end I could see her having is quitting the entertainment industry completely bc she is unfit for it.
Music: I love Yan Renzhong's voice!!! The soundtrack for this series was really good! 去爱你 is my favorite! I also think the title of the series is based off a Leslie Cheung song of the same name (怪你过分美丽), which is a classic song! I highly recommend listening to the soundtrack and Leslie's song!
I also think this series gets major brownie points for the storyline of Mo Xiangwan's dad after he gets released from prison! I wish they elaborated on it even more, because it depicts an important issue that is not often portrayed in movies/dramas. The only scenes I cried in were the scenes with the dad! The main issue that subplot addresses is how convicts readjust to life after being released from prison. It was never something I really thought about until watching this series. Time keeps passing, but life stops moving in prison. The outside world continues to progress, but convicts are usually living very routine and disconnected lives in prison. There is a jarring transition phase once they are released (especially if they are in prison for a long time). Although some may have saw the dad's subplot to be a generational gap thing (he didn't know how to use any technology), but I think the addition of him being scammed shows how he feels like the world has progressed without him. He feels that the world has changed so much, and he has become a burden to his kids (this is where I see the generational gap come into play). His attempts to reconnect with his children and keeping his illness a secret depicts a more talked about issue of the challenges China's aging population's is facing (loneliness, disconnect from busy child, increasing pressure on child bc of one child policy).
Characters:
- Mo Xiangwan is strong and independent. Qin Lan is also a great actress, so it was easy to like the female lead and root for her. She comes up with effective solutions to keep her celebrities safe despite being met with so many setbacks. The only thing that confused me was her character inconsistency. The story is that she used to be cold hearted and then starts to care for her celebrities as people, but I thought she was fighting for her celebrities since the start? I never saw her coming off as cold hearted.
- Mo Bei is a good person from start to finish. He is a supportive boyfriend and a kind human being. He is a likable character, but comes off as having no character development because he doesn't really change much (he was already good to start with).
- Xu Ling was not on screen enough (I really like Wang Ziyi lol). I like his character a lot more than Xiang Xiang. At first I thought his character was a bad guy because he wanted to switch management companies secretly. But in the end, he proved to be a very loyal and genuine celebrity (he did so much to help Mo Xiangwan).
- I really dislike Xiang Xiang and found her to be pretty annoying for the entirety of the series. She was delusional in love and had a princess complex. She was a hot shot celebrity who owed all of her fame to Mo Xiangwan being a good manager. She had her ass saved so many times by Mo Xiangwan-- well more accurately, she would throw fits and create problems that her manager had to solve. I know that Mo Xiangwan is nice to Xiang Xiang bc Xiang Xiang signed a long time contract with her during the lowest point of her career. However, a contract is a professional relationship yet it felt like Xiangwan was raising Xiang Xiang like a child the entire time. Xiang Xiang did not have the qualities to be a good celebrity. I had to skip a lot of her scenes bc I really didn't like her weak character when it came to love, and I found her shitty behavior to everyone around her to be very disrespectful. She was only nice to her ex and gave everyone else attitude bc she is self-important. The movie tried to make her come off as this pure/innocent child that was wronged by the world to make viewers empathize with her suicide. She is an adult and a professional, she should have more emotional control than a child. She basically throws all logic away when it comes to her ex despite all the support by her side to help her get better. I couldn't understand her conflict bc she created all of it herself. She is an actress, but it seems like she doesn't care for her craft nor her fans throughout the series. She treats her fans as an ATM (her fanbase was also toxic af) and shits on Xiangwan until she needs a favor. She half asses her acting roles and only gets serious when she is acting with her ex. The only time I appreciated Xiang Xiang was in the scene where she is filming for a wedding scene and finally tells her ex that she is gonna let him go bc she finally realized she can be better than that. I was really proud of her for that and actually thought her character finally had some development from that. However, in the episode right after, she basically reverts back to her old, detestable self... that was when I decided to fully abandon all hope for this character. The only end I could see her having is quitting the entertainment industry completely bc she is unfit for it.
Music: I love Yan Renzhong's voice!!! The soundtrack for this series was really good! 去爱你 is my favorite! I also think the title of the series is based off a Leslie Cheung song of the same name (怪你过分美丽), which is a classic song! I highly recommend listening to the soundtrack and Leslie's song!
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