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Be Your Own Light chinese drama review
Completed
Be Your Own Light
10 people found this review helpful
by Enigma05
Aug 4, 2023
40 of 40 episodes seen
Completed 2
Overall 8.0
Story 7.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 9.5
Rewatch Value 6.0
This review may contain spoilers

Watered Down Sex & The City w/Lukewarm Romance Centered Around a TV Station & Some Debt

Watched only for LYN's first foray into an ML role in a modern drama and he made me proud. The story itself was a bit trying too hard to fit a lot of things into itself at once. It worked in the parts of being female centric and cultivating the friendship between the three women but I felt it could have easily been a 30 episode series and covered everything as with even 40, it still left many unanswered questions. It was pretty much a watered down Sex & The City w/lukewarm romance centered around a TV station & some debt.

Pros: Though he was the ML and did a great job at it, his role wasn't as substantial as the three women whose plot this really was and their lives. That said I'm still incredibly proud of LYN for tackling this new challenge and his slow but steady growth as a leading character.

I liked the fact that all 3 women were very flawed in their characters and even stabbed each other in the back at work before realizing it really wasn't worth it. Their evolutions came from both the necessity and the fact that they had no other choice like in the case of HH and her runaway husband. In the first episodes she took hit after hit; the disappearing hubby, the mountain of debt, her show's cancellation, her mom's illness and becoming a single mom. Many of us wondered how she would handle it as it was just insane. But out of the three despite all of that, she was the first one to realize how quickly she had to change her outlook and mindset in order to survive and though they weren't yet as close as they became, the other two were very encouraging of her. The tv station was the main base for the entire series.

Looking at it from another perspective, JJH was like a male version of her, starting with being in so much debt thanks to her husband and owning nothing, to slowly building himself and her up as well. HH's new business became very successful because of him. I also liked how they incorporated LYN's real qualities and both former and current jobs as a chef, livestreamer, and singer into the show. It made his character more realistic.

BY and YY both were extreme opposites of each other; one would do anything to get what she wanted even if it was quite shady, while the other was the epitome of Joan of Arc with her righteousness and stubbornness. They butted heads often but only when they really started to stand in each others shoes did they understand where the evolution must happen.

Other great characters were Zimo, the two directors of the tv station, plus main boss, RJ, LL, and HH's parents. The antagonists, I believe there were 4 of them grand total, honestly were an after thought to the rest of the plot. Costumes, OSTs, locations, were on point.

Cons: The show could have just been 30 episodes because there were so many things that weren't properly done or finished. Like did the 3 doofuses who lost money to OKG ever get that money back? Yes HH and him got divorced and the 4 buffoons were arrested for whatever insane illegal activities they did but even that wasn't properly explained. I've got a business background and all of my degrees are in that and I have absolutely no idea what exactly they did, why OKG had to run, why he blackmailed them for 100 million RMB, why he swindled those poor folks out of whatever he owed them. It had to do with stocks and finance but it was so muddled and rushed, that I still don't know. That could have been explained so much better and written into the series.

Also some characters were shoved into the spotlight to make things really uncomfortable for our female leads which I felt quite unnecessary like that Zhang Ke guy who was a borderline stalker of YY and was willing to do whatever it took (like ruining her reputation and nearly getting her fired) for her to date him when it was obvious she didn't like him. And the chick who looked up to HH but did some shady things herself and acted about 12. These were just two of several characters that really just didn't make sense of why they required so much screen time.

The character of OKG wasted a solid 2 episodes trying to get HH to go on the run with him. They could have used those same episodes to fortify her relationship with JJH and the other two couples. The romance portion of this drama was almost like an afterthought. I felt like HH turned robotic towards JJH once she found he had developed feelings for her. She treated him better when they were "enemies". And the sudden turnaround when he'd done so much to grow her business and helped with her mom's health and death, could have been a lot smoother. It felt like a whiplash. There definitely were a few plot holes in this series that could have been better explained. It was also quite obvious that many scenes were cut because they appeared in the opening or closing credits but never in the show itself.

Would I recommend it? I would for the female bonding primarily. If you're able to look past the cons, you will enjoy this show.
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