Once Upon a Drama
This review may contain spoilers
Superb drama, (not so much about time travel but personal growth and pure true love)
I suspect the drama is underrated because its summary may give wrong expectations, and also, if you don’t pay attention throughout, you will miss the key to understanding it…and the watch will not be rewarding. When the story is actually very simple with no doubt whatsoever in the end.
It is not a classical coming-of-age drama with a fluffy romance. It is a beautiful love story, yet even if you feel their unwavering and unconditional love for each other, and see it grow, their endless separations, and his tragic ending(s) throughout the drama is gut wrenching. But we have our happing ending, opening a whole new world.
Their love story is meaningful, thanks to the time-travel opportunity to revisit one’s past and choices
- Not to change the past in our primary lifeline since you cannot do it in your own primary lifeline, as the drama explains in the 1st ep through the tv show in the background
- But to grow, find one’s dreams and own path, lead a better life, pay more attention and develop meaningful relationships with our people of importance,
- instead of losing one’s identity and purpose in life, lamenting abt what has happened that canNOT be changed in our past.
TIME TRAVELLING concept, as clearly told to us in the tv show in the first episode about time travel, is here that you cannot go and change your primary lifeline’s past, you only travel to alike parallel ones…
The ACTORS bringing life to this story are outstanding, esp. Qu chu xiao and Karlina Zhang…what a beautiful couple, oozing subtlety and chemistry while showing us what TRUE LOVE is….when unspoken actions are more meaningful than anything. Their looks and smiles at each other are also one of a kind. And I loved that contrarily to so many c-dramas, their voices are not dubbed and so fitting to the characters.
SPOILERS:
The TIME TRAVEL concept and rules are smart , simple, flawless and crystal clear (like in Reset)
They are perfectly explained, even if little by little over the drama, which is unforgiving if you don’t pay attention:
she travels back at times of regrets of the ML about her, thanks to her mobile phone, the texts representing those moments.
And she is sent back to present when there is a love confession, whether in written or verbal between them.
Always, as we are explained in ep.22/23. So love is the key between these two.
My take on the ENDING of the drama:
1. He is the one coming to her at the very end of the last episode (ep.24). It can only be him, even if we don’t see his face. For the following reasons:
- We clearly see the arm and hand holding the black umbrella. And the tall man is wearing his very duffle-coat from the beach walk in ep. 23.
- The black umbrella is an item of key significance when she met him when travelling to the past in another lifeline. And He has always protected her from the rain…
- Her shining smile behind her tears tells it all. Even before turning towards him, she knows.
- she has been told that « her whole world is behind her »- by the old man fishing in the 1st ep- and when he comes, he stands right behind her. He is her whole world. Like the sea for the fish as the old man said.
- The OST song playing also says exactly that. her whole world behind her.
2. He can only come from another lifeline through time travel. Not from her primary.
Some say that we don’t know if he died from the fall of the lighthouse. Not true. In ep. 19, we can hear the body when he falls on the ground. There is no doubt whatsoever. He didn’t fall into water. And he fell with part of the railing in his back , which must have been awful and certainly not protective. And it is also clearly said that the police closed the case quickly. The rest is just the hope of friends. It is obvious.
3. The fact that he comes from another lifeline is no more extraordinary than her travelling to other lifelines…
4. In her last travel, she at last manages to save him (ep 23) in another lifeline.
So, same as she has been able to travel to other lifelines and meet him at key given times for him, his regret times, I believe that their link is what makes them reunite in the present, at the very end of the last episode (ep.24), him from another lifeline, the last one visited, coming this time to her, because now, same as he was missing her in the past, she truly deeply misses him now and has heartfelt regrets in the present (we also have a clue that “he from the past” can travel as well in other lifelines, as I think he clearly visited the present, (or another present to past?) , if we pay attention to his winning essay “10 years from now” that is an exact picture of the present.)
So there is no debating whether it is him or not. We have a happy ending, even if we don’t see the face of who comes and protects her with his umbrella, for her shining smile behind the tears tells it all…
and it is the perfect closure to their first encounters when she travelled back in time…Because She is shining for him. He is shining for her…
(and a continuation movie is in the works.)
It is not a classical coming-of-age drama with a fluffy romance. It is a beautiful love story, yet even if you feel their unwavering and unconditional love for each other, and see it grow, their endless separations, and his tragic ending(s) throughout the drama is gut wrenching. But we have our happing ending, opening a whole new world.
Their love story is meaningful, thanks to the time-travel opportunity to revisit one’s past and choices
- Not to change the past in our primary lifeline since you cannot do it in your own primary lifeline, as the drama explains in the 1st ep through the tv show in the background
- But to grow, find one’s dreams and own path, lead a better life, pay more attention and develop meaningful relationships with our people of importance,
- instead of losing one’s identity and purpose in life, lamenting abt what has happened that canNOT be changed in our past.
TIME TRAVELLING concept, as clearly told to us in the tv show in the first episode about time travel, is here that you cannot go and change your primary lifeline’s past, you only travel to alike parallel ones…
The ACTORS bringing life to this story are outstanding, esp. Qu chu xiao and Karlina Zhang…what a beautiful couple, oozing subtlety and chemistry while showing us what TRUE LOVE is….when unspoken actions are more meaningful than anything. Their looks and smiles at each other are also one of a kind. And I loved that contrarily to so many c-dramas, their voices are not dubbed and so fitting to the characters.
SPOILERS:
The TIME TRAVEL concept and rules are smart , simple, flawless and crystal clear (like in Reset)
They are perfectly explained, even if little by little over the drama, which is unforgiving if you don’t pay attention:
she travels back at times of regrets of the ML about her, thanks to her mobile phone, the texts representing those moments.
And she is sent back to present when there is a love confession, whether in written or verbal between them.
Always, as we are explained in ep.22/23. So love is the key between these two.
My take on the ENDING of the drama:
1. He is the one coming to her at the very end of the last episode (ep.24). It can only be him, even if we don’t see his face. For the following reasons:
- We clearly see the arm and hand holding the black umbrella. And the tall man is wearing his very duffle-coat from the beach walk in ep. 23.
- The black umbrella is an item of key significance when she met him when travelling to the past in another lifeline. And He has always protected her from the rain…
- Her shining smile behind her tears tells it all. Even before turning towards him, she knows.
- she has been told that « her whole world is behind her »- by the old man fishing in the 1st ep- and when he comes, he stands right behind her. He is her whole world. Like the sea for the fish as the old man said.
- The OST song playing also says exactly that. her whole world behind her.
2. He can only come from another lifeline through time travel. Not from her primary.
Some say that we don’t know if he died from the fall of the lighthouse. Not true. In ep. 19, we can hear the body when he falls on the ground. There is no doubt whatsoever. He didn’t fall into water. And he fell with part of the railing in his back , which must have been awful and certainly not protective. And it is also clearly said that the police closed the case quickly. The rest is just the hope of friends. It is obvious.
3. The fact that he comes from another lifeline is no more extraordinary than her travelling to other lifelines…
4. In her last travel, she at last manages to save him (ep 23) in another lifeline.
So, same as she has been able to travel to other lifelines and meet him at key given times for him, his regret times, I believe that their link is what makes them reunite in the present, at the very end of the last episode (ep.24), him from another lifeline, the last one visited, coming this time to her, because now, same as he was missing her in the past, she truly deeply misses him now and has heartfelt regrets in the present (we also have a clue that “he from the past” can travel as well in other lifelines, as I think he clearly visited the present, (or another present to past?) , if we pay attention to his winning essay “10 years from now” that is an exact picture of the present.)
So there is no debating whether it is him or not. We have a happy ending, even if we don’t see the face of who comes and protects her with his umbrella, for her shining smile behind the tears tells it all…
and it is the perfect closure to their first encounters when she travelled back in time…Because She is shining for him. He is shining for her…
(and a continuation movie is in the works.)
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