Red Flag

Reposting because my review got deleted to manipulate the score

I watched Dylan Wang's and Bai Lu's previous work and I love them however this show didn't sit with me at all:

First few episodes were amazing. Shu Yi, a beautiful woman aware of her charms, good at her job,
bold and confident, she was a perfect female lead in a pile of female leads where a woman is represented as an insecure average woman, unaware of her good looks and why men like her. Loved her being straightforward and flirty putting the cold male character in a position of being adorably flustered by her charms.

Shi Yan, a beautiful and cold man whose charms come from his love towards his work. He is determined, ambitious and charming. Despite being distant and nonchalant with most things, he makes sure that around the woman he likes, he is ready to be the one to take the first step without shame. Especially if he is jealous.

However, after the 10th episode the story starts going south in many different ways. It is unclear whether Shu Yi immediately falls for Shi Yan's charms or if she is only doing that to assure her interview with him which doesn't fit her character. She is someone who's familiar to everyone she writes about. We are constantly told how amazing she s at her job which doesn't explain us why she has to seduce him in order to do her job properly since that did not help with anything.

She continues to send him flirty texts but the moment he takes the matters in his own hands, she pulls back despite her being the one to initiate it. The amount of times the character avoids and rejects the male lead's advances and kisses starts becoming annoying where the excitement before every kiss is followed by disappointment where it doesn't create the effect of suspense anymore.

Only in ep 20 do we find out her feelings about him which is extremely late. The story makes us think that Shi Yan's cold attitude was an issue but instead, it was always the female lead's insecurity of her feelings that was the issue. The fl is also put in a situation where she goes out on blind dates with another man due to her mother's nagging ignoring the fact that she already has someone she can introduce?

The show keeps repeating the same scenes. We see more finance related things and their work instead of romance. Numerous conferences which keep repeating whenever there's nothing else in the show.

The characters don't have a proper bonding time and everything they learn about each other is through a conversation of other people and eavesdropping. Most of the conversations happen over the phone not allowing them to have a single honest moment with each other to learn about each other which makes the relationship hard to believe in.

The couple keeps going back and forth until a certain amount episodes where the scriptwriter decides to suddenly throw all deep kisses at once which should've happened gradually in much earlier episodes.

Shi Yan's character is not supported by anything other than his looks and little lore we get from him acquaintances making us yearn to see more of him.

However, the actors did a good job at acting but the execution of the story was extremely poorly done for my taste. It is probably the fault of scriptwriter and not the actors themselves.

Lastly that the only well done execution of the character was Shi Yue, who, from a spoiled rich girl learns her obligations towards her work, her boss and also towards the one she likes.

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From amazing to questionable

Honestly, when I first started watching this I couldn't understand why I didn't start earlier.
It was amazing. Every romantic moment was lovely, butterfly giving and so moving, I couldn't
stop watching it. The dialogues were so well written, and the leads did such a good job and made us
believe they truly loved each other. I definitely see why many cdramas after took inspiration from it.

But then the drama took a big turn and my obsession turned into "When will this end"
Constant repetition of the female lead saving her man, and him spitting blood felt
like I was watching and Indian show made with Powerpoint effects. After some time,
I also started getting annoyed by the main actress having to say his name 100 times because
she was constantly looking for him. Once quirky and fun female lead turned unlikeable and the love
story got lost in retelling the lore which is usually a big case with "romance cdramas" where you expect
more romance but it is always more important to tie the story and the lore together which is why the romance falls short.
Towards the end, the two leads became distant and my yearning for them to be together again fell off as their focus was more onto other things than each other. Overall I definitely think this drama does romance and love better than a large number of cdramas but it sadly failed to do it perfectly towards the end, however it is definitely worth a watch as it will make you lose it and fangirl a lot.

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Rewatching this in 2023 (Relationship between Narumi and Mizuho)

i watched this back in my high school days and I don't think my opinion of it changed much but I got to understand it more now that I am in my late 20's and I must say that the writer of this show is a genius when it comes to psychology and complexity of people's emotions. The show rather explores the realism of human emotions. It isn't just a light romance nor a mystery drama.

Something about Narumi Hikaru is different and quite misunderstood. His emotions cannot be read. and we only get an occasional glimpse of them that might make us wonder, but that is exactly why Narumi is such an interesting and unpredictable individual.

He grew up as a secluded individual, with a cruel mother who gave him no proper attention a mother should give a child and we can say that how he views women in the future is distorted by his mother. It is highly possible that Narumi's image of someone who sleeps around comes from the urge to kill the emptiness and loneliness he felt over the years which is why he needs a constant presence of a female figure. Another possible explanation is that what he does is some sort of a punishment, punishing other women for the crimes of his own mother.

However, what he has with Suga Mizuho seems different from other girls and no, this isn't a trope of a woman who's different than every other. On the contrary, our female protagonist isn't a special individual and the drama doesn't undervalue other women to show her distinction. Just like other students, she cannot resist Narumi but she yearns for him in other ways. She is not there for pleasure but Mizuho's main reason for not being able to stay away from such an individual is her wish to understand his pain and get closer to him by learning about his troubled past. Through Narumi, Mizuho also seeks to learn more about herself as Narumi is the only person that can make her act out of character causing her heart to waver.

At first, the show makes readers hopeful that it will follow the trope of a woman with an ability to change a man who falls in love with her and she changes his whole life, but that wouldn't be so real wouldn't it? But still , Mizuho has a much bigger impact on his life than we think. She replaces lust with careful physical touch, mostly spending time at his house to sleep next to him, eating warm meals with him or to keep him company so he doesn't feel lonely. Mizuho gives him a comfort of a friend rather than a lover and Narumi finds comfort in her gentle presence. She is not just a potential romantic partner but also a genuine friend.

A great way his slight change was portrayed in a contrast of his room which seemed dark and messy at first representing a turmoil in his mind, which later turns bright and clean during her presence when they cuddle on the floor in a deafening silence as he isn't alone anymore.

The series continues to give us hope in Narumi and his different view on Mizuho until one day, when he catches her looking at the tapes of his past. Mizuho's curiosity towards Narumi, coming from an urge to help him heal, brings an end to their growing relationship.

But the readers are made to misunderstand his reaction to Mizuho's discovery. First time watching, Narumi's reaction might seem toxic and terrifying but it actually comes from the fact that this image of a healthy and playful individual he portrayed is now smeared by truth of his past. Narumi doesn't hate Mizuho as he claims nor he would ever go that far to hurt her but he in fact, hates himself. Unable to bear the fact that she saw his vulnerable side he does what he does the best and pushes her away. What Narumi was saying were impulsive lies triggered by his inability to understand that the feelings Mizuho harbored towards him are not those of fear but pity she feels out of love towards him. As much as she couldn't read him, he also was unable to fully understand her feelings until the very last moment. I truly think that Mizuho holds a special part in Narumi's heart but he cannot reciprocate it like a healthy partner.

If you are watching this show, try to see it from a different perspective. It's main message might mean a lot more if you see it from a standpoint of growth. Mizuho, who is mostly calculative and cautious, a cold woman that doesn't open her heart to anyone and cares for no one grows to genuinely care about another person and finally gathers courage to confess her feelings to the one she loves despite her knowledge that he is not capable of love.

And our old Narumi wouldn't be as troubled as he was in the final scene but would say goodbye with a fake smile like he usually does. But this time, it was different. It is visible that her presence left something in him and at that moment he did not hide his tortured self in front of her as she held him tight in her arms.

At the end of the show, Narumi, who was always the one to walk away first now stood still while Mizuho turned away from him and we are left to guess what his gaze meant as it lingered on her walking away.

A fantastic execution of two troubled people leaving an important impact on each other that changed the trajectory of their life.

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