BLISS RATING: ★★★★+
“It’s a miracle that the person you like, likes you. It’s a miracle that the person you love loves you deeply. This miracle is not granted by gods. It’s created by two people who understand each other and are in-separable” – Quote from Kiseki: Dear To Me
This is a hard series to dislike, even if it is a bit unpleasant to watch. While these guys are ‘bad guys’ they have sanitized them so much and made them redeemable, you literally sympathize with their plight. And honestly, I was completely entertained by them, even though the story is nearly incomprehensible. It is another ‘Mafia-type’ criminally related series with a lot of tropey chest-thumping bravado ‘action’ that I frankly did not understand and was disturbed by its gratuitous violence. None of it made a lot of sense to me and it had a feel of familiarity about it as it is full of clichés. What is really essential are the two solid love stories and the third, rather peripheral and underlying one.
The first love story is a very unlikely one. It is between Fan Ze Rui (Hsu Kai), an injured gangster and by an unfortunate stroke of luck, Bai Zong Yi (Taro Lin) a student who finds him on his way home and is forced to treat him. Bai Zong Yi, 17, is a focused young man, desperately wanting to be a doctor to help his family. He is studious, driven, but somehow always seems out of control of his own destiny. Being a fugitive, Fan Ze Rui manipulates Bai Zong Yi into take care of him and to house him, but he does promise him that he will repay him for his efforts. Obviously reluctant at first, he simply learns to accept the reality of the situation.
Before long, something happens and the two of them cannot seem to extradite each other from one another. There are some powerful and thought-provoking scenes between them during this time. One in particular that explains a lot about the stoicism of Bai Zong Yi. When Bai Zong Yi was younger, when it rained and thundered and the lights were out, his mother would beat him, which scarred him. When it happened, he shriveled up from his remembrance, but Fan Ze Rui was there to comfort and support him. The comforting of Bai Zong Yi is quite touching and lays the foundation of their commitment to each other. Almost inevitably, Bai Zong Yi falls deeply in love with Fan Ze Rui and there is obviously something ‘wrong’ with this as he is a minor. Yet the feeling is reciprocated and to say that they do not love each other is also wrong.
This story does a stunningly beautiful job of showing how a 17-year-old has the maturity and guts and tenacity to decide what he wants and needs in his life. This is not a question of morality but one of clear choice. (The legal age of consent in Taiwan is 16).
Bai Zong Yi also makes another decision in his young life that not only sacrifices his pending career to becoming a doctor, but literally redefines his life. He sacrifices everything for Fan Ze Rui in order to protect him. He also forfeits his freedom for jail time. In return, the organization helps his father with his medical condition. And as fate would have it, Bai Zong Yi is hit over the head in jail and suffers short-term memory loss. All of this is endured and sacrificed for the love of a man who, when he finally gets out of prison for a crime he did not commit, is shunned by Fan Ze Rui because he has amnesia from the scuffle from when he had trying to protect Bai Zong Yi several years ago.
Yet, Bai Zong Yi never loses his will. His focus. His love for Fan Ze Rui. He turns outward in another direction and becomes a pastry chef, specializing of course in all the pastries that Fan Ze Rui loves.
Tragically, Fan Ze Rui’s amnesia all along was a ruse maintained to keep Bai Zong Yi safe from further involvement in the criminal organization while he tried to extradite himself away from the business. Years of being together willfully lost.
The second more fervent relationship is between gangster ‘brothers’, Chen Yi (Nat Chen) and Ai Di (Louis Chiang). No matter how hard I tried, I could not suspend my belief that these two simply adorably looking guys were gangsters. Nothing portrays menacing mobsters more than two stunningly handsome, well dressed, well-groomed with coiffed hair, young men. They ‘acted’ the part but their connection together, whether they realized it or not, was just too strong for me to suspend my belief that they were ‘bad guys’. Ai Di was so in love with Chen Yi and even though they grew up together in the gang, that could not put up a barrier to fight off the feelings of love. Ai Di knew it while Chen Yi forced himself to deny it. The development of their relationship is a work of art. Actually, Ai Di is a work of art.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? It should be obvious by now who is the central figure in this series. It is none other than Louis Chiang as Ai Di. Not only is his character a magnanimous one, but he is also such a central and pivotal figure in almost every dealing in this series. He manages to bring things back to a reality and helps Chen Yi re-focus his priorities. Going to jail to help protect Bai Zong Yi is one of the noblest acts I have ever seen in a BL and a distinction that shows him as having character and worth. And most importantly, integrity and responsibility. What an honorable person. In addition to his many characterizations, he is just an amazing actor – versatile, dynamic, funny, with a whole host of emotional ranges to draw upon. While he might appear to be small, he outshines everyone else around him. The fact that he is drop-dead gorgeous is also a plus. Quite literally, he outshines everyone else in this series because he was not afraid to show vulnerability and range – something that seems to be lacking in BLs anymore. He seemed to be everywhere, all at once. He is loveable and adorable, and I do hope he gets his own series soon. He richly deserves it. He is that good. Kudos, kid!
There are subtle hints of a third connection between head boss Liang Che (Chen Dong Yang) and his partner, Zhou Ming Lei (Hsieh Angus) which unfortunately is only teased at. But it does appear that they had been a couple and perhaps still are but as time went on, the passion had been lost, but not the love. One senses that Zhou Ming Lei is not well and so whatever remaining time there is needs to be spent rekindling not just their relationship but their romance.
This is a good and powerful series that gets confused trying to tell a story. I detest mafia-type manifesto sagas as they glorify crime by sanitizing it and making it enticing. This one had a slight bend to it in that it presented a bit of an uglier side to its consequences in which it showed that sometimes if you get involved, even accidentally, you cannot get out of it so easily and once in, the inevitability of being drawn in deeper is almost a foregone conclusion especially when love is involved. And it showed clearly the consequences of those choices. Do not be fooled by the theatrics of this series. It is a profoundly tragic story. People died. Careers were ruined. Crimes were committed. People went to jail and people who should have, did not. The world of crime is ugly.
Overall, this is a well-acted series. Since in essence the whole story is about the couples and not about the story, which overall is honestly a mess. The believability factor of the couples must be paramount here. Individually, Hsu Kai as Fan Ze Rui and Taro Lin as Bai Zong Yi are good actors but their connection together as couples was uneven. Taro Lin was more intense and believable and seemed into the characterization, and I could feel his connection to Fan Ze Rui. Because of the supposed length of time of their relationship, we should have seen and subsequently felt changes, but it all felt just too rehearsed to be credible. Louis Chiang as Ai Di is superb all around and made romance look hot. Nat Chen as Chen Yi is a good actor and played the tough guy with some certainty, but the romance scenes felt a bit constrained and rushed and their connection was not as strong as I had hoped it would be. However, it is decidedly more authentic in terms of passion than between Hsu Kai and Taro Lin.
It would sound by this review that there is no real humanity to this series but that would be incorrect. There are plenty of examples of tenderness and warmth and genuine human strength between characters especially between Bai Zong Yi and his father. He acknowledges the sacrifice his son made for him but still he wants the approval of his father to be with Fan Ze Rui. His sister by accident came out to find her brother embracing Fan Ze Rui, pondered a second, smiled, and went back to her room. These are what gives this series the extra depth to being something more than just your standard BL series.
There is no question about this series entertainment value. I just wish it did not have to go to such toxic and tragic lengths to get there.
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