BLISS RATING: ★★★
“It’s just lips touching.” – Quote from The On1y One
Although this series seemed to capture the hearts and minds of many, I found it lacking in story in terms of empathy and logic. Not acting, however. It is exceptionally well acted. And yet, that is also what bothered me. It seemed too polished, slick, and flawless. I honestly do not look to review the actors or actresses who are performing in series. I take everything at ‘face value’. This series, with acting not the problem, still lacked a Gestalt for me to connect to, in what seemed like a flawless acting exercise. I simply could not warm up to either of the protagonists at all. Something felt absent.
Summarily, it is yet another version of stepbrothers sort of, kind of, falling in love with one another. What was missing, however, was a lack of connection with them being able to relate to the characters they were portraying. It feels and felt ‘off’.
Sheng Wang (Lui Dong Qin) transfers into a new school. He quickly has a conflict with a somewhat enigmatic but brilliant student named Jiang Tian (Benjamin Tsang). As fate would have it, Wang’s father and Tian’s mother are in a relationship and thus Wang and Tian are forced to live together and become ‘brothers’.
What this story does do well is present these two with a good denotation of personal history as to who they are as individuals and why they are the way they are. Yet, that does not explain the action that the two take towards one another. The series is desirous that the audience believe that they are falling in love with each other with neither one wanting to admit to it, or act on it, or exhibit any signs that they are except for a glance or two.
The two of them have a lot of personal baggage to carry onto their young shoulders and I understand how their personalities were formed. And I appreciated their efforts to begin to relate to one another on personal levels both as friends and brothers. But the actions that each take, especially Wang, become cryptic and nonsensical, especially at the end. It confounds logic as to why a studious, smart, driven, focused young man would change the way he did for confounding reasons that he knows would do nothing but hurt both himself and his ‘brother’. It all seemed illogical and unfocused and nonsensical and was an obvious set-up for Season 2. Could you be any more transparent?
The series overall is drab, boring, and filled with a lot of overused scenes and useless high school innocuous set-ups. So many scenes I fast-forwarded through because they were trite and unnecessary. If you want us to believe that these two were falling in love, then do not be so obtuse. If you want to show one or the other having an unrequited love interest for the other, then you were on the right track, but it just droned on and on with endless staring at one another with little to give us a sense of feeling anything. Yes, these guys can act, but what is the motivation? Why so much obfuscation!
The series really centers around 3 love stories. One between Wang’s father and Tian’s mother. That in and of itself is really an interesting dynamic. Both families have had tragedies, and all have been traumatized by past mistakes. And of course, regrets. There are also some powerful dialogues between Wang and his father and also between Tian and his mother. Those made this series a worthy one and I wish more of that had been included. They were dynamic and gave a greater sense of humanity to the series.
You then had a side story of two substitute male teachers perhaps falling in love with each other with an obvious trite twist. Their dynamics and story were also interesting and a worthy side-story but again it is never fully developed and is only ‘teased’. It is not clear where, if anywhere, that is going. The level of frustration in watching these series becomes overwhelming sometimes when nothing is made clear or at the very least, clearer.
And finally, you had the supposed relationship between Tian and Wang. Very handsome but almost at polar opposites. Wang is at times a bit hard to deal with as he does seem to be childish, petulant, and has a chip-on-his-shoulder that he carries around like some sort of badge of honor. Meanwhile Tian is like a clam – whose shell is always closed. He keeps everything bottled up, yet he is enticing, alluring, and is hypnotic once exposed. He works quietly and saintly in the background. One could easily understand why he would be so easy to fall in love with. He is so absorbing and breathtaking in his magnanimity, doing so without fanfare or credit.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? This is a unique series in that the supporting cast are quite exemplary. They really do steal this series. All of them add so much to this routine story and without the quirkiness of some of the classmates, this story would have been even more insufferable. Some of the teachers seem to be a bit too like caricatures but even they added to the story. There is, however, one who for me really stood out. Jia Hao (Tim Cheng) who is the individual who tries too hard and must be number one all the time. He wants to be accepted so badly by his peers that he will do just about anything to gain a notch or two up the favorability ladder to the top. Yet, he almost always fails and slips back into obscurity with his life being painfully lonely. He does have one magical scene that made me cry as I could feel his angst over an immature decision he made that he can never live down. This series deals with him rather harshly and even though he wants and needs redemption, he is unlikely to get it. My heart goes out for his character and his portrayal of that individual was so true-to-life. Tim Cheng deserves a shout-out for playing the forgotten one with such power that I remember him. Kudos, Tim. You deserve strong recognition.
I did not like this series. It left me perplexed as to why these two, especially Wang, took the actions they did. Upon reviewing after the series who the actors were, I realized what was bothering me. I have a real problem with people in their late 20’s and early 30’s playing parts for the angsty and awkward ages of 17. None of it felt genuine, real, honest, or looked awkward. It should have. It had to be. The story centers around 17-year-old high school students. They have not lived their lives even though they think they have. Someone 30 has lived a lot of years and that comes out naturally. And it should not have. It simply did not feel right to me. It is regrettable we cannot have series involving teens without teens. Sometimes, you need that rawness, that inexperience, that looking at life for the first time.
For those of you who think this is the best thing since sliced bread – good for you. I do not. Let me reiterate – it has nothing to do with the acting. This is a well-crafted and well-acted series, with occasionally even an exemplary or two set of dialogues. For me, however, you bluntly cannot have 30-year-olds playing the parts of 17-year-olds It is simply not believable. This screenplay was meant for 30 years to play 17-year-olds because no one talked like they did. It was meant to solicit exactly what the response that most gave it. Yet, the nature of this story itself was and is would have been better served by actors and actress more reflective of the real ages of the characters to lend to the authenticity of the story; not its contrivablity.
Even though it had all the right elements and great screen chemistry, it felt too polished to be believable. It looks and feels off. The angst, rawness, realness, silliness, immaturity, and pain of teenagers was missing. It got too wrapped up in telling a cute story.
Leave a Reply