BLISS RATING: ★★★★+
“People will disappear, but emotions won’t.” – Quote from Impression of Youth
This story has a feel about it that screams that the people involved were simply meant to be. But apparently, I did not see the same story that others saw. There are some rather harsh reviews of this series that frankly I simply do not understand – at all. Overall, this is a brilliant and beautiful story about 4 young men who find themselves interconnected at just the right time. Each traversed a journey of self-discovery that is succinctly told and brilliantly acted. Sure, it could have used more episodes to flesh out and enhance its characters more, but overall, this saga had a clear beginning, an understanding middle, and a rather satisfying ending. Plus, I liked it – a lot!
Yu Xing (Muji Hsu) is a struggling and lost soul. A graduate art’s major who cannot graduate because his professor will not approve his final project. He is lost because his piece lacks character, emotion, and an embodiment from him. It says nothing about him. So, he tells Yu Xing to go spend some time in a rural area where there is in need for a high school arts teacher for a month and perhaps a change of scenery will help inspire him. Reluctantly, Yu Xing agrees to go.
Who should he meet as his escort to the place he is staying is Xu Lu Hui (Andrew Chien) a rather gregarious and unreserved high schooler who on the surface has a very outgoing personality. He and his older brother Xu Lu Xi (Will Wen) operate a small hotel called the Homecoming Inn, a name with significant meaning. Lu Xi is a gentle soul, handsome, and gay, who has taken care of his younger brother since their parents died. As Yu Xing checks in, he notices a crude but dynamic and full of emotions painting that is done by Lu Hui. He is captivated by the painting and what it is saying. To a degree, he is intrigued by his artistic style and freedom of expression. Although young, he shows great talent.
Before long the two of them are forced to interact because of where he is staying and also because Lu Hui is in his class. In addition, Lu Xi begs Yu Xing to give his brother art lessons so he can enter an art school in Taipei. Because both have such strong ties to art and love it so, a different attraction begins to form between them. Starting as a natural physical attraction, it also propagated a love, that before long, albeit perhaps should not have but yet did, became their life’s blood for living. Only this time, it is unfeigned.
Xu Lu Xi also manages to develop an interesting and unorthodox relationship with another man who is renovating the building next to his inn as a coffee shop. Ye Bing Chen (Wish Chu) is a laconic and ruggedly handsome man who not long ago lost his wife. This endeavor was partly her last wish but also represents a new beginning for him. Although he keeps mostly to himself, he cannot help but to be drawn to Lu Xi’s kindness and friendliness towards him. He also finds himself being strongly attracted to him as he knows, or at least senses, that Lu Xi is giving off vibes that he is gay and more importantly he is falling in love with him. The two of them form a deep friendship, realizing that perhaps it is time to let go of the past and to move on with living. This part of their story is told quite beautifully and rather poignantly. The scene where Bing Chen scatters his late wife’s ashes into the sea, finally, with Lu Xi standing next to him, was one of the more profoundly moving scenes in this series. I think that representation had been lost. It showed the final scattering of the old union into the sea (at her request) with a new merging who was ready, willing, and able to take up the mantle of being with him in real life and time. I cried at its significance.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? There is such a pivotal character in this series that changes the direction of this series. Yu Xing has a friend for over 7 years that has had an unrequited love for him. Xiao Yue (Tiffiny Lin) has protected him and balanced him without him ever realizing her deep affection for him. When an emergency arises and he is forced to return home, he is obsessed about going back immediately and talks her into driving him back, where accidentally she discovers why. She sees him and Lu Hui embracing and kissing. Xiao Yue confronts him and angrily tells him that for the past 7 years, she has been in love with him and in a few short weeks he comes up here and falls in love with a student of his. She confronts him with his biggest weakness – his inability to know what he wants. His indecisiveness. Is Lu Hui merely a crush or the one for him? In that same vein, she also is expressing to herself her own inability to extradite herself from him. This role and her performance wakes up this series from its passivity and forces characters to finally deal with their own realities, including hers. They can no longer live in their pretend world as they must all face hard decisions ahead of them. Tiffiny’s role as Xiao Yue is not an enviable one but she too needs to come to grips with her own inability to quit waiting for something that is never going to happen. She finally leaves Yu Xing. All he can do is thank her in his weak passive way as she finally breaks the yoke that has tied the two of them together. Will he finally learn from this?
Two things set this series apart to make it unique. To be sure I am guessing what has gotten viewers upset is the fact that a ‘teacher’ had an affair with a student. Superficially, I would agree. But that is naïve thinking and narrow-minded. Let me explain:
- The age of consent in Taiwan is 16 and Lu Hui is 18 and actively and equally pursued Yu Xing.
- Yu Xing is NOT a teacher and not studying to be a teacher. Therefore, the rules do not apply to him. For an outsider looking in, sure the optics look bad, but from every other perspective, no rule has been broken. He is not bound by any.
- Lu Xi knows of his brother’s interest in Yu Xing, and he intently encouraged him to chase after all his dreams, which included Yu Xing so that he did not look back on life with regret.
This was not just a ‘crush’ for Yu Xing. This was the moment he had been in a sense preparing for all his life. He finally made a life altering decision on his own. He has chosen his path. And that path led to Lu Hui.
The other love story is equally as powerful. Bing Chen undoubtedly never imagined his future would be loving a man. Yet, after mourning the loss of his wife and realizing it was time to let go and finding someone who was caring and loving and understanding him is more than he imagined would happen to him again.
Sure, these are not common love pursuits perhaps in real life, but these themes do seem to be fairly common ones in the BL genre. I thought they handled this one well as it is an uncomfortable subject matter and taboo in most countries and rightfully so. But this story is unique and its presentation of the characters and how it ended made it all the more special. It represented new beginnings and new loves. This is indeed one of the best BL love stores I have seen in a long time from Taiwan.
Do not let the distractors dissuade you from watching this series. It is not perfect but almost is. I wish it were longer to give it greater depth and more character development. Yu Xing is indeed exacerbating in his inability to be clear and decisive. In the end, it feels just a bit too rushed. I do wish there was more development of his character so we could see why people were drawn to him.
Overall, I think this is a very impactful and powerful BL that has been sliced up into mini-moral pieces based upon a lack of understanding life. If you have lived as long as I have, sometimes you can step back from the noise and righteous indignation and see it from its full perspective. Not everything or everyone is perfect. But this BL frankly turned out right.
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