BLISS RATING: ★+
“…just focus on loving the world, and I’ll focus on loving you.” – Quote from Revenged Love
Watching this series is an experience. An inviting one. While it never felt deep and presented somewhat tongue-in-cheek, it is far more veiled than its flippant appearance. It has hidden messages everywhere, often disguised and gravied in humor and heartfelt tugs. It also had all the discerning elements of a love story, which tends to make the theme ‘ok’. The plot is also a lustrous one. We got to see how marginalized figures were not just that. We got to see how playboys were deeper than we thought. We got to see individuals con and manipulate for nefarious reasons also seem to be able to right themselves up within the story, painting the outcome in rose-colored terms and Pollyanna frameworks. And watching all their journeys intertwine could bring you smiles and even a sense of warmth around you. That is, until you began to really, really open your eyes to see what was going on.
The series was like watching a comic book story come alive. We kind of knew these people were not real and their problems and issues were all manufactured, with their solutions assembled right out of the trite and cliché playbook. But it was just so much fun to watch, right? In addition, all the players were so captivatingly handsome and secretly who among us would not have wanted to use some of their techniques to manipulate people the way they did. In other words, we knew it was a fantasy so we suspended our reality and let slide exigencies and events we saw that should have moved our moral compass.
The happenstance of the union between Wu Suo Wei (Zi Yu) and Chi Cheng (Tian Xu Ning) is classic. Chi Cheng ‘steals’ Suo Wei’s girlfriend Yue Yue (Sun QianYu). For revenge, he goes after Chi Cheng in a most unorthodox way to try and win Yue Yue back. (Of course, this entire premise is bogus, but it makes for a great storyline). What both perhaps did not plan on happening was that through their cat-and-mouse gamesmanship they were playing, the foundation for a lasting and permanent relationship was developing. Although Suo Wei was not gay, and Chi Cheng was, the roles blurred as Suo Wei tried to seduce Chi Cheng while Chi Cheng attempted to ‘fool’ his parents by ‘dating’ YueYue. Both played the game exceptionally well. In spite of the ruses, an obdurate love intensified as each tried to outmaneuver the other. No matter what was thrown at them, it kept getting stronger and more complicated.
Meanwhile, Suo Wei was befriended by a doctor who is operating a clinic open to the community for all. Because Suo Wei is destitute, he allows him to stay at the clinic since he has no other place to reside. Dr. Jiang (Liu Xuan Cheng) is gay and so he gives Suo Wei pointers on how to ‘seduce a man’. The two become fast friends. In a twist of fate, who should befriend the doctor is none other than an on-again-off-again cohort and rival of Chi Cheng, Guo Cheng Yu (Zhan Xuan). Cheng Yu begins to pursue Dr. Jiang, and these two somewhat form a romantic interest in each other that never seems intense until much later. Sure, it is filled with humor and dramatic ups and downs but there is no intense chemistry either with their characters or their connections on screen. Cute, to be sure, but serious, no. It all seemed rather awkward to me. While occasionally using satire to mask the uncomfortableness romantically between them, their relationship with one another could not honestly be taken earnestly.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? Overall, this is an exceptionally well-acted series. However, who I think is the one that shows the most intense reactions to real living is Liu Jun as Wang Sho. He fascinated me not only because of his function in this series but overall, his impact. He is a tease and irritant both with Chi Cheng and Cheng Yu. At least for me, he was the instrument that brings a sense of reality back to this series. Exceptionally handsome, he tries to literally break up the relationship between Chi Cheng and Suo Wei. And of course, tries to create and maintain a wedge between Ci Cheng and Cheng Yu. Having been Chi Cheng’s first real intense love for 3 years, he suddenly disappeared only to resurface after 7 years and is expecting to pick up where he left off. While we never fully understood the complete picture of what happened (or at least I could not), it was discovered that Wang Sho had and still has significant mental health issues and when it was necessary for Chi Cheng to unequivocally tell him that he does not love him anymore, this only added to his already difficult mental health woes. We see Wang Sho devasted. Liu Jun manages to get deep into this character and is one of the few characters that we feel some real strong emotions for that are truly earned. He is an individual that the story loved to hate and he played the part effectively and efficiently. Unfortunately, at the end of the series, they turn him into a caricature, which I found sad. In addition, he does foster and maintain an odd relationship with his stepbrother, Wang Zhen (Wang Yu Qiao) that is weirdly defined.
Unfortunately, there is also an ugliness to this series as well. And I have no intention of sugar-coating that assessment.
Now let us talk at length about the baseness of this series, which I am sorry to say negates its positives. It is not necessarily out in-the-open but camouflaged and easily glossed over. Frankly, I am shocked that it is being given such a free pass. Interestingly, this series romanticized a sex-crazed, sexual abuser who treated people like they were his personal pets (snakes) along with a manipulative loser who is focused on revenge and getting what he wants using questionable if not illegal methods. And for this, they are praised and regarded as a beacon of BL romances?
There are obvious rape and forced nonconsensual sex scenes throughout in this series that is appalling and no amount of ‘cuteness’ can cover that up. In case one needs to be reminded, simply because one is male and the perpetrator is male, it is still RAPE when sex is forced upon that individual! No in any way shape, form, or statement is NO! Otherwise, it is sexual abuse. Treating individuals as if they were property to do with as you wish, is reprehensible and vile.
Overall, the way gayness is portrayed is demeaning and derogatory in so many other ways as well. Allowing for forced and pressured courting techniques to literally cajole someone into ‘loving’ you is simply not right. Treating gay relationships as a game to be played as a sport or for fun diminishes and degrades the overall resolution of developing a genuine or honest bond between two people. I KNOW this might be thought of as a parody or even a dark comedy and perhaps that is the reason these behaviors were acceptable. It became funny and merely part of the romancing rituals. However, for individuals who have directly experienced these traumas or who have been ‘played’, this is not amusing. In addition, for those of us who have had to struggle for acceptance, it does not make it right to think we can be pawns or toyed with. Do you know how terrifying it is to think that someone might be misleading you? Switch gears for a moment and ask yourself: If they had played this with any semblance of seriousness, how would we see this series then?
Is it also not degrading to allow as a further example for Sou Wei to be called ‘aunt’ by Chi Cheng’s nephew with no one correcting him? No one! This is NOT funny nor in the least bit appropriate and I found that to be very offensive. It is demeaning and degrading for gay partners to be thought of as other than who they are. It is time to put a stop to this nonsense and quit using excuses based on cultural norms. We must stop this undignified treatment. Also, being kidnapped by Chi Cheng’s father and made to feel like their relationship is meaningless and devalued or merely transactional with no consequences for the crime of kidnapping was beyond the pale. Again, all of this is done within the context of the story itself being light fluff and billed as a comedy. However, these topics are not satirical and should not be treated with such a caviler attitude.
This is a bad story told in a good way. However, that cannot diminish its negative impact on those of us who are gay or might be victims, be they gay or straight, of unwanted or forced sex, or have been victims of overbearing emotionally abusive suitors while others sit in the comfort of their chairs and find it all funny or think it is cute.
It is hard not to ‘like’ this series but intrinsically, one has to force oneself to do so. The concept is called “Cognitive Dissonance.” Look it up. Become familiar with its meaning as it is important when those of us are trying to point out the something that seems ‘ok’ is not, especially in the BL world of fantasy. This is not love. Its message is wrong, and it is morally reprehensible and misguided. Rape is rape Forced sex is sexual abuse. Treating gay people like a commodity or stereotypically is plainly amoral. Cajoling and brow-beating through physical and emotional force to have sex or ‘like’ you is not courting nor romance. It is bullying. Having a parent tell her son’s partner with her dying breath that their lives will be painful and difficult is yet another example of degrading the development of gay relationships and a conveyance that life will be tragic for the two of them. That was powerfully negative. (I know, I know, this is all contextual and perhaps given as a loving warning, but its message is loud and clear.)
Sure, it might make for funny situations for BL series, but this is psychological destruction, and it must be called out. I have said this before, if some of the behaviors that were exacted on a woman in a straight heterosexual series, the outcry would be loud and clear and swift. But we seem to tolerate and accept it because it is guised and perpetuated by cute guys under the banner of BL. Enough. And shame on promoting these larks. You do not see it because you do not want to see it.
Honestly, I am not trying to be a ‘stick in the mud’ as the expression goes but HOW gay relationships (and unequivocally all BLs are gay!) get presented can and do leave lasting impressions on the way audiences might or might not see the hidden messages. No young person or questioning individual should ever think that the types of behaviors that were displayed here are acceptable in real life. They unequivocally are not. Humor is a beautiful tool to get messages across, but they can also hide or obfuscate hidden messages that are way more insidious and ugly.
I am NOT talking about the acting or the production. The performers are merely doing their jobs and they did them exceptionally well. And the production aspect is spot-on. It is the underlying ugliness of abuse guised as romance. The outcry must come from those of us who watch and also review these series to say we are not going to tolerate sexual, psychological, and emotional abuse as a theme, no matter how you guise it. It is all morally and ethically wrong and to try to make it ‘cute’, funny, or romantic is misguided. And I shall continue to call it out when I see it in the context of abuse.
This review was agonizingly difficult to write because I literally enjoyed watching this series. I, too, was mesmerized by its gentleness and seductive drollery. Until I realized its subtleties and how the underlying message was just the opposite of what it was humorously and superficially projecting.
Ironically, its underlying message is that gayness is wrong, deprived, and sad. But it was presented as a romantic comedy. Open your eyes! Do not be lulled into thinking this is a prodigious series. I found it more wanton – “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”. Like many other series where sexual, psychological, and emotional abuse is being used so flippantly, this series is ending up on my Bathos List for this year, no doubt to the consternation and anger of many. For those of you who had concerns about this series, I hear you loud and clear. And I agree. I am frankly getting tired of seeing gay relationships being developed so cavalierly and uncontrollably, then passed off as being ‘normal’. They are not. Open your eyes and quit romanticizing abuse!
Leave a Reply