BLISS RATING: ★+
“The truest feelings are the ones you have right now.” – Quote from Smile After Tears
Frankly, this series is inferior in every conceivable dimension imaginable. And we need to quit pretending that it is not. It is a confusing, disjointed story with undramatic if not dull acting with a very poor script followed by mediocre cinematography and frankly even pedestrian musical numbers. Sure, I was intrigued by the theme’s concept and initial plot but then after the first episode, it fell apart.
If you are seeking dynamic, interesting personalities to entertain you, you best move on. These protagonists are some of the dullest creatures I have ever seen in a BL, if you want to call it that. What made them so uninteresting is that they had zero outstanding personality traits and even less emotional depths. In addition, their acting is simply a series of functionally sleep-induced and placid exercises. And boring. The central figure is a tediously one-dimensional soul that goes around in life with a Cheshire cat grin on his face for any and all his emotional responses. It is quite annoying. One could understand if there was an extenuation or mitigation behind the smirk but there really is not. He does not hide behind it nor is it masking other emotions. It IS really him. Made that way, of his own choosing, by living with a cold, calculating aunt that used the concept of reality therapy to teach him to survive. She was stuck raising Zhang Junjia (Chang Chvn Chia) when he was a child after his parents died in a car crash. Never wanting to be a parent, she was forced to, and the way she taught him to survive was to stand up and be responsible for himself and to become independent at an early age. She literally cut-off all emotions to and for him. His coping mechanism was then to go around seeing the world optimistically, wearing a pleasant grin, pretending that everything is agreeably cheerful and acceptable, or will be, or can be.
Attending a new school again, he meets two other male students who will influence his life. He Yankai (Ho Yen Kai) is a take-your-breath-away handsome young singer of a school band that he accidently meets. Junjia is completely enamored by him (and his beauty) and joins the music group to be near him. Junjia is surprisingly good at writing lyrics and adapting musical scores and therefore the two of them form a fast friendship and an intense bond between them develops. He is a rather cold and distant individual (for a whole host of reasons one of which is his own finite health issue) but seems to warm up to Junjia and it soon becomes evident that the two of them have romantic feelings for one another. But tragically, He dies with Junjia outwardly barely registering much notice. While Junjia is reflective and destroyed internally, he maintains this irrationally cheerful mindset and continues to project an eternal optimistic approach to life.
Who helps him see through this charade is ironically an old close friend of his when they were children. Zheng Diaqin (Cheng Diao Chin) by good fortune happens to be in the same class as Junjia. Diaqin from the moment he recognizes him as his old childhood friend, develops a romantic interest in him. But Junjia is still, for obvious reasons, attached to the memory of He.
Zheng Diaquin dutifully follows Junjia around looking like a lost puppy dog. It is obvious to everyone around, except, of course Junjia, that Diaquin is madly in love with him and will put up with his insensitive responses when trying to help him. For the most part, Junjia sees him as nothing more than a useful friend to rely on. Eventually, he begins to perceive that Diaquin is so much more and perhaps he is capable of augmented feelings again. But disappointingly, even at the end when Junjia is leaving to attend a foreign music school, Junjia still did not seem to regard the full worth of Diaquin. All he could muster was a wave from the taxi a block away. No hug, no kiss, no good-bye. Not even a sense of affection from him. Junjia is seriously flawed and Diaquin needs to spend this time earnestly reassessing his continued connection with an individual who clearly has most of his feelings of love still living and tied in the past.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? For me, the protagonists were much too mechanical and robotic in their movements and affectations. The only individual who made an impact in this series and showed serious emotions is Junjia’s aunt played by Chou Ling. She gave this dull series dynamism. Here is a woman who was thrust into being a mother and did not want to be, never wanted to be, and did not know how to be. While she is cold, calculating and self-centered, she did try to instill in Junjia, a sense that he had to be his own person. However, in that process of having to rely on himself for everything, she forgot to give him a feeling of nurturing. Life became painful and the only way for him to right a sinking ship was to pretend it was still sitting upright. I felt a certain sense of sadness for her and frankly understood her bitterness. That still does not excuse her as being a marginally poor surrogate parent who has created an individual whose coping skills in life have been severely compromised. Sure, he can ‘survive’ but will pay a heavy price for an inability to function/connect adequately in society. Chou Ling’s performance is quite human. She is angry with Junjia for having him thrust into her life yet at the same time she maintains a limited sense of commitment and dare I say love for him. Despite her meager time, this role is exceptionally developed and her influence on Junjia cannot be underestimated, and she represents what for many in similar situations, how others have been forcibly placed when they do not have a choice. It frankly is as much her story as it is Junjia’s, and we should not forget that.
The story introduced a fantasy element, though not a particularly effective one. After He dies, he seems trapped between two worlds and repeatedly tries to reach Junjia in physical form. When he finally does, he simply wants to tell him that he loved him but now wants him to be happy and move forward. Happiness does not necessarily mean they can be together; instead, He needs Junjia to live well while carrying his memory into any new love he finds. For Junjia, that lesson is difficult to accept and even harder to truly internalize.
In terms of production, this series was so mediocre. So many endless and looping flashbacks which is nothing more than a smoke screen. It was quite annoying. It is rather obvious that this series was not meant to be a love story but to showcase the musical talents and skills of the two young men acting as protagonists as well as the others. However, none of it sounded impressive to me. I thought the singing numbers were mediocre, overly-maudlin, and frankly not very memorable.
The stilted one-dimensional acting by all the protagonists also reflects a poor script and inadequate direction. Which leads to the major flaw of this series. No growth. None of the protagonists grow or mature. They all stagnate or wallow in what once was.
When protagonists stagnate, it is only a reflection of poor character development. Occasionally, we did see spurts of emotional breakthroughs from He and Junjia, but none that even remotely indicated that either were on the verge of personality growth or changes for the better.
It did not even look like these young actors were given training in even basic acting skills as their portrayals just looked so infantile and fundamental. Shame on the director for not making these characters more multi-level or dynamic. And honestly, none projected love; perhaps an infatuation for one another at best but only on an adolescent level. One simply cannot call what was going on between Junjia and He ‘love’ (at least while He was still alive) and later nothing even remotely close to ‘liking’, i.e., attraction, even existed between Junjia and Diaquin.
Ironically, they all could have learned from Chou Ling’s performance. She was a master in nuance and subtly that showed that she both loved and hated Junjia and indeed loved and hated herself for perhaps being so hard on him. She had range and character and gave us life.
If you have not begun this series, do not. I wish I had not. This was a poorly conceived series that brought out the worst in its performers, not the best.
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