Dear Life (2022)

Traditional vs Modern Values

It was good enough that it kept me hooked & wanting to chase each episode as they were released. Generally, love the attempt at the female best friend relationship & the FL+ML, BUT hate the 2ML+his sister.

Du Di (Victoria Song, FL) --> my absolute favourite character (along with the ML) - she's flawed but is aware of them & makes the effort to gradually change them.
- Wish she had more scenes with her mum. She always looks and treats others coldly but she’s like sunshine with her mum. I feel like Victoria always has awesome chemistry with her onscreen mothers.
- Her friendship with Wu Cong Rui. The loyalty and love between them. They compete fairly for the position of chief resident and won’t betray the other person to get what they want (for the most part). Love women supporting women!
- Her relationship with Liu Nianbai. SO SWEET! It was like she finally woke up. She went from looking like she could kill you to becoming a cinnamon roll. They’re literally the only healthy and respectful relationship.
- She’s so loyal that she’s willing to be misunderstood by everyone else. Takes courage & self-confidence to do that! I felt so bad for her many times. Especially when Li Jun Xiao and WCR say deeply hurtful things to her. She looks out for them but gets shit like "being in a relationship with you is nothing to boast about" and that she'll never be as great as her idol.
- Flaws: Too hotheaded (she flings accusations around with no evidence) & too overprotective. What’s the point if others won’t thank her for it. She needs to learn to protect herself from that.

Wu Cong Rui (Wang Xiao Chen, 2FL) --> likeable at times, hateful at times.
- The one who has mostly reasonable reactions but she has a habit of acting innocent when she's being the most deceitful. When she had a cold war with DD, it was understandable. Her divorce with her ex-husband and her falling out with LJX was also reasonable.
- What’s interesting to watch are her facial expressions — hilarious. Sometimes I rewind to watch what different expressions she has on.
- Flaws: Don’t get how she could date her best friend’s ex though. That’s a big NO. Also don't like how she gets pissed at DD for listing LJX's flaws when DD was doing it to protect her BUT then lets freaking LJX talk shit about DD 24/7. Is this what a best friend of 10 years does??? She's also too easily manipulated...she lets LJX turn her against DD.

Li Jun Xiao (Wang Sen, 2ML) --> HATED HIM!
- Everything DD said about him was true: male chauvinist pig, misogynistic, superficial & materialistic, easily jealous, hypocrite.
- Sigh. I hated his character for most of the film. I wanted both him and his sister to leave from ep 1-30. They’re always talking about how people look down on them for being "poor country bumpkins" yet he views women as breeding machines and she looks down on divorced women and those who’ve had miscarriages. Why would they expect people to show them respect if they’re not respecting others? He was a walking contradiction & super toxic for most of the series. Thankfully he *sort of* redeemed himself in the last few eps.
- AND his sister gossips and spreads lies to make the patients worry. Didn’t she get ethics training or something when she took on the job at the hospital???
- He’s always making snide comments like the petty guy he is. For the first dozen or so episodes, he kept insulting DD every chance he got. Like bro, you guys broke up, deal with it. You’re at work, be professional! DD isn’t even saying anything even though she hates your guts. He's also a freaking moron for pitting WCR against DD (miscarriage situation).
- What was the whole point of him busting his ass for a ring for WCR when he was fine with buying DD a modest ring???
- For all his holier-than-thou attitude, he's willing to go against his conscience to earn money quickly. Both DD & LJX have similar backgrounds (from poor families in the countryside & they have to work harder than anyone else) yet she has much better morals & values than he does. No excuses for him there.

Liu Nian Bai (Yin Fang, ML) --> LOVED HIM! Adorable without any toxic behaviour. Fully supports the people he cares about.
- His scenes with DD are so cute. The way that he got her to relax and not be so uptight when he’s around her was so satisfying to watch.
- He’s one of my fave characters. He was never really unreasonable & has a high EQ so he's good at dealing with patients that DD can't handle. Both of them do things for others with no strings attached.
- He’s surprisingly good at stand-up comedy! His delivery was ?!

Cons of the series:
- Fake babies were super obvious and weird.
- Actor's lips & voice-overs weren't synced half the time which made me disengage from the scene. For example, when LJX and his sister were arguing and their lips didn’t match what was heard in the voice over. It made a scene that was supposed to be emotionally intense…bland. No feelings whatsoever.
- Very sudden ending on most episodes. Not that they were cliffhangers but more like the episodes just randomly ended. Also the series finale didn’t feel like a finale…
- Patriarchal values: prefer boys over girls, abort innocent female babies, using women as breeding tools to appease males' ego and pride, that women and children need a father regardless of how toxic those men are & the toxic women who also subscribe to this idea (all the grandmothers & that 1 mother who put her daughter, the mistress, & their kids in danger).
- Communication issue is a huge problem in this series. Besides DD and LNB’s relationship, I don’t think anyone else communicates. Miscommunication led to all the breakups in this series.
- Also how did WCR catch up to DD in such a short amount of time? DD was described as someone with skills that exceeded that of most medical residents, but suddenly WCR who was nowhere close caught up??? Makes no sense. DD had all those sleepless nights and constant disciplined practice that it’s hard to believe that WCR could be a worthy rival in a short amount of time.
- Hate that Director Huang likes to throw DD under the bus to favour her student (WCR). So unprofessional!

Shout-outs:
The husband of the woman with cervical cancer who decided to keep the baby even if it meant her death. His eyes were super expressive and he felt like an actual actor instead of an extra.

The wife and mistress in an alliance. Was super cool (women working together instead of against each other)!

Felt really bad for WCR's ex, but this is what happens when you don’t communicate.

The head nurse!!! Wanted more scenes with her! Also wish her son was brought into the plot more.

A nice surprise was Victoria singing the ending song. I miss her f(x) days so I love it when she sings for her dramas!

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This is Not the Love Story You Were Looking For...

I am a sucker for medical dramas...so I was in regardless. This had Victoria Song and Wang Chenxiao so I clicked and followed the algorithm...lol. What all the reviews said are true...I won't repeat character analysis. The leads are the female doctors for sure and the males are the support. They laughed, they cried, they raged and they cried again. Dudi and Rui relationship was almost exactly like the famous Dr. Meredith Grey and Dr. Christina Yang from Grey's Anatomy. Yang being Dudi of course and Meredith is Rui. They are each other's person. They will be old surgeons retelling stories to young recruits and still be together. They will never abandon each other.

The patient family stories was as if China opened a long buried chest of terrible secrets and wanted to come clean. They wanted to let us know they are fighting the good fight for women's rights physically and mentally. Not only are they fighting...they also have formidable soldiers like Dudi and XiaoBai that will drag them into light come what may. I loved the revealing look at their culture and its dynamics. What I take away from this drama...is with 1.2 billion people in its population...each life is connected and causes impact...those coming and going. Do they have a long way to go...yes. However, if there is some truth to this drama...they are on their way.

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