Till Death Do Us Part

This drama caught me by surprise. The twist and turns of how everything unfolds is interesting to say the least. It holds your attention and makes you think did Ran Shu need to go as far as she did with escaping her marriage. Was the ending what she expected.

When we first meet Ran Shu (Lu Yan Qi) she is in the bathroom cutting her hair, hiding a facial bruise that she has received once again from her husband. As she is staring at her reflection, she begins to think about the reoccurring dream that she is having more frequently. It is about her and her husband Zhang Zeyi (Chu Peng Xu), a glamorous photographer who she realizes is totally different in the dream than in reality.

In reality he is a violent, gloomy, cruel, horrific and an abusive husband. Ran Shu is feeling that this dream is starting to become real. In the dream, Zhang Zeyi wants them both to die on his 30th birthday by preparing a poisonous rose for her. The purpose for this is he wants to freeze love with death so that it will never wither. To complete this final photo, he grabs the poisonous flower as well and dies along with her, this is his last photograph--Ran Shu and Zhang Zeyi dying together side by side. Death will witness their eternal love.

This dream sets the stage for why Ran Shu decides to fight back against the life she was living.

You see Ran Shu grew up in an orphanage with her sister Gu Ru Ye (Wang Xing Chen). There was no love lost between these two sisters due to what Gu Ru Ye had done to her in the orphanage. Ran Shu was originally going to be adopted by a rich woman. Gu Ru Ye was bitter that her sister was going to leave her after she swore, they would be together forever. She disabled her sister and locked her up the day the rich woman came hence Gu Rue Ye was chosen. Leaving Ran Shu alone in the orphanage until she was of age to leave.

Meanwhile, Gu Ru Ye had become a big celebrity. You would think she was happy, but she still wanted to wreck and disassemble the life of Ran Shu. And that meant, taking her husband Zhang Zeyi whom she eventually seduces.

To escape this premonition of impending death, Ran Shu started a counterattack by enlisting the help of the famous writer Gu Yi Bai (Jin Jia Yu) by having an interview with him to discuss his upcoming book. During their first interview at Gu Yi Bai's house Ran Shu ask him if Gu Ru Ye, the famous movie star was his sister. He says she is. This is Ran Shu's sister unbeknownst to Gu Yi Bai.

She continues her plan by allowing Gu Ru Ye to seduce Zhang Zeyi, using Gu Yi Bai by showing faded bruises, leaving her purse in his car so that he had to return it and see the domestic abuse firsthand by her husband. Yes, her plan went along swimmingly. So, much so until Zhang Zeyi got the divorce he wanted, and Gu Ru Ye married him.

Ran Su was excited and finally happy to live her life. But we still had the impending 30th birthday of Zhang Zeyi at the exhibit. Now, that Ran Su was no longer his wife this was not going to stop him fulfilling his last photo. The stage was set just as Ran Su had envisioned in her dream. She came and confessed everything to Zhang Zeyi as Gu Ru Ye was already dead. She told him that the letter that he had in his pocket was not from Gu Ru Ye but from her. Zhang Zeyi begins to realize that Ran Su set everything up.

We also have Gu Yi Bai who on the eve of the exhibit sees a lady janitor with a box of letters which contained all the letters to Zhang Zeyi from Gu Ru Ye. He begins to investigate what this is all about. Meetings, interviews, domestic violence were these all lies? He begins to question if everything was indeed a lie by Ran Su.

Ran Su would not have done what she did to Gu Ru Ye if she would not have been constantly pressuring her along with the abusive treatment from Zhang Zeyi. She began stalking her sisters, so she already knew that Gu Yi Bai was her brother. She deliberately shook hands with Gu Yi Bai when Zhang Zeyi arrived at their interview to create tension. She placed the love letter written by her in Gu Ru Ye’s style into the coat pocket of Zhang Zeyi. Infidelity, affair. She dragged them all down into the abyss she created.

Just as she thought everything was going her way, Gu Yi Bai was not done. He knew what Ran Su had done and he began his own investigation. He found out that Ran Su was Gu Ru Ye's sister and was actually supposed to be adopted but his mother. But due to being injured she was not adopted. Looking back, each time they met, he was cooperating with her. Whether it was intentionally letting Zhang Zeyi misunderstand them, deliberately leaving her purse in his car, leaving her shoes out so that he could find her or the letter that she deliberately left. He began to contemplate and wonder if he had not met her that day, how would the outcome be. At last, he finally came to the conclusion that she set everything up.

He meets Ran Su and tells her the ending of his new book, “Everyone is a villain. Controlling people in the name of love. Severing the new life with dreams.” Ran Su stares at Gu Yi Bai and knows he knows what she did. But he tells her that is not the ending he is giving her. He tells her to turn herself in to the police.

Gu Yi Bai does meet with Zhang Zeyi who is in prison. He asked Gu Yi Bai what else does he want to know because he does not feel that he has done anything wrong. The reason why is that he felt his marriage with Ran Su was perfect. The domestic violence and abuse he saw it as him being protective. At a young age, Zhang Zeyi saw his father murder his mother. He was having an affair with another woman and told him that he would always take care of him as he left him to go to the other woman. Leaving Zhang Zeyi to call the police and stay with his dead mother. This led to him never knowing if he was really loved by anyone. He thought Ran Su was the woman that truly loved him even though he married Gu Ru Ye. He just wanted eternal love. If only her heart wouldn’t have changed.

Zhang Zeyi got 20 years in prison. Ran Su turned herself in accompanied by Gu Yi Bai.

So much went on in this drama but there is no romance at all and if that what you are expecting, think again. This is totally based off a woman trying to get out of a marriage as well as serve her sister for being cruel to her and giving them both what she felt they deserved.

As Gu Yi Bai said in the end of his book, "Everyone is a villain." The End!

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Revenge was Never Sweeter

This is one drama that I had high expectations and it definitely lived up to them. I was not in the least disappointed. You will feel yourself being drawn into the world of “revenge” by two main characters. The first being FL (Jung Yoo Min aka Han Yi Joo) who is a painter and was adopted by Han Jin Woong and Lee Jung Hye and ML (Sung Hoon aka Seo Do Guk) who is the grandson of the Taeja Group’s founder.

Han Yi Joo knew how her family felt about her. She was not loved by her parents, or her younger sister Han Yoo Ran. They made sure to isolate her and make her feel worthless by bullying and poisoning her as well as attempting to kill her several times. Her world and her marriage to Jung Se Hyeok fell apart the day of the “VIP party” that was held at the family’s art gallery.

Kim Jae Woo, assistant to Lee Jung Hye had ask Han Yi Joo to retrieve a document and bring it to the gallery. As she made her way into the gallery carrying the family portrait, she noticed her husband’s car which only a few minutes ago she had called the office to find out that he had taken leave for the day. Why was his car there? Walking over to his car, she spotted a piece of paper on the ground. She opens it up and finds it's his resignation letter.

Meanwhile, inside the gallery, Han Yi Joo’s husband Jung Se Hyeok is living streaming for her sister Han Yoo Ran.

Entering the gallery with her portrait and the document for Kim Jae Woo, Lee Jung Hye and her daughter Han Yoo Ran never missed an opportunity to ridicule her, so they began discussing the portrait that Han Yi Joo had painted but several prominent women interceded. They liked the portrait so much until Lee Jung Hye was forced to display it. Han Yi Joo noticed there is paint on the edge and begins to clean it, enter Seo Do Guk. As they exchange pleasantries, Han Yoo Ran and Jung Se Hyeok join them.

Realization finally rears its ugly head for Han Yi Joo when her mother is accused of forging paintings by one of the women that Lee Jung Hye had previously sold to. In full denial, she pleads with Han Yi Joo to take the blame promising her that she will find the best attorney for her. Lee Jung Hye’s assistant, Kim Jae Woo, produces documents to the police showing it was Han Yi Joo who was forging the painters not her mother. She is the one going down in flames. But her reality is not yet done being crushed. She overhears Jung Se Hyeok and her sister, Han Yoo Ran talking. Her husband confesses his love to her sister. He tells her that he only married Han Yi Joo only to be close to her. He thought being near her would be enough until he saw her with another man. He could not live without her and said he would leave his wife.

Han Yoo Ran tells him that she knew that he liked her and that only someone as clueless as her sister would not be able to tell that. She told him that she thought he would stop. She only tolerated him because he was cute. Then she told him that he should know his place. He was too greedy for something he couldn’t have, which was her.

As they both turned around, they were confronted by Han Yi Joo who stared horrified by what she just heard. But Han Yoo Ran just walked away, leaving Jung Seo Hyeok to clean up the pieces of his marriage with her sister. He told her: “I felt sorry for you. Trying so hard to impress your parents and somehow smiling all through all of it. You reminded me of myself. I felt sorry for you, like I felt about myself. You’re right. I’m wrong.”

But after all this high drama she couldn't take it and runs to her car. Driving through tears, she makes a U-turn and another car hits her but then a truck comes and hits that car which the driver was Seo Do Guk.

Still scheming to get out of the forgery implications, Lee Jung Hye looks at Han Yi Joo as she is laying in her hospital bed fighting for life and decides this was the perfect opportunity for her to kill her daughter at last. Pulling the ventilator pull from the wall, she sits beside her daughter's bed. Smiling she leans down to her daughter, she whispered:

“It’s finally quiet, isn’t it? Just the two of us, finally. Can I be honest with you now? Yi Joo. From the beginning, I never liked you. Do you remember when we first met? You tried so hard to make me like you. And it worked. But, at home you cried because you felt sorry for the others at the orphanage. Living in a good house, eating nice food, I couldn’t believe it. More and more I became curious. How long can you hide your greed? How long will she act pathetic? I felt it in my bones while looking at you. A life where you can’t even say what you want out loud, a life where you don’t even know people scorn and insult you behind your back. How awful that is. Considering our relationship, let mom give you advice for the last time. Yi Joo. In your next life, don’t be too kind. That just makes your life harder.”

As Han Yi Joo could feel the anger, rage and tears filling her eyes, she closes her eyes only to wake up back in her room at home. Wondering what just occurred, she looks at the date and find she is back to one year earlier when she was engaged to Jung Seo Hyeok. She realizes this is her opportunity to make the wrongs that had befallen her.

She then goes to the hotel to meet the man that her sister wants to marry--Seo Du Guk. She tells him that she wants to cut to the chase and instead of marrying Yoo Ran to marry her. Before he agreed, he ask her if it was for revenge towards Han Yoo Ran and Lee Jung Hye. She told him yes it was and that is why she chose him. As you know he agreed. They married.

In the words of Seo Du Guk and Han Yi Joo:

Seo Du Guk: "Did you see your painting?"

Han Yi Joo: "But why do you have it, Du Guk."

Seo Du Guk: "How I first knew about you, was through that painting. I fell in love with this painting by an unnamed artist. I ended up buying it. As I was looking for the artist, I found out it was you. At the time, you had just married Mr. Yoo. I watched you in secret. But when I saw you at the party celebrating the Savings Bank acquisition, I got angry. At your family for treating, you that way and at you for taking it. But really, I was angry at myself for not being able to do anything about it. I regretted speaking that way to you. On my way back, the accident happened."

Han Yi Joo: "Then you came back in time."

Seo Du Guk: "Yes. I was back in 2022, a year ago. You were a completely different person. When you said that you needed me to get revenge against your evil family, I was glad. Really glad.

Han Yi Joo: "So why? Why did you accept my offer?"

San Du Guk: "I realized that I was already in love with you. Yi Joo. I love you. I am so in love with you."

Their marriage was one filled with much love and happiness. But what Han Yi Joo never realized is that Seo Du Guk also prayed to go back to give her something as well...that was his love and to be loved. She had never known that in her life. He wanted to be the one to give it to her now and forever.

In the final words of Han Yi Joo:
"I once thought happiness was something that I couldn't have. I thought it was something to special for me. Something I couldn't dare dream of. That's why a happy family only existed on canvas for me. But not anymore. After meeting you, I learned that happiness is in the every day. That it's in the moments we pass by daily. So, this is our perfect marriage."

This drama to me was perfect in every way. It will definitely leave you smiling and wishing for more, hmmm, maybe that is the sweet revenge for all of us...wanting more!

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Don't Waste Your Time!

I honestly thought after reading the synopsis that this was going to be a good drama. You have the whole story about the girl having a disease which affected her face and body and a merman. How can you not like this? After watching, I Don't Want to Fall in Love with Humans, I thought this would be another good one just like that drama, boy, was I wrong.

An Xin Er,'s disease was based off of Yu Sheng (merman). Both he and An Xin Er were singing/playing guitar on the beach one day and some boys started bullying him. An Xin Er defended him and thinking the boys were still attacking him, Yu Sheng scratched her and hence her getting ichthyosis.

Her parents were concerned for her because she was living a secluded life and had no friends. She always covered her face with a veil because she was self-conscious of how she looked from the disease. Enter Ling Zhi who her parents ask to be a companion of sorts for her. Both parents eventually die. An Xin Er's father asked Ling Zhi to take care of her and she eventually became his fiancée. Now, you know there is always some sinister plan. Ling Zhi wanted to have full control of the movie studio that the father left to her. He was given shares but in order for him to run it completely, he need her shares. Being all nice, An Xin Er gave him the shares and he had the control he needed. But we know she couldn't stay around, so while on a yacht celebrating their engagement she falls overboard. Yu Sheng saves her.

Follow all that. Sounds pretty good, right? It did until they both came out of the water into his half-sunk spaceship in the ocean. Talking about going downhill fast.

This drama felt like it was on a shoestring budget and cheaply done. CGI...horrible. The fake long and short wig that the ML wears are both horrible and do not become him. Sometimes I really had to listen to what the ML was saying because I felt like he had a mouth full of marbles. The FL (which I like in the General's Lady) I thought could bring this up a notch. No, she added nothing to it at all. Except wearing jackets over her clothes that were too big on her. The SML (which I liked in Fall in Love) was about the strongest in this drama and that not saying much.

Then when they were talking sometimes you felt like they were in a well of sorts. You NEVER see him be a merman again. Now, I'm only at episode 8 so, there is hope alive since there are 10 episodes left that he will again. But he has been on land for a year studying to be an actor and model. Say what? They were separated too for a year and when she finally sees him, she doesn't really ask him why he didn't go home or anything else.

Oh, there is an aunt that they got rid of pretty fast and sent her away to have surgery. Then a princess (who has been engaged to Yu Sheng since childhood) who comes to Earth but get this, leaves after she said that she doesn't like him, and he can get with An Xin Er since she knows he likes her. Wow!

Trust me, don't do it to yourself. Save the time to watch something other than this. I have tried up to 8 episodes to see some light at the end of the tunnel, but it keeps just staying dark.

So sad honestly for a drama that I felt had so much potential.

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