Complex story with complicated/multilayered characters masked with loads of Sweetness and Fluff!!

Minor Spoilers: Everything about this show is deceptive, from its generic-cute title to its summary. Nothing, at first glance/read, would hold your attention or even pique your interest. Chances are that you are going to just pick it up as a filler drama. However, don’t be fooled. Neither the title, nor the summary, even comes close to encapsulating the true depth of what this show is trying to portray. On the surface, this is a show about our exceptionally cheerful, optimistic FL with a heart of gold and clumsy but, cute demeanour. Our ML is visually impaired, cold, musical prodigy with a tragic past that should justify his insensitive behaviour. They meet, sparks fly, someone dies, they breakup, meet again after 3 years, sparks fly, this time, they marry and live happily ever after!

Well, if you plan to binge-watch this show, the most you might get out of this show is the above story and great chemistry between FL and ML. However, this show has to one of the best C-dramas till date which managed to portray people with mental illnesses from various spectrums in the most realistic way possible. The fact that this show takes a ‘show not tell’ stance in their portrayal of the mental illnesses does backfire quite heavily for the audience who aren’t from psychology major or have no experience in the field. In fact, ‘TIME’ is the greatest ANTAGONIST in the show and for the people who made the show. This show, if it had more episodes, could’ve dealt explicitly about the mental health issues that it was just trying to ‘show’ through the actions of the characters in order to justify their behaviour. However, it makes this great assumption that people are already aware about mental disorders and would understand the motivations and actions of the characters in relation to it.

The FLs – high functioning depression, long and repressed grief, paranoia, hallucinations, delusion disorder. The MLs – visual impairment, autism, trauma, overall personality disorder. Both ML and FL suffer from mental health conditions which are unfortunately, masked or not portrayed well enough for the audience to really understand their actions. ML is on autism spectrum and it is reflective from his need/obsession towards routines, his inability to let go of the FL, his headaches and pained expression when hearing out of tune music. The FLs depression and paranoia is reflective in her delusions about her friend Cheng Yi.

However, time is their biggest enemy. They weren’t even together for long enough, when they’re cornered with personal trauma and loss. Their reaction and emotional outburst in the face of their personal tragedies was absolutely justified, but poorly represented.

Acting: Evan Lin as a new actor absolutely nailed the visually impaired, tragic cold ML character. Wan Peng does an amazing job as the pretty, cheerful FL. However, its their chemistry, which is the real winner in the show and an absolute delight to watch. The Second ML and FL’s story or performance doesn’t make an impression and is quite forgettable. However, keep an eye on Xiao Lu as she’s the most stable character and voice of reason in the drama.

Music: The music in the show is what puts it on another level. However, our ML is a composer, so lousy OST would have been quite unacceptable. So, just get ready for great musical tracks.

It has high re-watch value because there are a lot of moments in this show which makes sense in retrospect, like, in the last few episodes when they say that the ML was on Autism Spectrum and so, all his little actions and fixations suddenly make whole lot of sense! And of course, the leads are super cute together to not watch again!

As a viewer, if you looking for logic, this one has it, but you’d have to find it, unpack it, carefully and patiently. Through its thoughtful cinematography and direction, they try many times, to show little things but important things which indirectly contribute to the larger message, progress of the story and portrayal of characters. They take shots of light and dark, show how the ML perceives the world, furniture corners, the adoption scene, only for show charity and politics, reference to Silver Linings Playbook movie, John Nash and 'A Beautiful Mind', Little Prince. However, you can choose to just go with the flow and love it for the fluff because the more you try to understand the characters reactions, actions and motivation, the darker it would get. This is a complex story with multifaceted characters masked with sweetness and fluff. Also, for a change, this show doesn’t have even a single character which you might hate!

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