Hello you're watching AvenueX and in this video we're gonna talk about a drama
unlike usually how I do drama reviews,
I haven't watched that many episodes of this drama and honestly I cannot quite continue watching it.
I briefly mentioned about it during the last weekend 'sweekly video
Hidden Love, Tou Tou Cang Bu Zhu
It is a 25 episodes drama based on a novel written by the author Zhu Yi
She also wrote the drama I've recently just talked about When I fly towards you.
It's by the same author, pretty legendary person because she kind of like got financial freedom before she's 20.
This is not a normal review,
so we're not gonna go to the sort of normal structure and i'm just gonna talk,
I watched 2 episodes of Hidden Love and it couldn't continue.
My first doubt was in my overreacting.
So I talked to friends about this people who check out these dramas.
I'm like, isn't it just like really weird?
They told me like you know like if you're interested to check out a little bit about the original novel
that's like even worse and more shocking when I did see the particular words and languages
and how the story is written.
I know there are people in the comment section of my last weekend's video,
and mostly people are talking about like i'm overreacting and it's not the P word.
So here is my argument about why I just cannot sit very comfortably with this drama overall.
And no matter how much people trying to convince me that it's not, to me, it has problems.
This drama is about a young girl's love.
Since she was young towards a guy, as she grows up,they finally get together.
That's the story. Now.
First point, I am in no way denying humans have feelings,
not just because you reach a legal age, you suddenly have it or not have it.
I was eight, when I first realized I am attracted to
David Hasselhoff
unbelievably as a Chinese second grade student,
there was a cctv channel back then that import international television series into china
and they will dubb it in Chinese and they will air it at a very weird schedule.
Somehow I caught Knight Rider, and I fell in love with David Hasselhoff
When I was eight, I remember still clearer for that period of time.
My mind is saturated with his image. Even during class breaks,
i'd be daydreaming.
And in a way, I think I love the car more than I love the guy.
But anyway, and it's my first strong memory of being attracted to male.
What i'm saying is it's perfectly normal for a 13 year old, for a 10 year old, for a 8 year old,
fall in love with somebody who's much older than them.
I think the first moment that made me feel very weird
was the first encounter of our female lead and our male lead
they picked a very young actress who's a very good actress, very pretty.
And I think she acts so well
who runs up the stairs into the room
She thought she's meeting her brother who she hasn't seen for a while,
but then it happens to be her brother's classmate best buddy male lead,
the moment they meet,he turns around she walks up,
and then she sees the person ahe doesn't know
what I have the biggest problem with that moment is the way it's done by the drama
dramas have traditions, and we've had decades of traditions of camera language
of how you film a scene and what your motivation and what your goal is.
And that whole sequence used, every traditional classic not rocket science used in every other drama way
of filming a romantic encounter.
You have slow motion, you have back lit male lead who is like angel shining light.
Then you have the sparkling sound effect ~~~ starts happening.
And then you have that music swelling.
Then you hear the humming sound of a girl's voice,
and you have the camera pushing on one, pushing on another person.
It's that destined meeting you will see in every weather is crappy or good romantic dramas
whether it's periods or contemporary, if they just film this scene normally,
without any of those sprinkled spices on top,
if they just have like a wide shot of the girl comes up and the guy turns around oh
they see each other, there's no other romanticizing going on.
Then it's a normal scene, but they didn't do it.
They did it intentionally with all the baggage and histories and knowledge of visual storytelling.
What I find is very disturbing is in the original novel, she's 13 he's 20 when we first met
in the drama version, though, the girl that they picked to play this role is only 10 years old
and she's supposedly playing a 14 year old in the drama setting
There's no way that she looks like a 14 year old.
Clearly you see it's a very young girl and then Chen Zheyuan although he looks very young,
okay even younger than his actual age.
Unfortunately he's been around for some years.
I've watched his previous dramas.
He is about 25 when they filmed this drama.
So you know you're seeing a very young girl and the an adult man
I cannot sit comfortably with it and think that it's just cute or okay or fine.
I think it's inappropriate.
They shouldn't have shot that scene that way.
They shouldn't even pick this actress to do this role
A lot of the things that happen in this drama,
whether it's with the young actress or Zhao Lusi
I don't think it makes any realistic sense.
If it happens in real life, there's a scene where her brother played by Ma Boqian is driving,
and she sits at the front and our male lead is sitting on the back.
This is when she's 17, and both guys are adults,
she gets in the car, and Chen Zheyuan's role would lean forward and he would say, why don't you da zhao hu
Why don't you say hi to me you know you when you get in?
Is it because i'm handsome, good looking and you 're shy
why are you turning pink and red?
i'm like is that actually appropriate way of talking to somebody who is still a minor at the time
right in front of her brother who is driving
in this drama, whether it's with a young actress or with Zhao Lusi
Chen Zheyuan's role is very much talking up to the girl all the time.
He's approaching her all the time, he's engaging with her constantly
and with the particular lines and language that he's speaking,
i've at least never heard when I was a little girl,
any older guys of a similar age and probably relationship with me to talk to me like that.
Now i'm an adult and I look at it. It's just really weird.
The original novel is worse.
It is very on the nose with the language in the drama.
They tuned down a bit, but still constantly,
he would address her as kid. Xiao Hai(er) 小孩， call himself Ge Ge 哥哥
I'm not saying dramatically it's wrong whether it's in my own local dialect or in mandarin,
i've never heard a 20 or so year old would address a teenager girl
constantly as himself Ge Ge and Xiao Hai, never heard in real life that people would be doing it
occasionally for certain paragraph you're speaking or certain language,
maybe you will use it, but it's used for a clear purpose.
For example, i'm older than you. i'm your Ge Ge, you know for this.
I advise you, you probably should listen to me, Kid
now that kind of conversation makes sense,
but constantly just talk about everything in self referring Ge Ge and kid.
It's very odd.
I have never heard anybody doing that in my life okay
also in any other dramas. Never have I seen ever.
And if you look at the original novel it's worse,
it has a lot of extremely no matter what your age is.
If somebody say that to you, you should get weirded out type of lines
Such as" open your mouth, ge ge will teach you how to kiss. "
Even if you're 18 and his 28 or you you're 28 and he's 38
that line cannot sit normally with any human beings.
It's so ~~~~
and then you have other other things in the original novel that I don't even want to read out,
because it's just so weird.
And they probably took it out in the drama adaptation process,
because they know it's definitely not gonna go through censorship,
but just with what they have in this drama, it's already the weird enough
after they switch the actress to Zhao Lusi for her to play the 17 year old.
I don't know if it's the director's requirement or like she how she interprets this character
supposedly on page she's a very successful student,
she's very good at study. She's 学霸
That means at least you are quite clever in certain department of iq testing
and usually very good students of high schools they tend to also be favored by teachers, right, Usually.
And it's very rare that a very successful student who clearly also doesn't get bulliedin her environment
would act in such a timid way.
She would act down her age a lot.
I've never seen a 17 year old who is so immature
when I was 17 years old, many many years ago.
That was a society where there wasn't internet, really, that much
people are much less savvy with information and stuff, but even back then, I wouldn't really in anyway
speak, act, in this very childlike way.
talk in this way and act in this way
and very weak and mute and unassure of her bearings
and always kind of like looking for support and help
the way she does it. I'm like, no nee , you know 17 year old these days,
are pretty close to being full developed adults
and that just accentuate that weird relationship she has with the male lead.
Now the final thing I wanna say is a drama like such.
It airs a lot of people will watch it, you cannot control who watches it
and chinese dramas don't have ratings in any form.
So it's free access to everybody who has internet who has Youku
I just feel it's not very responsible action for a drama or a production company
to make a drama that is like this
because it's gonna be seen by very young people.
Maybe even younger than the characters in the drama,
because the drama very positively describe this whole relationship.
And it puts a very beautiful, romantic lens on the whole story,
gives you that bubble of imagination, for very young people who watches that
it could implant this impression in them.
Although you know these days kids are very savvy, too.
But i'm just saying it's one extra thing that can add into their mind about very romanticized,
idealized relationship between a very young person and a much older person
and say if one day they come across something in their life like that,
who is much older. And in reality, not everybody comes into your life with a good intention.
And unfortunately, if you look at statistics,
a lot of those not so good things that happens in this world happens between people who know each other.
They could be a relatives, distant relatives, neighbors, friend's friends, family friends,
because you don't have or you are not right from the beginning
having that protective armor around you and you know being very aware of
there needs to be a distance, things may be inappropriate.
If they're familiar people, you drop your guard and then ofteb bad things happen.
And statistics shows you that in this world.
So I don't think this type of drama should basically get made,
because even if there's a little bit chance of somebody who watches it,
and then sort of in some way would cause them to misjudge things in their own life
in the future and actually eventually leads to something that's bad.
You have to think about this type of social responsibilities when you make content like this,
there are so many other novels you can pick, romantic stories.
Still these two actors,I mean you don't even have to change actors, ZLS and CZY
You can pair them up in any other type of romantic stories that's happening
between two adults and why this one?
and why cast a 10 year old to play a 14 year old?
And why use that very romantic camera language?
If I were the producer or director on set, i'll never allow a scene to be filmed in that way.
I would say this can get misinterpreted, even if we don't mean it
it will look like that, therefore we should completely avoid doing it that way,
even for this type of story where underage person and older person fall in love,
it's always a tricky story to write
web dramas in china is not somewhere you should be exploring the possibilities of very
well, let's say experimental cinema.
I feel that way so I tell you, frankly, on camera,
even though I know like in my comment sections,
a lot of people are gonna jump out and saying i'm overreacting.
This channel has seen many ups and downs since day one.
And it's not like I haven't seen people trying to troll me like hell,
it's just maybe another episode that's gonna show up,
but it's not gonna stop me from honestly expressing what I think.
If I don't make this video, it's fine.
There are so many dramas going on and I can completely avoid talking about at all
on my channel and then nothing related to that would you know show up in my life.
But I just feel I have to say this you know like about my honest opinion about this drama.
And really I haven't seen another drama like this,
at least in the 6 years or so of me making videos on this channel,
any similar dramas in the same kind that really gave me this very
reaction, and for people who have been watching my videos for long enough,
I just feel somehow I need to make this video, at least,let you know my honest opinion.
And then if it makes you unhappy or feels uncomfortable,
I mean i've seen plenty of comments under my last week.
Weekly video, well
Mountains are tall, Rivers run Long, Let's not Meet and Move On
wish you all the best and you do you. I do me.
That's it. Thank you for watching this a bit unusual AvenueX's video
on a rather unusual Chinese drama.
I'll see you in my next video. I guess
if you're still here and live long and happy drama watching.