Peter Ho and Janine Chang has an amazing chemistry but this drama is full of abuse, both physical-domestic abuse, rape.
Here we have another narcissist sadomasochist male, who does not only torture his love, he also tortures himself, he lets love of his life to suffer and let his kid suffer, time to time they have got barely food to eat, she sacrifices and let's her son eat.
He lets his wife and his son to live in poverty...
Ah the ending, wish the ending was different. I was expecting not to be like this but what do I do.. wishing for a remake sequel, etc
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I liked that they didn't shy away from showing us the ugly side of the relationship shared between the leads.
The actors did a really good job and where convincing in their roles. One actually felt for them.
I love the music. It suits the drama perfectly.
I give a 8/10 on rewatch value because though the theme is quite heavy and intense, the drama last overall 2h and is well-made. It would be easy to watch it again.
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This review may contain spoilers
After watching Cruel Romance, I was craving for more rough-edged and complex male leads who constantly acts tough and cold but is actually madly in love with the female leads. And so this is why I decided to watch Le Jun Kai despite its weak synopsis. The characters lack depth but was able to deliver the right emotions and the right moments. Le Jun Kai seemed like a sadistic son of a b–. However, once you look into his character deeper, you’ll find that his character is so complex. You’ll eventually find his character as a sad one and you’ll emphatize with him throughout the drama.
And some of you might find Li Ye as a weak female character but honestly, I don’t think she’s a weak character. To be able to leave the love of his life, live poorly, and raise their son was as strong as she can get. It is not easy to take the path Li Ye has taken and I believed that was courageous of her.
Their love story was so complicated and tragic–the type of story that I would want to hear. Uncommon and emotional. And even though we mostly got tear-jerking scenes from the two, we cannot deny the mixture of complex emotions the drama had.
The story was pretty much condensed as it was a 20-minute nine episodes. It seemed like it was a movie cut into tiny pieces. Which was probably why the entire plot was not as strong as the other dramas. It was too fast-paced for some but it had potential if it had been stretched out into a full drama.
However, in my opinion, its compact and fast-paced story was its charm. Even though there were tons of plot holes left, the drama was able to convey the right emotions. Still, I just wished they could've elaborated even a little bit more on the story in order for us, viewers, to get a clearer view on its entirety.
Overall, it was a decent melodrama that is not for the weak-hearted. A drama that deserved a far better ending scene than the one it had.
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Know what you are getting into, but if you like angst, you may like this
There is a reason this is tagged abusive male lead. So know that before you watch it.Overall, I thought it was great. It was short, so there is not much of a long term plot, but for people who love angst and drama, this is a great drama to watch. I have watched it three times. I adore angst and the way you get pulled in and feel all the pain too, and this show has plenty of it. The ML is also a great actor; his character is believable. Some people might criticize the FL because her character is weak, but that is still GOOD acting; she isn't like that in real life. She is realistically acting a battered wife type character. So I think she is equally good as the ML, just that audiences look down on character's that are weak and blame the actress when the character is supposed to be like based on how the writers wrote the story.
The kid actor was also cute, but he's a kid, so he won't be able to act very well, which should be expected at that age, and I would never deduct stars for that.
Some people can't stand slap kiss dramas and such because they can't suspend their sense of reality to watch a show, which is okay, and in which case, you shouldn't watch this; it'll be too much for you. If you can suspend it, try this drama out. You might like it, you might not, but you'll learn about yourself, what you like and what you can handle, and what to find or avoid in the future.
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Too Much Abuse for Me
The thing I liked about this drama was that it's dark. Not just the content but all the areas they used had a dark aura around them. I watched this years ago and remember it being very dark but I liked that ambiance. However, the amount of abuse that was prevalent in the drama made it not right for me. It wasn't so much there was abuse, but the woman still loved him after leaving him for his abusive behavior and to save her son. How did she hold on to those feelings? Main guy was a terrible person and I wouldn't hook him up with my worst enemy. There was a deeper hurt to him though, so that was good but I just didn't like this drama.Was this review helpful to you?
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What the hell is the plot?
Okay, the acting was great from both sides, they really did the role of abusive asshole and complete airheaded mother. The mother did NOTHING to protect her child, knowing that this man abused her but would let a small child near him, let alone hers, I just thought she was really stupid.She was bullied the entire time, did nothing to defend herself, didn't call the police once, didn't report him nor did she hide the child or try to do anything to protect him.
The acting was great sure, but they portrayed the woman to be stupid and someone who put up with all his crap, THEN AFTER EVERYTHING, the threats, the abuse and the harassment, SHE WENT BACK TO HIM. Talk about stupid. I finished the drama in awe at the stupid ending. The music and cinematography was great but plot was seriously strange but this was 2013.
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Powerpack performance
I added to my watchlist, then dropped and then again i started watching it and binged it. The story is a bit cliche but the acting skill is so damn amazing that it doesn't feel like it.The story of a revenge turned to love, good synopsis but still not appealing to me that's why i dropped it. Bit am glad i watched it.
Otherwise i would have missed this outstanding performance. Today is peter ho's birthday also and that how i came back looking for this drama. Peter Ho as le jun kai is just impressive
I didn't find any outstanding ost but BGM was good according to the story.
About rewatch maybe not but i would definitely recommend it to any1 for a short drama.
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Believe me, if you watch short Chinese series on YouTube you will be scared and you will say "well in this case, the protagonist in the end received something of what he deserved after having physically and psychologically abused the protagonist so much."
I don't like to romanticize the fact that the protagonist is a savior angel who will change everything bad about a man. Because then I see girls in real life who have that same thought and end up dead at the hands of their partners. Nobody changes anyone, nor should anyone change anyone. People change because we want to. Men can appear to change for 3 months at most, and then they go back to being the same shit. So that message is too fanciful and harmful.
But that doesn't happen here, the protagonist never expects him to change and in fact, he doesn't change.
So the ending was coherent. The story was too.
And the chemistry between Ho and Janine was spectacular and they are great actors.
If you are too sensitive to these issues, don't watch it, but I always say that it is good to see what happens in reality and let's not live in a Disney story.
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After being bored for five eps finally things got interesting in ep 6 and the finale was actually pretty good. My problem is that this should have been a dark sexy romantic suspense but is just average in every way and got boring for me for the most part so even though the actors were convincing, I felt SO BORED. The prime reason for that being you watch slap and kiss or romantic suspense to watch the couple's interaction, not their separate interaction with the five year old whose voice was terribly dubbed by a female lol or Jun kai s interaction with his sister! I mean this was 15 mins eps they shouldn't have added all that boring ass crap. So, in the end it didn't really do anything for me.
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it is not good
well, the acting and the music i guess was good but everything after that was downhill. the plot/story was stupid, why? because the ML did mess up the FL then in order to make up for his mistake he tries to punish himself to feel the pain the FL went through like what the hell. He isn't gonna feel the pain because she suffered most than him punishing himself. oh and I didn't waste my time watching all episodes because the ML is trash but not the actors/actresses. Dude, I kid you not all the cast was good except for the messed up ML and FL characters the writer created.Was this review helpful to you?
