The thread is open.
I don’t know what this show’s all about but I’m assuming that we’re here because of Dylan Wang so I’ve gathered some of his gifs from tumblr.
gifs from chumoonie’s tumblr
gifs from jernahorizon’s tumblr
Here’s @GB’s review.
What a rational show!!! LOL. I’ve reached (with FFDing in a few scenes) Episode 25 out of 35 episodes, and it’s one modern drama I’d recommend. The production value is good. Show looks great, with lovely scenes of Shanghai and different parts of the country.
It gives a clear, realistic picture of what modern Asian corporate life, family hopes and social expectations are like from a female senior manager’ perspective. I liked the arguments/explanations on why it’s wiser to behave a certain way. There was a lot of good advice given throughout the show. I liked how every challenge made the leads more creative and stronger.
We see how rationally, (without melodrama) one navigates misogyny, unfair work treatment, bad and good bosses and earns respect.
There’s ample comment on the roles of women generally and in marriage: what marriage, singlehood, divorce means in different times of life.
Then there’s also the exploration of what it is to be attached to someone and to date. The different scenarios when the couple are of the same age or different, when the woman is the one doing well compared to the man, when the woman is the older ‘boss’ and the man is the much younger assistant.
The best thing about this drama is that it is founded on reality. The conversations and the situations are not contrived. The coincidences are not jammed in just to forward the plot. The development of themes and relationships are natural. The characters (so far) are true to their natures/personalities from the beginning.
This brief ‘review’ of sorts is incomplete if I don’t mention the actors. They are very good. Qin Lan is so beautiful (in RL 19 years older than Dylan Wang!) but I can believe that she’s only 12 years older in the show. Dylan portrays the young, responsible assistant perfectly. The romance is believable. Even the side characters’ romance(s) are not ‘cringey’ to watch. They add commentary to the question of relationships in different phases, rather than act as filler as in so many other shows.
The message of hope that came through, there’s no such thing as failing indefinitely. In the ups and downs/ebbs and flows of the waves, the ‘bad’ will be washed away and we will have our day(s). Our goodness, staying power, sincere effort, cooperation and ability to work with others, without stomping on them or treating them like objects, will bring about joy(s) and successes along the way. The romances are not the main thing in this series, but they certainly are icing on the cake. 🙂
Enjoy the show!
I may start this soon because of the rave reviews. Which reminds me, @pm3, did you ever fiish watching Love Between fairy and devil?
My dear @pkml3, thank you heaps! How prompt you are. You’re home earlier than I expected.
Yes, one good outing with Love Between Fairy and Devil, and the amazing styling of Dylan Wang He Di there, as Dongfang Qing Cang, has set some of us watching this modern show, to see what else Dylan can do, and how good he can look without all that wig and costumes.
I’m glad to say that he is capable of a lot more and is still improving, and that he’s very appealing as himself. Whether ‘villain’/anti-hero or as someone more like his real self, he’s able to pull it off well.
I like the ensemble of actors in both The Rational Life and LBFD. In The Rational Life, there’s the added factor that a relatively new and very young actor is able to hold his own among the wonderful Pan Hong (she’s 67 years old and started in movies at age 25!), Tian Miao (his ‘mum’) and the experienced Qin Lan. They work so well together.
I hope those who will watch and those who have watched The Rational Life will share their thoughts on this show in this thread.
😃 ☺️ 🧐 😏 🤔 🙄 😧 🥲 😌 😝 😀
I’m re-posting this here… This is my response to @Viva (on the LBFD Ep 31-36 Rewatch OT):
The Rational Life
Yes, I thought of the chat we had about The Rational Life while I was watching it. I didn’t spend time to really think about it, but of course it was obvious that so many comments were being made about the same old or the changing and changed attitudes in that society (and many others) towards women per se, women’s roles in work, in leadership, in family, social life, etc … And also naturally, it would touch on comment about men’s roles, expectations and attitudes which are also changing. It’s a delicate balance, retaining or living with what was ‘customary’ from ages past while entering into the ‘new’.
The emergence of the ‘new energy vehicle’ as opposed to the old fuel vehicle, is a metaphor for the new attitudes that are being more and more accepted and looks to be becoming the norm, at least in cities. Just as there are obstacles put in the way of making new energy vehicles more advertised and acceptable, so too are there blocks to accepting the new attitudes. I guess Show is saying that the new will be inevitable, no matter how much some may want to stall its progress.
On the one end of the spectrum, we have Rou Xin’s Mum (Zhou Yi Lan) and Liu Pei representing the ‘old’ mindset, Qi Xiao, Xu Ming Jie, Zi Yan, Lisa and maybe some others representing the ‘new’ mindset, and then there are Ruo Xin, Zou Cheng, Qi Xiao’s Mum who are in the middle, straddling both the new and the old, but learning how to embrace the new.
The debates to win arguments for and against each option when issues arose, were actually pretty good (I did not, however, try to transcribe them), so I applaud the scriptwriters, Chen Tong and Long Xiao Shan, who are both women. They really made this drama a great platform to air their views on their own roles in their society. 🙂
Yes I did cry a few times watching this drama.
I was so touched in the conversation between Rou Xin’s mum and Qi Xiao mum. I get that – single mum’s life is tough. I like that faith of Qi Xiao’s mum. She trusts her son’s choice. I thought it takes a lot for the Qi Xiao’s mum to say it. Usually it is the younger man’s mum that would be doubtful about son’s choice. But no, the drama try to tell another story. Trust the child’s choice, if the parents know their child.
The tears of the actors made me cry too. Loved all the emotions show pulled forth from me. LOL.
True love
Back to the reality from LBFad, I also felt the show has explained to us that true love is what Rou Xin and Qi Xiao had. In his confession in the powercut, Qi Xiao went straight to the point asking Rou Xin to look at him in her eyes. After all they went through, is there really no love? I am glad the show didn’t go through the Hospital Playlist route (Song Hwa doesn’t know what she wants? come on!). Rou Xin is 30+, she knows what love is and acts on that. I thought that confession of Qi Xiao was very frank and well acted. Very believable. He admires her abilities, her passion for work, her hard work and her caring side. He looks after her, he is there for her when she needs someone, she is relaxed and happy with him. If one met a person like that, does age matters at the end? I like she acts on it. Is it really an irrational choice? Or she acts decisively when she recognises a potential true love?
Qi Xiao is not afraid of a successful woman. He was bought up with a loving mother who believes in him. There is no annoying inferior complex for viewers to go through. I thought the dinner between Qi Xiao, Rou Xin and Rou Xin mum were amazingly. Very well acted by all three actors! Qi Xiao shows Rou Xin’s mum that he knows Rou Xin, even her weaknesses that we don’t see much of. Dylan showed that his crying scenes were touching, even before the time of LBF&D
At this day and age, women is not relying on men to provide. While age does impose some true difficulties (like fertility), the drama gives us some more food for thought on the perceived ideal partner. Admittedly some paths can be harder. What is the ideal other half? There is no one size fits all.
@wapz,
I’m stuck on Ep 18. 🙂 I may get started again because it’s on Netflix now. Netflix makes it easy to download the episodes so when I’m waiting or travelling, I can watch them.
@Viva (I’ll separate my reply to you into 3 posts)
The consistent character behaviour of RX, indicates that RX does not act on impulse. Even if she does, she cannot betray her own feelings if there is something not right in her impulsive decsion. Take the case of her wanting to go to Shenzhen and then changing her mind. She understood that her desire to go was not ‘pure’. She had a hidden motive ie to get away from her mother and possibly the office politics. She acted quickly to reverse the wrong decision.
In previous episodes, especially with the suggestive teasing of Zi Yan, but even without it, RX had already started becoming aware of her changed feelings for QX. She understandably dismissed them as inappropriate.
Not only was age a factor against them (she might be accused of cradle snatching if she made any moves on a young man 12 years her junior), but the issue of sexual harassment might come into play since she was the boss.
No matter what, it would need to be QX who made the first move, and appropriately, she would have to be the one responsible to caution him about their disparity in age.
So for all the reasons you mentioned above, and since she returned the feelings, it was the most rational decision for her to at least give their romance a try. She always made a decision and then implemented it quickly. She behaved the same way in her personal relationships, as she did in her professional decision making.
In fact if she had rejected him instead, THAT would have been irrational!
@Viva
I agree. This makes so much sense. The reason he is so mature is clear. For one thing, it was his temperament (since he was 6 years old, says his mum), and that, together with his mum’s inability to manage her own home, propelled him to grow up fast.
Dylan seems to have natural talent (says AvenueX) and here we see him able to evoke emotions in his viewers quite effortlessly. So I have to agree with her.
@Viva
Although AvenueX says that the Song Zi Yan-Zou Cheng storyline was superfluous, I feel that their couple relationship was a good setup for comparison and contrast.
Zou Cheng and Zi Yan considered each other their ideal partners to begin with. But even with love, they find their ideals slowly changing and drifting apart. Zi Yan chose to stop work and to rely on Zou Cheng to provide, but it became both a blessing and a curse.
(It’s so true what RX repeats… we do not know what lies ahead. We can only seize the day based on what we know now. Then we cross the bridges as we come to them. So that’s what she did with QX and in all her projects. So too, for Zi Yan, the situation changed but she did not see it happening or didn’t adapt to it. However it was good that they ultimately crossed their bridges together.)
Cui Li Xin embodied what society would judge to be the ideal marriage partner, but he was totally wrong for Ruo Xin and couldn’t see it. That was so frustrating. How many times did she tell him that she hated porridge but he refused to respect her wishes? He was the controlling type, deciding what was best for his ‘girlfriend’.
Gu Yu Tao was another setup as a very eligible divorced bachelor with all the trappings that made him a good catch: right age, good position with stable income, admiration for RX. But his arrogance, petty trouble-making and stupidity (he really didn’t check that his new girlfriend was so fake?) disqualifies him at once, even if RX had not already agreed to be QX’s girlfriend.
The difficulty in navigating the choice of a partner is that older women like RX were expected to be desperate to get married, to be grateful for anyone who would still have them as a wife, so that rejecting 2 eligible bachelors for the young, not yet established QX was sheer madness in the eyes of society/family.
So the concept of what society claims is the ideal life partner for a woman, especially for an older woman, is one of the concepts (among several) that show turns on its head.
For fun, here’s the transcribed conversation leading to the love confession.
5:30
In the typhoon where the power cut occurs, QX finally climbs to the 26th? floor (poor chap) and desperately calls RX’s name until she comes out. The choice of mise en scene is so significant.
They are stuck in the dark, barren corridor, kept apart by the glass door. In that set up QX is beside himself with anxiety and anger at RX’s recklessness when it comes to her health. I like the change in dynamics where the young subordinate literally shouts at his boss, berating her for her misguided priorities. He’s the one with the older head, and she’s the irresponsible kid.
QX shouts, stunning RX for a while : “Is it not dangerous for you? Do you value money over your life?”
She stares at him and wisely appeals to his caring side (instead of arguing further) by saying that she’s tired and for him to stop yelling at her.
They look at each other in the dark, through the glass and it’s paradoxically when they can’t get any closer physically, that they close the gap between them over their relationship in their conversation.
RX : “I’m fine. Don’t scare yourself with your imagination.”
QX : “I’m worried about you because …” (He pauses, deliberating whether to come clean or not) She waits for him to continue so he admits “It’s because I like/love you.”
RX has to take a moment. She looks away, again stunned by the confession, maybe more so than by QX’s shouting at her.
RX : “QX, what are you talking about? Don’t be ridiculous.”
QX : “I’m not kidding. I’ve told you before. But you didn’t take me seriously. Believe it or not, that’s how I feel. Shen Chieh, no Shen Ruo Xin. I like you. I’ve liked you for a long time.”
RX is not sure how to deal with this. She wets her dry lips and sighs: “QX, there are many types of affection. The two of us have a huge age difference. Is it because you work with me every day? You might be confused about your feelings.”
QX : “I know what you want to say. But I’m an adult. I know how I feel about you. This has nothing to do with our age.
When you’re not with me, I miss you. I worry about you. I get angry at you for not taking care of yourself. If it makes you happy, I’ll do my best to do everything I can. When I’m with you, even if we don’t talk, as long as I can sit beside you, I feel at ease. I’m happy. I think this is love. I’m drawn to you.”
Shen Ruo Xin, what about you?”
She’s concerned about the age gap.
QX cuts to the main consideration : “Tell me yourself. That you don’t like me. That you’ve never felt anything for me.” She opens and closes her mouth but cannot say anything.
QX : “When you were sick and leaning on me didn’t you feel anything for me? When we were together every day, didn’t you feel anything for me either? When we went stargazing together, didn’t you feel anything for me either? Tell me. I’ll give up if you tell me.”
11:10
RX just looks at QX. She tries to speak but she cannot lie. When she looks down, defeated, QX perks up LOL.
QX : “You can’t do it, can you? I know you like me too. Right?”
They stare at each other, QX smiles and the lights come on. The corridor is brightly lit.
It’s the moment of revelation LOL (good move PD!!) and the path lies on both sides of them giving them the choice of ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
As they continue to stare silently at each other, the glass door that separates them slides away. What could be more apt than the removal of every physical barrier? He takes her hand.
QX :”Can we give it a try?” She thinks a moment, as she usually does and gives a definite nod.
QX can’t really believe it : “Did you just nod? Is that a yes?”
RX : “Yes.”
His enthusiastic hug hurts her because of her surgery wound and her fall. He apologises sheepishly.
Their second hug is warm and gentle, and they are both smiling. The most barren corridor had offered the setting for a most fruitful conversation!
The wonderful dialogue of Rational Life – how nice to have more of this in both real life and dramas!
Episode 26 – QX and his Mum who has guessed that he loves RX
Mum asks if QX likes RX. He cannot lie to her for more than a few seconds. He says RX is so impressive and that she might not like him.
Mum : “My son isn’t so bad either. If you really like her, go after her. I support you.”
QX : “Mum, you’re not against it?”
Mum : “Why would I be against it? Do you want to live with me forever?”
…
Mum : “My son, other mums might be against this. They would think that their son isn’t thinking clearly and being impulsive. They are afraid that their son will get tricked and deceived. But I won’t act that way, because my son has never done anything that disappointed me.”
(What a rational mother!!!)
QX : “Mum you’re so open-minded.”
Mum says that she can see that he really loves RX. Mum’s best decision was to follow her future husband to Shanghai and marry him, against the wishes of friends and especially her parents. She had fought with them.
Mum : “That’s why I know that when you really fall for someone, no matter what anyone says, it’s useless. So let me tell you. No matter what kind of girlfriend you’ll have in the future, I won’t interfere. As long as you like her, I like her. As long as you’re happy, I’m happy.”
What a world of difference between this Mum and RX’s Mum Zhou.
@GB thanks so much for transcribing the conversation in the last two posts! I wanted to write back earlier but just so too tired from work.
In fact, it is the ep 26 that makes me cry in the drama. It really gives me food for thoughts on how positive a mum can be!
1. “My son isn’t bad either” – She gives him such a confidence boost! One can say, “He is too young for her, he hasn’t got a senior position in the company and he hasn’t got much money nor a house”. But no, she knows the positive sides. We all know QX is a great guy – he is good with the elderlies, he is good with his jewellery designs, he knows how to cook, he is there when RX needs looking after.
2. She believes in her son – provided that the parents know their children haven’t been unwise in the past decisions, why not believe in their choices? In laws can cause a lot of problems in their children’s relationships. As parents, do we want to be difficult, or do we want to help the children out in navigating their love life and be supportive? Why does it need to be our own ways? It is their lives after all.
Currently it is all theory for me as my children are young, but a good reminder for me. How will I cope when they eventually have someone? Probably like RX’s mum first but slowly become QX’s mum lol.
I enjoyed watching the confession. We all know this is a noona romance and I was curious whether it will be convincing or not. I am pleased to say I was convinced that theirs wasn’t a crush or lust, but someone really enjoy each other’s companion. The questions from QX are spot on – that’s when us viewers feel the sparks between them – when she was sick, when they looked at the stars…I am glad that RX didn’t deny the feelings. She bravely chooses someone who loves and adores her, and she loves him too for his warmth and care too.
It did take them 20+ episodes to “know” each other. The drama show us:
1.How brilliant RX is – She is hard working, resilient and wise in dealing with unfairness. Apart from her great work ethics, she is very beautiful too. I can understand how QX can admire and fall for her.
2. How great QX is as a boyfriend. – He learnt to eat spicy food for RX, he planned a birthday party for her, he was there for her when she was sick. He loves RX as she is. Contrast to MJ who has everything luxurious, we can see RX is not moved by MJ, who probably ticked a lot of boxes in the conventional view as an ideal husband. The key is that she is just so happy and comfortable around QX.
In my view, it is a much better noona romance than Forecasting Love and Weather. I didn’t finish that drama by the way.
It was tricky though as he is her assistant. I was quietly relief that he left the workplace after they confirmed their relationship. I don’t need to do the mental gymnastics to deal with the potential power imbalance issue/conflicts.
Hi @Viva! Glad you hopped into this thread. You were making some comments about the social commentary in this show.
About the stereotypical view of marriage or what makes a happy marriage.
As you mentioned also, about what makes a good partner for life… and we see how wrong all the family and best friend was about the first irritating guy.
I liked the juxtaposition of the different stages of relationships. The singles starting to date, the marrieds trying to understand what they’d signed up for, and the divorced mum’s point of view versus the widowed mum’s point of view. Then we even get the point of view of the lousy wanna-be bf from her law class on who would be a good partner or how dating should be.
The other commentary was on finding one’s place in the working world. To work for a salary or to take the risk to make one’s own way. And there were tips on how to manoeuver office politics where there’s envy and blame throwing, misogyny and repeated attempts by one’s own boss to get one to leave.
It did turn a few stereotypes on their heads or sides. I’m glad it was peopled with realistic, not overly dramatic characters, and that they were generally reasonable. 🙂
Yes both leads make bold career moves which I find inspiring!I think the side characters have too but I ffing too much to know the details.
RX trained as a lawyer, didn’t quite get the promotion she wanted. She went to the commercial side and learnt a new business! That itself is very relatable. A lot of us may go through a similar career choice. What happens when you don’t get the promotion you want? Do we keep fighting, or leave the company, or take on a new side internally?
QX is chasing his dream. I never can afford that but it’s encouraging to see people build a business, brave to start from scratch.
Yes sometimes it’s not about your ability and hard work that get you the job. It is inevitable that people get a job based on relationships. Yet the drama gives us hope that if you have talent and be persistent, open to new opportunities and not fixated on the lost opportunities, you will still do OK. That’s another feel good aspect of this drama.