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Spoilers ahead.
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Enjoy the show.
26 Comments On “Fireworks of My Heart: Eps 1 to 5 Open Thread”
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Thanks @pkml3! Efficient as ever!!
I’ve watched episode 5 and my current feeling is that Sang Yan is too enmeshed in his own idea of loyalty and being the best at all costs to see that other people have valid personal considerations that might be different from his.
I might agree that his friend Suo Jun should have not kept his transfer a secret, but I can see why he proceeded cautiously. He knows Sang Yan’s rigid loyalty to this particular fire station. I also understand the childhood trauma of Sang Yan’s mother leaving and his father dying outside his own door in the snow was reinforced by the way Xu Qin broke up with him, choosing her own family over him.
I do think Sang Yan was wise to not enter into a relationship immediately with Xu Qin because he is unable to trust her at this point. That. and his anger would sabotage the relationship. I would send each of them to see a psychologist to deal with their own past traumas.
Is anyone else getting strange error messages on the site this evening? I’ll check my connections, as it may be on my end.
Are you still getting error messages, @Fern? I just read my notifications that the blog was offline a few times this afternoon.
Good morning, @packmule3. No problem this morning. That must have been the problem. (Often as not it’s my internet that is down or sketchy, so I try to check that first.)
Hoping you are well and getting over the jet lag.
Thanks. Jet lag hits me on the second week, @Fern. And it’s worse when I fly back Stateside than when I leave the country. 🤷♀️ The first week home, I can get by on adrenaline and sheer will power. By the 2nd week… I just give in to my body’s messed up clock.
I nodded off during mass last Sunday. I was thisclose to snoring in the middle of the homily if my husband hadn’t tapped my leg. And I was sitting directly in the line of sight of the priest. 🤪🤪
The blogsite was down about half an hour twice in the afternoon, Eastern Standard Time (or 6 hours behind your time).
2nd week. May it be over soon! That is very delayed, but perhaps that is common among those who travel far and often. Nodding off during mass — a classic. Was your husband over it by then? Do you find it worse depending on which direction you travel? I had an Italian friend who didn’t get it when she travelled towards Bergamo from Seattle, but got it upon return. But perhaps the adrenaline played a part, as it does for you.
I have the more classic symptoms of getting over it by one hour per day, for each time zone crossed. If I go to see my family, it will be 5, 6, or 7 days before I recover, depending on which US time zone they inhabit.
That was me too at the 6pm mass last Sunday! 😂 I felt my head nod about 3-4 times? 😁 Hubby didn’t nodge me though. But it wasn’t from jet lag, I was tired from the nonstop activities from Friday to the Saturday. 😃
My husband came home a couple days earlier and he took melatonin right away. 😂😂
It’s nearly 5am here so it’s about time I start my morning routine. When I was in Singapore, I bought jars of kaya for kaya toast for me and to give away. 😂 I haven’t opened a single one so I think I’ll make myself some kaya toast for breakfast today.
See you later!
@agdr03,
We’re bad, aren’t we?
The funny thing was when he asked if he should drive straight home so I could sleep instead of eating out for brunch as planned, I instantly perked up!
Hahaha! I probably would perk up at the mention of brunch. 😂
Yes we are bad but our Parrish Priest still nodded at me to be Eucharistic Minister. Lucky I saw his nod. 😂
What a nice coincidence @pkml3. I have kaya at home and we had toast just the other day. I had bread with kaya on one side and grape jam on the other. Tasted much better than expected!
Kaya!! Enjoy your breakfast @pm3 and pray your jet lag is over asap! It’s not fun.
@Fern, for a moment I wondered if there is another SangYan (SangZhi’s brother in Hidden Love) in Fireworks, and realized it’s SongYan. 😛
Songyan really has a lot of baggage he needs to let go and heal. He is great as a professional firefighter but his is so goal oriented that it hurts others.
I’m at Ep 5 now and hoping to see a less frowny side of Songyan soon
EPISODES 1-5
Xu Qin
The first 5 episodes set up Xu Qin to be at her lowest after returning from studying abroad. We see Song Yan being as difficult as possible towards Xu Qin, and Xu Qin finding herself in a tough position both with SY and at work. It’s not nearly as dramatic, with as much suffering as in other Shows, but realistic enough.
I like that we see XQ only docile with Mother and to an extent with brother but with other people, able to state clearly what she wants, talk back against unreasonable people, defend the rights of others and still remain professional regardless of the negative talk around her from colleagues and the sour attitude of Director Xu. She’s not quite the doormat we might think she is just because she speaks softly and gives in to Mother.
So it starts as a downer for XQ only to get better. She not only gets told off by the Director, badly rejected by SY but also sees that Li Meng might be his girlfriend.
The young XQ was full of life and fun. She was timid but exuberant. What a contrast to the strained, controlled, calm on the outside XQ we have now. Despite facing sarcasm, belligerence, rudeness and rejection from SY, she does not over-react. No self-pity, although she cries some tears. No blame throwing or betrayal of her rotten Mother.
I agree with @BethB, I think it was, who said she suffered emotional and psychological abuse for years, since childhood. Blame also falls on the so-called Meng dad, who let his wife get away with child abuse, not only of his foster daughter, but also of their own son, Meng Yan Chen.
Against this backdrop, we see that XQ makes use of the advantages of being a Meng to slowly establish herself as Xu Qin and not Meng Qin.
That’s the catnip for me… the young person who had it tough through no fault of their own who chooses to get past all that in the right way and of course in the process, get healed.
THE RASCAL
I believe young Song Yan was called a hooligan but probably a rascal is closer to what he was. He did have the air of intimidation like a bully, but he never actually bullied, as far as we can see.
I like how consistent SY’s disposition is even as an adult. He was generally brash, over-confident, a pusher of limits or one who tried to get away with more, but he was also extremely law-abiding and where he was convinced of the rightness of the behavior, but not so much in a matter of life and death. He challenged the rules and anyone who placed themselves or the rules above human life.
He admits to being particularly rigid about the fire station being number one consistently, because he had been put down by XQ as not good enough for her, at the time she dumped him. Getting the award was his way of proving himself and proving her wrong. The men under him suffered a great deal but also excelled.
We see the flashback (or maybe it is more backstory) of how SY had pursued XQ from the start. He practically stalked XQ in school.
He was really a bit of a hooligan, doing things his own way, insisting on XQ’s acceptance of his gifts and his presence. To begin with, at the very first meet-cute, SY was being punished outside his classroom. That’s how he had his first glimpse of XQ, after which he barely took his eyes off her, even following after her to keep bullies away.
Fortunately for him, she reciprocated, or we’d have a lot to say about him stalking his classmate!!
The hooligan or rascal inside him still makes an appearance now and then even in the adult SY. We even see him behaving belligerently towards XQ who went to him, asking to reconcile.
Show begins with our OTP far enough apart so that things can only get better from here. 🙂
The set up for SY is that he’s too full of stuff that he should lose and he is in a losing position when it comes to XQ. LOL. Before people and events conspire to throw him and XQ together repeatedly.
He’s still full of anger, with a wound that seems to have reopened. Although he probably was never fully at peace, seeing as he keeps staring at his lighter, he lost his inner cool once he met XQ again. It might be represented by the loss of the lighter. At the same time we know that there are things he really needs to lose like his anger, resentment, mistrust….
He noted wryly that once the person, XQ, came back into his orbit, he lost the lighter with that person’s image on it. He should see it as a sign to work on some closure with the person rather than on simply reminiscing with the photo of her.
We find out that he has abandonment issues, traumatized by a mother who left the family, a father who died when he was still a child and then being dumped by XQ. He has felt betrayed over and over by the ones he cared most about At the end of Ep 5 he finds out that his best friend, Suo Jun, is thinking of leaving the station without informing him, so of course he overreacts.
Another point of consistency in his characterisation. He picked on the fact that Suo Jun was leaving, partially because of the pay rise he’d get. Later on, we will see that he has a grievance over something else which was similar.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SONG YAN AND XU QIN
They both cherished memories of their past together. SY had only the one item, the lighter. XQ had a case full of stuff, but she didn’t moon over them.
Unlike SY who seems immobilized by hurt, XQ does not stop at merely remembering the past. We see her visit their old haunt and make repeated visits to SY’s family home, facing humiliation both times. She seeks him out at the fire station, and makes an attempt to connect with him, whenever she can. It is noteworthy that the coldest reception and rejection does not deter her.
@agdr03, my brain wasn’t doing the conversion between Sang Yan and Song Yan. Me before the coffee kicked in! 😜🥱 Apologies for the confusion.
Did anyone else notice that Song Yan’s sister’s 3 friends all had names starting with Y? Was that on purpose? Is the one who looks a bit like Qin the same person who is a waitress at the posh bar? SY’s poor parents went out in the park on what looks like a very hot day. I was thinking, shouldn’t they find some shade at least? 🥵
It’s interesting how Song Yan was the pursuer back when they were in high school, but Xu Qin is the pursuer now. How amazing that they keep being thrown together as well in this dramaverse.
Apologies again, reply to @grace not to @agdr03! I have no excuse now – the day has gone on long enough for me to wake up!
Hi @Fern,
I didn’t notice the names of Zhi Miao’s friends all started with ‘Y’. Those would have been the family names/surnames. Spelled in Hanyu Piyin, there are many surnames that begin with the ‘Y’ sound … and because of Song Yan’s name, I looked it up … there are many under ‘S’ too! 🙂
The girl with straight long hair who looks like XQ is Ye Zi. Yes, she’s the undergrad who’s working part-time jobs. She works at the bar of XQ’s relative/family friend, Xiao Yi Xiao. As in the case of the many coincidental meetings of XQ and Song Yan, we’ll be seeing her quite a bit with another character (LOL, I’ll let you guess whom). I suppose she has a love-line of her own.
I had the same thought about SY’s parents. Why did they sit in the hot sun??? There are hundreds of cafes or stores around to choose from!!! LOL. My cynical guess? Show didn’t want to pay for PPL at any store, and so put poor mum and dad out in the park. 😂🤣 They really could have chosen a shady spot under a tree or something!
Yes, I noted the same thing about the pursuit in the WWAW thread, I think it was? Or maybe the Omnibus thread. I liked that it is balanced. What he did before, she reciprocates now. I made a fuss about ‘Put Your Head on My Shoulder’ because the guy did all the giving and the girl just took without giving much or anything for the longest time.
@Growing Beautifully, thank you for the information and confirmations. As to the pursuit, we get much more information about that in episode 10.
I find it interesting that the show stresses family ties and understanding of parental dictates, yet shows some dreadful parenting. I’m guessing it is to balance things out and give parents the benefit of the doubt, otherwise cultural mores would be upset.
The adoption of a girl reminds me of the K-drama “Love in Contract” in which the FL played by Park Min Young was adopted and groomed to be a High Society bride to the benefit of her adoptive mother who showed her no affection. TBH, I couldn’t get through the end of Love in Contract, so I don’t know how the relationships resolved.
@Growing Beautifully
@Fern
SY parents in the sun (rofl) goodness exact same thought went through my head ..
Saving cost seems a likely reason .. as to why not under a tree ;-))) .. again saving time and cost of setting up lights and reflectors under a tree shadow would be more cumbersome.
;-D
I became familiar with Kdramaverse during Covid Years and am hundreds of dramas down in that ..
But in ALL this time had not watched any C Drama.
(Well I did watch Whirlwind Girl 2 – but I followed that because of JCW and mentally it got clubbed under KDrama).
So recently my Netflix Algo kept pinging “Hidden Love” to me .. (usually I only get Kdrama reccos) in the banner.
I decided to give it a try and was completely hooked, I was amazed that such a well crafted drama existed in this C-Drama world too.
Then it was a serendipitous feast that came up back to back right after Hidden Love :
– Firecrackers in My Heart
– Lighter and the Princess
The TALENT discovery was was this 23 y.o. actor Chen Fei Yu – he’ll be one to watch out for in future, if he stays the course and doesn’t get distracted.
It’s his act that powered my viewing of my first Wuxia drama “Ever Night”
The talent is in the DNA (offspring of Chen Kaige and Chen Hong) ;-p
Hi @Bosuji, welcome to this blog. It looks like you’ve been sucked into the cdrama and kdrama rabbit hole. The problem for us, viewers, is to find the show that we can stick with and enjoy until the end.
I’m glad that you’ve been enjoying Fireworks of My Heart, I had a good time watching this show, despite criticisms here and there. Generally I like what I like, regardless of what others may say.
I hope to see you more on Bitches Over Dramas. 🙂
I wish I had looked up BOD while I was watching the show .. and recreated a feeling of ‘watching as the shows are dropping’ .. that way my thoughts and comments would be richer ..
FOMH is now almost a month behind me .. It was my second C-Drama .. after Hidden Love.
I was ecstatic to find a second C-Drama (straight after I wrapped HIDDEN LOVE) that I got reeled into from Episode one.
I am such a fan of DRAMATIC entries of Leads ;-p
And it was my first time discovering and watching Yang Yang.
(Who can carry a vertical crease on their brow for so long with such flair). His inner tautness is strung and tied and pulled in like a drawstring right there – between his geometrically perfect eyebrows.
What a face!! Was cut out and chiseled for this role I kept thinking.
The ensemble cast was set up to each get a toehold in in your heart as you watched .. the life of Firemen, the days at a fire station, and the sorts of situations they were being called out to take care of was as heart thumping and absorbing to watch as the unfolding human relationships ..
I enjoy watching shows where one gets a detailed glimpse into the “technical aspect” of a profession.
Looking at all the gear and equipment .. the modes and rules that define the profession .. so well shot I thought.
Excellent Production value.
The intense emotional roller coaster of the leads made the perfect balance for me.
I will profess here that my MAIN REASON and INTEREST in Asian Drama (which in my world for 3 years was basically JUST K-Drama) is the way they tell relationship stories (friendships, lovers, parents, siblings, children, growing up, falling in love, estrangement, reconciliation, hurt, pain, joy, care etc etc).
In my entire life of movie watching – series watching I have found Kdrama does magic when it comes to Love Entanglements (be it rom-com / Melo / omnibus / mixed genre).
The best of the shows excel in modeling healthy vs unhealthy; a sort of therapy of the main characters that goes on as the drama progresses, which in retrospect allows the viewer their own life-relationship reflections.
The romance is set up to shoot straight to the ‘female heart’ as nothing I’ve watch on popular US / UK / Euro TV or OTT
There was so much “edutainment” in this show .. not everyone’s cuppa I know .. lot of people skip when shows serve up ‘procedures in detail’ (of course not ALL dramas are able to present it so that it hooks you), but I learnt a helluva lot about what do firemen do .. on the job .. what goes on in there at the station and the planning rooms.
– Chemical spills
– flammable material stored illegally
– wrong construction material
– suicide rescues
– landslides and storms
– typhoons
– earthquakes
– fires in skyscrapers
At points it felt like I was watching a documentary .. but it was better because it was drama and we were invested in those characters and knew them and their life scripts.
I remember getting that same sort of thrill watching Dr Romantic (ALL 3 seasons) and Hospital Playlist. If I was a teen watching these shows .. I’d be aiming at becoming a doctor I think ;-D
I find the heroism and dedication and love of meticulous attention to their jobs energising.
A dull day can get fired up .. The slap on the wrist for slacking off, the value of dedication, and yet the empathy for those who break under pressure.
Hi @Bosuji
I’m glad you’ve found us!! Better late than never.
Your reasons for going in for kdrama and Asian drama are similar to mine. I’ve started more into Cdrama only in the last 3 years or so.
Yes, I don’t mind a show that gives me information on the profession. I learnt a lot from Fireworks oMH and grew in appreciation of the dedication, the risks taken, the suffering of firemen.
When we find that these people trained so hard for stupendous life-saving are also called in to catch a mere spider!!! I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry . They took it in good stead and were so nice to the lady. I guess to her it was a crisis of major proportions but really, calling in any Tom, Dick or Harry to help would have done!
It really is the character development (more time given to this in the greater number of episodes for cdramas) and the wonderful interpersonal relationships, the growth and change, an interesting plot and in a resolution that makes sense that I value these shows. 🙂