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9 Comments On “Fireworks of My Heart: Eps 16 to 20 Open Thread”
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Ep 16-20
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I haven’t yet watched episode 20 but 16-19 show a pleasingly positive (for me) increase in interactions between our main characters.
I really like the Jiang Yu, the Instructor/Supervisor. Sometimes around SY he acts like a bit of a fool, but it’s with purpose to get a reaction. He has a great sense of humour, too. Honestly, I find a good sense of humour very attractive and if I were in their sphere, I would prefer to be around him.
@Fern, yes there are some good, positive interactions. I have to rewatch in order to recall what these were.
Jiang Yu is a lot of fun too in Ep 31.
@GB, here are some of the interactions I can recall. Below are not exact quotes.
Some of the interactions are when XQ quite deliberately volunteers for the joint rescue team. I think she is provoking him into ‘coming towards her.’ SY tries to ignore her or criticise her but she responds calmly and discusses it logically and he can’t win. She displays more professional conduct than he does in some situations (hornet stings, demonstrating pneumothorax point of entry and a few others.) If she had responded in an emotional manner, they would have had a major disagreement. At one point (but I can’t find it now) he praises her saying something like, ‘You seem to be brave now.’ She retorted something like, ‘You can leave out the ‘seem’. SY later uses the same reply when Yu Jiang praises him.
In another scene, SY and Yu Jiang sit down for tea and after a minute, XQ joins them. XQ starts to drink from one of the mugs, but SY protests that it was his mug and hands her the 3rd mug that he had prepared for her. He takes the mug she sipped from (and left lipstick on) and drinks. Similarly, after a rescue, SY hands out bottles of water to the teams, giving the one to XQ. She drinks but sees that it was the last bottle. Again, he drinks, although he doesn’t let his lips touch the bottle, before handing it back. Still, ‘backwash’ has happened. It’s a bit like a substitute for lip to lip contact, right?
Yu Jiang and XQ deliberately discuss her blind dating in SY’s presence. He is in the fire truck, but can see them out of the side mirror. Ha. The pneumothorax scene in which he left because he couldn’t stand it anymore was funny. He must have been afraid of reacting.
SY teases XQ about his dog’s name Xiao Meng. He says You are from the same family. She runs after him yelling, ‘Are you calling me a dog?’
Something that comes out in this drama, and not just about the leads or their families, is how complicated humans are. We see it in the suicide jump scene, when the bystanders criticise the jumper instead of being quiet or saying positive things; when the man who was gassing himself was saved but protested that he wanted to die; we see it again with the relationship fraudster who saved the lives of a bus load of people; also when a family criticised the fire department for breaking a door. They did a U-turn when it was revealed that their relative behind the door would have died otherwise.
I think we are being set up for XQ’s family to be horrible but to have a redemption arc.
Thanks for the quick run down of the interactions @Fern. Now that you mention them, I can recall them. Yes she was a lot more professional than he was. We find that over and over again, although SY was the first to pursue XQ, she is no shrinking violet when it comes to putting herself in his line of sight.
Ah, the indirect kiss. I hear that Bollywood movies excel in this. Girl kisses pillar, to leave her kiss there and guy kisses the same spot to receive the kiss LOLOL.
Yes, the dog motif insult-cum-tease. This reminds me of the concept of being an animal trained since young, using intimidation and treats by turns, to be docile.
SY shows his disdain for the uppity Mengs by slyly likening them to dogs (later he protests that he did not choose the name Xiao Meng because of XQ) LOL. He had also told XQ when he had saved her from the car previously, that he’d have done the same for a dog. XQ likens her inability to break free to being like a trained animal who was still intimidated by the sight of a whip or bowl even though it had grown strong (and could have attacked its owner).
We will see how this pans out later.
About the redemption arc…that’s a likely prefiguring of how the Mengs’ attitude towards SY might change. The opening credits already gave us spoilers that there would be a wedding. Even XQ had to give her Mother her due … she told SY that Mother was not as bad as made out to be and that she had also been her supporter and care-giver.
But the animal training image still crops up. When all went according to Mother’s plans, she was probably the sweet, generous mother. If she could not get her way, there would be threats and tricks, some calling in of favours, etc. In a culture where filial piety is essential to be considered a good person, doing anything that went against a parent’s wishes was practically anathema.
Yes, the culture of filial piety is very strict and pervasive.
I was a bit surprised by the gift from SY to XQ of a tiny, enclosed aquarium; its own ecosystem that self-perpetuates without care from the outside. I know he says he got it for her so she wouldn’t be burdened with caring for anything in her busy life. To me, it is too much like the glass cloches the brother has on his desk, only filled with living creatures that only have an inch or two to swim in until they die of natural causes. It’s also too similar to the mother’s control of her children, putting them into restricted settings of her own design.
That’s true, @Fern. It may have had a dual purpose… to give her company in the form of pets, and to rub it in that she’s still trapped. However, she took it positively enough and heartily retaliated with a pet turtle in a basin LOL. I guess she wished him long life with a long-living animal.
Come to think of it, I’ve not seen that turtle any more in other episodes.
@Growing Beautifully, my first thought is that the turtle could easily get out or that the men would be pranking each other by putting it into each others’ lockers, beds or shower rooms. Perhaps he brought it to the family home.