Early Access: Hidden Love E1-4 (Patreon)

E1-4. Surprise, everyone! I've picked c-drama Hidden Love as the replacement show for Doctor Cha.

I'd actually shortlisted Heartbeat, but found that while I don't dislike Heartbeat, I don't think it's a show that I actually want to write about.

On the other hand, I've heard a lot of things about Hidden Love, from pretty extreme ends of the spectrum, and was very curious to see where I would land with this one.

Would I find it as problematic as some viewers have, or would I love it a lot, like many drama fans?

I'm happy to say that 4 episodes in, I am enjoying this one nicely.

I do want to weigh in on the various problematic aspects that I've seen being pointed out by other viewers.

For context, I did watch Avenue X's video (here) some time ago, before I started my watch, so I went in with a pretty clear understanding on the things that troubled her during her attempt to watch this show, and why she ended up dropping it.

From what I can tell, there is a section of viewers who agree with her, while the majority of viewers are, in fact, very happy with their watch. In fact, as I type this, this show is enjoying a rating of 9.2 on MyDramaList. That's very impressive indeed.

So, what are some of the things that Avenue X had issues with? Let me just touch on some of the main things.

To be clear, I am not planning to refute her points one by one, because this isn't about her, really; I'm just using her video as a point of reference, to organize my own thoughts.

Also, I wanted to say that Avenue X and everyone else is entitled to their feelings and opinions with regards to this show (and any other show), so just because I'm using Avenue X's video as a reference point to organize my own thoughts, doesn't mean that I intend to diss her in any way. 😅

1. The actress playing young Sang Zhi looks like a child

It's true that the actress playing young Sang Zhi is only 10 years old, but I don't see that as a problem.

It would be a problem if the show was putting a 10-year-old in an inappropriate situation with a much older man, but there's honestly none of that. The interactions between 14-year-old Sang Zhi and college age Jiaxu is perfectly innocent.

As for Sang Zhi looking so young, it did take me a little bit of getting used to, but I was able to reconcile her very young appearance without too much trouble.

Show does acknowledge how short she is, for her age, more than once, and that works for me.

When I was 14, I did have some classmates who were still very tiny, and hadn't hit their growth spurt yet, so I can believe that Sang Zhi would similarly still be very kiddish in her appearance, despite already being 14.

And, I do think that that's what Show's makers were going with, in having Zhang Xi Wei play younger Sang Zhi.

Not only is she a capable actress, who's played the younger version of Zhao Lu Si in Who Rules the World, she also looks a lot like Zhao Lu Si, so I can understand Zhao Lu Si recommending her for the role, and the production accepting that recommendation.

I just have to remind myself that Sang Zhi's a bit of a later bloomer is all, and I don't find that hard to do, especially given the fact that Zhao Lu Si herself looks quite petite.

2. The magic-romantic lighting of Sang Zhi's first time meeting Jiaxu.

Avenue X singled this out as a moment that she found disturbing, because she associates the camera language with romantic scenes, and found it inappropriately applied in this scene, because, camera language-wise, it suggests a romantic connection between Jiaxu and Sang Zhi.

I.. didn't have the same problem.

I found the lighting perfectly fine, and relevant to Sang Zhi having a reaction of wonderment, in meeting Jiaxu for the first time.

I think we can all agree that at 14, Sang Zhi's more than capable of developing a crush on someone, whether that someone is a classmate her own age, or Jiaxu, who's a college student, or even a fully adult celebrity.

To my eyes, the magic-romantic lighting of that scene, was everything about Sang Zhi's reaction to seeing Jiaxu for the first time, and nothing to do with Jiaxu's reaction to meeting Sang Zhi, in the least.

3. Jiaxu being overly friendly with Sang Zhi

Avenue X and many of her viewers are of the opinion that Jiaxu has no business being so friendly with Sang Zhi and spending so much time with her; that this isn't realistic.

I find that I don't have the same problem believing that Jiaxu would be so kind to Sang Zhi, and spend time helping her out.

The way I see it, Jiaxu is bros with Sang Yan, Sang Zhi's older brother, and because of their close friendship, basically sees Sang Yan's business as his business, and that's why he sees it as a pretty natural thing, to help Sang Zhi out, when the occasion arises.

And of course, the occasion arises quite frequently, because this is a drama after all, and drama coincidences and small colliding orbits are just A Thing, in Dramaland. This is common across many dramas, so I'm not fussed about that.

Another thing that Avenue X mentioned, is how Jiaxu refers to himself as "gege" (哥哥) when talking with Sang Zhi. Her point is, that's not how people talk, and with him doing this so consistently, it comes across as creepy and predatory, like he's trying to groom her or something.

Again, I didn't receive it the same way, watching these 4 episodes.

It's not hard for me to use a manhua lens with this show, since it's adapted from a web novel, and in my head, manhua type worlds have the license to have their characters talk in a manner that's not quite in the vein of real life.

Most importantly, for me, I don't see Jiaxu as having any predatory intentions.

As far as I can see, in these 4 episodes, he really sees Sang Zhi as a little sister, and is pretty good about observing important boundaries, even though he does tease her and act affectionately towards her in some ways.

Like when Sang Zhi realizes she's on her period and needs help buying sanitary napkins, Jiaxu makes it a point to call Sang Yan to ask Sang Yan to buy them, because Sang Zhi is Sang Yan's sister.

And then, when they've acquired the necessary items, Jiaxu leaves Sang Yan to wait for Sang Zhi on his own, because, again, he recognizes that Sang Zhi is Sang Yan's sister, and that Sang Zhi would be more comfortable having her own brother help her out, in this situation.

This moment convinced me that Jiaxu isn't in a predatory space, because if he was trying to be closer to Sang Zhi than is appropriate, he would have acted very differently.

4. 17-year-old Sang Zhi behaves very differently from 10-year-old Sang Zhi

One of the things that bothered Avenue X, is the fact that Sang Zhi comes across so differently at age 14, compared to what we see of her, at age 17.

The gist of it is that 14-year-old Sang Zhi appears to be so confident and mature, while 17-year-old Sang Zhi is suddenly so shy and baby-ish.

I totally get that this might confuse some viewers, but I personally didn't have a problem with this because I've seen a similarly dramatic kind of character change in one of my classmates from school.

When my classmate - let's call her Rachel - was in primary school (elementary school or grade school, depending on where in the world you're in), she was outspoken and sassy, and quite boisterous and tomboyish.

I lost touch with Rachel after primary school because we went to different schools after that, but I was in the same faculty as her in university, and I was blown away by how different she was, in university.

Gone was the outspoken, boisterous personality, and in its place, was a soft-spoken, demure, genteel sort of personality.

If I hadn't known her in primary school, I would have believed that Rachel was just always like that.

Because of this, I can buy the idea that younger Sang Zhi is more outspoken, while 17-year-old Sang Zhi is more shy and self-conscious.

My thinking around the entire way she carries herself at age 17, is that as Sang Zhi has "come of age," so to speak, she's become more self-conscious of how she comes across, and has embraced a more "feminine" way of presenting herself to the world.

And in many Asian countries, including China, the cute, demure, shy, young schoolgirly sort of look is widely considered to be attractive and appealing - even by adults.

I can buy the idea that as Sang Zhi grew a little older, she became more self-conscious about wanting to appear more feminine and attractive - and as a result, she's abandoned the outspoken version of herself, in favor of a more bashful, dainty, ladylike sort of personality.

Additionally, there's the thing where Sang Zhi's the baby of the family.

Being the youngest, it's quite natural that everyone in the family would baby her - and that she would lean into that.

I am convinced that if Sang Zhi were the older sibling instead of Sang Yan, that she would pitch herself quite differently, in general.

I feel that even with adults, you can sometimes kind of tell whether they're the oldest, youngest, or middle child, based on their personalities.

Which is basically my way of saying that Sang Zhi's baby-ish ways at age 17, is something that I can buy as being quite natural, especially if you buy the idea that she's become more conscious about being a particular brand of ladylike, as she's gotten a bit older.

Putting that all together, I found these initial 4 episodes sweet and cute, rather than troubling, and I hope that the way I process it helps you guys too.

Overall, I find this to be a sweet story of Sang Zhi's crush on Jiaxu, and I feel that Show does a really good job of bringing out the accurate feels associated with one's early (perhaps first?) crush.

The way Sang Zhi steals glances at Jiaxu; the way she treasures every little thing that she's received from him, whether it's a bottle of milk, or a plushie; the way she perks up at the mention of his name; the way she tries to take every opportunity to be in his orbit - and then tries to pretend to be cool about it all.

It all feels so, so relatable, you guys.

I feel like most of us would be able to relate to that kind of thing; I know I've felt that way before, and watching all this unfold on my screen through Sang Zhi's experience, is sweetly nostalgic in a really good way. 🥰

I also really like Sang Zhi's parents, especially Mom, who's played by Zeng Li. I think it's so great, that Zeng Li and Zhao Lu Si are reuniting in a mother-daughter space, after playing mother and daughter in Love Like The Galaxy.

In my head, it's almost like they got reborn in the present, and finally now have a great mother-daughter bond, which they'd struggled to have, in LLTG. 😁

At first, I didn't like Sang Yan too much, coz at first glance, doesn't he have a bit of a hooligan sort of vibe, with his lopsided smirk and his pretty consistent way of not being overtly nice to Sang Zhi?

But, by the time I got to the end of episode 4, I found myself feeling very differently about this brother and sister pair.

Sang Yan may appear not to care too much, but he really does care, and honestly, when that care leaks out such that we can see and identify it, it feels so gratifying to witness.

Like the way he goes out of his way to buy Sang Zhi candy, when she hurts herself, and then there's the way Sang Zhi tears that piece of gum in half, so that they can each have some.

Aw. These two might bicker and fight a lot, but at the heart of it, they do really care about each other, and I find this very endearing.

So far, I don't have anything super specific that I want to say about the interactions between Sang Zhi and Jiaxu, because, like I said, right now this is all about her crush on him.

All the sweet and thoughtful things that he does for her, as she rightly notices, are things that he would do for other people too, if he perceived that they were in need, like that other girl who injured herself at the sports meet.

But, this doesn't stop Sang Zhi from nursing a crush on him (like I'm sure this kind of thing has never stopped any of us), and it's just very relatable to watch her be so filled with admiration and feels.

Add on the way Show is throwing drama coincidences at us, in order to put Jiaxu and Sang Zhi in the same orbit, and it's totally giving me classic rom-com feels - just that we're not quite at the rom-com part of our story just yet.

As we close out episode 4, I'm am super dang sure that Sang Zhi's new physics tutor is going to be Jiaxu, and y'know, I have no problems with that.

Bring on the cute, Show. I can handle it. 😁

Next episode notes will be out on: Wednesday, 19 July 2023!

* This show will be covered on the Ultimate Early Access (US$25) Tier *