Love Contract: it's dorama heroin
Sep. 7th, 2006 12:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieThrough dint of crazy obsessiveness (and selective fast forwarding), I've managed to watch 19 episodes of Love Contract in two and a half days. One ep left to go.
First off, I really want to make clear that my last night's flailing about the end of ep 19 wasn't because it was badly done or ruined the show or anything. In fact, from a story-telling perspective and from a dramatic perspective, it was totally brilliant. From my 'getting attached to the characters' perspective? I am going to hunt TPTB down. Unless they fix it.
LC is an incredibly uneven show. It has parts which are eminently fast-forwardable (all the parts with friends) and parts that just grab me by the throat in their awesomeness (all the scenes with Ariel Lin and Mike He). In fact, the biggest disservice LC did (and had done to) is not to focus the dorama as tightly on Ken and Feng as, let's say Mars is focused on QL and Ling. Because Ariel and Mike just burn up the screen and all their scenes together are just incredible. In fact, I think they should be required to make another dorama together, with no other cast than the minimum necessary to prove they are not on a deserted island. But seriously, I've rarely seen chemistry like that, both scorching and natural. On second thought, I like the deserted island scenario. Yup, they are stuck on a deserted island and the only way off is if they hook up.
I think I should give up on screen-writing :)
And I ended up loving both the characters of Feng and of Ken. With Feng, even though sometimes I wanted to just shake her and go 'let down your defences a centimeter, he is a good guy, look!' but then she managed to break my heart in the scene where she finally reveals her scar to him and is like such a little frightened child, no barriers and no defenses. She reminds me of a wounded and mistreated wild animal, and he has to be very careful in how to handle her or she'll bolt.
But if I got annoyed with Feng sometimes, I think I am a total goner for Ken. He is quiet and that's always my thing, but I think what I ended up liking the most is that he really is a wonderful person (and through a dorama lens, of course, in a believable low-key way). He is someone who hasn't been dealt the best hand in life but he keeps coping and doing his best, and his tenderness (it's an odd thing to say about a guy, but he is a very tender person) just kills me.
Anyway, on to the ep thoughts.
Ep 16 just hits the angst points so precisely it hurts. Because Ken's mom dies and he is devastated. I love that shot of him sitting catatonic there, holding her inhaler in his hands, not moving as Feng tries to shake him out of it, and keeps asking him to give the inhaler back (quite a contrast to his Uncle who is crying in the other room). And then he snaps and yells 'if you want it, here it is' and throws it on the floor and she runs out. And then he sits there, with the box of her ashes and he just starts screaming 'Mom' and my heart breaks.
And he has a really rough time grieving: he keeps remembering their conversations (the scene where he falls asleep and dreams of her sitting at the table like she always does is...guuuuuh. I am going to start crying again). And I love the image of him completely immersed in water except for his face (this show has so much use of water as symbol).
And I love how Feng just keeps coming for him. She was hard to win but now she is certainly proving worth it. He is a terribly lonely guy (even more so after his Mom's death) and he doesn't like to share his burdens (probably as a result of his father leaving and all that stuff), but he can share the burden with her. I love the bit where he disappears with his mother's ashes and everyone is worried to death and she figures out where he is and she finds him sitting on the pier and she starts yelling his name and he is not reacting, so she is 'Have you forgotten your name? It's Ken. Ken, Ken, Ken!' and he looks at her and tells her he came there to scatter his Mother's ashes. And I love that she helps him by being there when he does it. They are in that little boat and she keeps holding his hands tightly and stroking them, and basically doing little touches almost non-stop as if to remind him she is there and he is not alone.
And back on shore, he just folds into her lap, and she strokes his hair and his face and he finally falls asleep. He isn't the only tender one. She can be quite tender despite the facade and the bluster.
And as he slowly recovers (with some flashes of grief: I like how the grieving process is done naturally, as when he is eating in her house and quietly says he wants to taste his mother's cooking again and starts shoving food in to distract himself) adorableness is back. I love how she pulls on his face, and jumps on his back and he carries her and they are both laughing. And the card game thing they have going every day is adorable (he promised her that every day he will let her pick a card and if she picks a higher one than he does, he will be her servant for the day). I think he is letting her win.
I just love them as a couple: there are all those wonderful little things as the way they are always touching (just watch the scene where he wants to disband the swim team and she is being supportive).
And then comes one of the most adorable/hot/funny scenes in the whole dorama that is chockfull of them.
She wins the card draw (again) and so she gets to body paint him and it's hilarious and adorable, and she draws stuff on both his back and his chest as he is teasing her about it being cold, and then they paint stuff on the outside of his house. And end up doing mock-flexing and laughing. Awwwww.
And after that, he is all cleaned up and in a white shirt (seriously, they should not allow Mike He to wear white for the sake of my health. I think I swallowed my tongue), leaning into her and then later they are in his Mom's room, looking at that pretty silk blanket which was his Mom's most treasured posession (because it was from Ken's Dad) and they are wrapped in it and he is grieving again so she kisses his nose and his arms go around her and he just dips her and they are horizontal and wrapped up and there is some severe kissing.
And you see her in her own room, and he gave the blanket to her!
But of course, she starts flipping because it's clear they almost made love, and she remembers her hideous huge body scar (it really is bad) and then he'd see it and she is so sure she is hideous and no one would want her, that she is terrified.
And meanwhile, his Uncle is leaving again (and I understand he has his own life, but for Ken, in a way, it's being abandoned again) and Ken wants to tell Feng about the silly Love Contract but before he does that, they are over at his house and he says 'Let's live together' and her response? 'Let's break up.' Before he breaks up with her (as she thinks he must). Such a girl reaction. And she yells 'I am not as nice as you think I am' and she really does think she is so unclean and ugly and horrible. But he won't agree and demands to be together and so she makes an impossible condition. She tells him they won't break up if he brings the rainbow into the house.
And then he does. And I think I stopped breathing. Because he paints the walls and gets a mist smoke thing so it really looks like a rainbow. And so she is out of options and excuses, and like a cornered animal, she starts hitting him and repeating 'I am not nice, do you like being hurt, what is wrong with you?' and then she slaps him. And he stops dead and just looks at her. And then, finally with no place to hide, she unbuttons and takes off her shirt and shows him the horrific burns on her torso. And asks him 'Do you still love me now, even if I look like this?' and it's so clear she expects the answer to be no, and he is frozen, and she starts to collapse and he catches her as she falls and he is cradling her and they are both crying and he keeps stroking her hair and she is weeping hard, and is so desperate and broken, all her barriers utterly down, and she keeps repeating 'I am sorry, I am sorry, I didn't mean it, I really love you, please don't leave me' and she is clutching his shirt with a death grip and kissing it, every bit she can reach and that whole scene just BREAKS ME.
And he picks her up and carries her to bed, and then he wants to get up and get her water (because she is all cried out), but she doesn't want to let him go and is clutching his hand. She is such a little child at the moment, and he says he'll be gone only for a short time (just like to a little child) but...but...but...but when he is gone she finds a copy of the love contract. And I scream at the TV and curse TPTB in very unladylike manner, because it's about the worst time for it. So, when he gets back she is gone (and I can only imagine how she felt because she finally let down her defenses and bared herself to him completely, both physically and emotionally) and then he sees the contract and he starts screaming and just wrecking the room.
And he keeps calling her but she is ignoring it, and in a surreal, gorgeous scene, she is sitting on her bed, putting stamps (not the sticky kind, but things like kids have) all over her head and body, making herself as ugly as she can, and then you see her filling the bathtub and sticking her head underwater and crying that way.
And he waits for her outside next morning, looking like hell. But she 'frees' him, gives him back the silk cloth, and says he can find a pretty girl and he is a nice guy and doesn't have to put up with her any more. And she is back to her hideous wig (which is such a camouflage for her) and he tries to tell her he loves her for real but she is so locked up again...
And then she decides to burn his pendant but you see her snatch it out at the last moment, and she can't do it at all: she is just holding it close to her and crying.
And in a last ditch effort, he leaves her his two most precious things: his mother's cloth and his painting of her. And she returns them. I think a part of her might know he loves her for real now, whichever way it started. But she is so scarred and terrified and she is so afraid of hurt and now her protective walls are up all the way.
So he videotapes this message to her, telling her he loved her for real and he is leaving. And then her friends come across it early, and they talk him into showing it on a huge screen on this huge building downtown to convince her of his sincerety (and they come up with the money). So he is waiting there by the monitor for her (with the friends).
But the friend who goes to fetch Feng (she has no idea why they are going there) is late so he keeps speeding. And then he is distracted by seeing Ken on that screen (because it means the showing already started and she MUST see it, or that whole plan is wrecked). So, because he is paying no attention to the road, his little teeny motorbike comes into a crash with a huge truck.
And this is where my SCREAMING FIT of last night comes in. Because she falls and she lies there, bleeding, dying, broken. And as she is fading out of consciousness, she sees and hears Ken's message. I AM DEAD.
WHAT IS THIS? I can't take all this FRELLING angst!
Dramatically it's powerful and brilliant and makes sense, but as someone who is so attached to the OTP, it just KILLS me! Besides, what, was Ken a serial killer in a past life to have all this happen to him? And what about Feng? She's had a horrid life, can't she have a bit of happiness?
We'll see how ep 20 fixes it. Or I am buying a ticket to Taiwan and hunting TPTB down.
Because otherwise, this dorama is done by Taiwan's equivalent of Joss Whedon. All the couples in this are going to end either divorced, broken up or dead.
FIXEIT FIXIT FIXIT FIXIT.
First off, I really want to make clear that my last night's flailing about the end of ep 19 wasn't because it was badly done or ruined the show or anything. In fact, from a story-telling perspective and from a dramatic perspective, it was totally brilliant. From my 'getting attached to the characters' perspective? I am going to hunt TPTB down. Unless they fix it.
LC is an incredibly uneven show. It has parts which are eminently fast-forwardable (all the parts with friends) and parts that just grab me by the throat in their awesomeness (all the scenes with Ariel Lin and Mike He). In fact, the biggest disservice LC did (and had done to) is not to focus the dorama as tightly on Ken and Feng as, let's say Mars is focused on QL and Ling. Because Ariel and Mike just burn up the screen and all their scenes together are just incredible. In fact, I think they should be required to make another dorama together, with no other cast than the minimum necessary to prove they are not on a deserted island. But seriously, I've rarely seen chemistry like that, both scorching and natural. On second thought, I like the deserted island scenario. Yup, they are stuck on a deserted island and the only way off is if they hook up.
I think I should give up on screen-writing :)
And I ended up loving both the characters of Feng and of Ken. With Feng, even though sometimes I wanted to just shake her and go 'let down your defences a centimeter, he is a good guy, look!' but then she managed to break my heart in the scene where she finally reveals her scar to him and is like such a little frightened child, no barriers and no defenses. She reminds me of a wounded and mistreated wild animal, and he has to be very careful in how to handle her or she'll bolt.
But if I got annoyed with Feng sometimes, I think I am a total goner for Ken. He is quiet and that's always my thing, but I think what I ended up liking the most is that he really is a wonderful person (and through a dorama lens, of course, in a believable low-key way). He is someone who hasn't been dealt the best hand in life but he keeps coping and doing his best, and his tenderness (it's an odd thing to say about a guy, but he is a very tender person) just kills me.
Anyway, on to the ep thoughts.
Ep 16 just hits the angst points so precisely it hurts. Because Ken's mom dies and he is devastated. I love that shot of him sitting catatonic there, holding her inhaler in his hands, not moving as Feng tries to shake him out of it, and keeps asking him to give the inhaler back (quite a contrast to his Uncle who is crying in the other room). And then he snaps and yells 'if you want it, here it is' and throws it on the floor and she runs out. And then he sits there, with the box of her ashes and he just starts screaming 'Mom' and my heart breaks.
And he has a really rough time grieving: he keeps remembering their conversations (the scene where he falls asleep and dreams of her sitting at the table like she always does is...guuuuuh. I am going to start crying again). And I love the image of him completely immersed in water except for his face (this show has so much use of water as symbol).
And I love how Feng just keeps coming for him. She was hard to win but now she is certainly proving worth it. He is a terribly lonely guy (even more so after his Mom's death) and he doesn't like to share his burdens (probably as a result of his father leaving and all that stuff), but he can share the burden with her. I love the bit where he disappears with his mother's ashes and everyone is worried to death and she figures out where he is and she finds him sitting on the pier and she starts yelling his name and he is not reacting, so she is 'Have you forgotten your name? It's Ken. Ken, Ken, Ken!' and he looks at her and tells her he came there to scatter his Mother's ashes. And I love that she helps him by being there when he does it. They are in that little boat and she keeps holding his hands tightly and stroking them, and basically doing little touches almost non-stop as if to remind him she is there and he is not alone.
And back on shore, he just folds into her lap, and she strokes his hair and his face and he finally falls asleep. He isn't the only tender one. She can be quite tender despite the facade and the bluster.
And as he slowly recovers (with some flashes of grief: I like how the grieving process is done naturally, as when he is eating in her house and quietly says he wants to taste his mother's cooking again and starts shoving food in to distract himself) adorableness is back. I love how she pulls on his face, and jumps on his back and he carries her and they are both laughing. And the card game thing they have going every day is adorable (he promised her that every day he will let her pick a card and if she picks a higher one than he does, he will be her servant for the day). I think he is letting her win.
I just love them as a couple: there are all those wonderful little things as the way they are always touching (just watch the scene where he wants to disband the swim team and she is being supportive).
And then comes one of the most adorable/hot/funny scenes in the whole dorama that is chockfull of them.
She wins the card draw (again) and so she gets to body paint him and it's hilarious and adorable, and she draws stuff on both his back and his chest as he is teasing her about it being cold, and then they paint stuff on the outside of his house. And end up doing mock-flexing and laughing. Awwwww.
And after that, he is all cleaned up and in a white shirt (seriously, they should not allow Mike He to wear white for the sake of my health. I think I swallowed my tongue), leaning into her and then later they are in his Mom's room, looking at that pretty silk blanket which was his Mom's most treasured posession (because it was from Ken's Dad) and they are wrapped in it and he is grieving again so she kisses his nose and his arms go around her and he just dips her and they are horizontal and wrapped up and there is some severe kissing.
And you see her in her own room, and he gave the blanket to her!
But of course, she starts flipping because it's clear they almost made love, and she remembers her hideous huge body scar (it really is bad) and then he'd see it and she is so sure she is hideous and no one would want her, that she is terrified.
And meanwhile, his Uncle is leaving again (and I understand he has his own life, but for Ken, in a way, it's being abandoned again) and Ken wants to tell Feng about the silly Love Contract but before he does that, they are over at his house and he says 'Let's live together' and her response? 'Let's break up.' Before he breaks up with her (as she thinks he must). Such a girl reaction. And she yells 'I am not as nice as you think I am' and she really does think she is so unclean and ugly and horrible. But he won't agree and demands to be together and so she makes an impossible condition. She tells him they won't break up if he brings the rainbow into the house.
And then he does. And I think I stopped breathing. Because he paints the walls and gets a mist smoke thing so it really looks like a rainbow. And so she is out of options and excuses, and like a cornered animal, she starts hitting him and repeating 'I am not nice, do you like being hurt, what is wrong with you?' and then she slaps him. And he stops dead and just looks at her. And then, finally with no place to hide, she unbuttons and takes off her shirt and shows him the horrific burns on her torso. And asks him 'Do you still love me now, even if I look like this?' and it's so clear she expects the answer to be no, and he is frozen, and she starts to collapse and he catches her as she falls and he is cradling her and they are both crying and he keeps stroking her hair and she is weeping hard, and is so desperate and broken, all her barriers utterly down, and she keeps repeating 'I am sorry, I am sorry, I didn't mean it, I really love you, please don't leave me' and she is clutching his shirt with a death grip and kissing it, every bit she can reach and that whole scene just BREAKS ME.
And he picks her up and carries her to bed, and then he wants to get up and get her water (because she is all cried out), but she doesn't want to let him go and is clutching his hand. She is such a little child at the moment, and he says he'll be gone only for a short time (just like to a little child) but...but...but...but when he is gone she finds a copy of the love contract. And I scream at the TV and curse TPTB in very unladylike manner, because it's about the worst time for it. So, when he gets back she is gone (and I can only imagine how she felt because she finally let down her defenses and bared herself to him completely, both physically and emotionally) and then he sees the contract and he starts screaming and just wrecking the room.
And he keeps calling her but she is ignoring it, and in a surreal, gorgeous scene, she is sitting on her bed, putting stamps (not the sticky kind, but things like kids have) all over her head and body, making herself as ugly as she can, and then you see her filling the bathtub and sticking her head underwater and crying that way.
And he waits for her outside next morning, looking like hell. But she 'frees' him, gives him back the silk cloth, and says he can find a pretty girl and he is a nice guy and doesn't have to put up with her any more. And she is back to her hideous wig (which is such a camouflage for her) and he tries to tell her he loves her for real but she is so locked up again...
And then she decides to burn his pendant but you see her snatch it out at the last moment, and she can't do it at all: she is just holding it close to her and crying.
And in a last ditch effort, he leaves her his two most precious things: his mother's cloth and his painting of her. And she returns them. I think a part of her might know he loves her for real now, whichever way it started. But she is so scarred and terrified and she is so afraid of hurt and now her protective walls are up all the way.
So he videotapes this message to her, telling her he loved her for real and he is leaving. And then her friends come across it early, and they talk him into showing it on a huge screen on this huge building downtown to convince her of his sincerety (and they come up with the money). So he is waiting there by the monitor for her (with the friends).
But the friend who goes to fetch Feng (she has no idea why they are going there) is late so he keeps speeding. And then he is distracted by seeing Ken on that screen (because it means the showing already started and she MUST see it, or that whole plan is wrecked). So, because he is paying no attention to the road, his little teeny motorbike comes into a crash with a huge truck.
And this is where my SCREAMING FIT of last night comes in. Because she falls and she lies there, bleeding, dying, broken. And as she is fading out of consciousness, she sees and hears Ken's message. I AM DEAD.
WHAT IS THIS? I can't take all this FRELLING angst!
Dramatically it's powerful and brilliant and makes sense, but as someone who is so attached to the OTP, it just KILLS me! Besides, what, was Ken a serial killer in a past life to have all this happen to him? And what about Feng? She's had a horrid life, can't she have a bit of happiness?
We'll see how ep 20 fixes it. Or I am buying a ticket to Taiwan and hunting TPTB down.
Because otherwise, this dorama is done by Taiwan's equivalent of Joss Whedon. All the couples in this are going to end either divorced, broken up or dead.
FIXEIT FIXIT FIXIT FIXIT.
