Don’t mind me folks, I need to rant. There’s a 3 page long rant on Say That You Love Me below. If you are insane enough to read it all…Caution. There be spoilers.

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    So, I have been watching Say That You Love Me which is a Chinese adaptation of Itzaura na Kiss (which I need to watch because the more I think about it the less sure I become that I actually have seen this version). Of the three versions that I have seen It Started with a Kiss, Playful Kiss, Kiss Me: Thai all three had the same basic format: Female lead develops crush on Male lead when she first sees/meets him on the first day of their freshman year of school. On the first day of their senior year she gives him a love letter and he grades it harshly and gives it back to her and tells her that he doesn’t date stupid women. Meanwhile, the Second Male lead developed a crush on the female lead at around the same time that the female lead developed a crush on the Male lead. SL is there all throughout the show from the time when FL is chasing ML to when they finally hook up and get married until he finally finds a love of his own in the last few eps of the drama. The female second lead doesn’t show up until later in the series. She’s a go-getter and extremely competitive but I don’t remember her being particularly vindictive or anything (I don’t have a great memory). She’s very much presented as the female version of the male lead—who is heralded by one and all as the most perfect male specimen to ever exist on the earth. I actually really like her in I believe all of the version (don’t hold me to this). They all have their strengths and weaknesses but they all tell the same basic story. That’s why they are remakes.
    Say That You Love Me is an adaptation. It starts when they are already in college. The female lead (Zao Zao) professes her love to the male lead (Ou Hae Chen) and is humiliated but not by a publicly rejected love letter. Zao Zao has to live with Ou Hae Chen and his family for awhile but not because her house fell down in an earthquake. These changes are all well and good and make the show more interesting in its own right. But now.
    The annoyance.
    Male second lead. What the heck is this dudes point, man? Ok. He shows up about 5 eps in and spills a drink all over Zao Zao as convenient plot device for other shenanigans going on in the ep. About 2-5 (memory) eps later he’s back—but he’s Ou Hae Chen’s long lost best friend who’s just returned from the states who is starting the semester at their school. He loves Zao Zao’s crush on Ou Hae Chen and makes it his mission on earth to get the two together. Or put Zao Zao in embarrassing scenarios. I have NO IDEA why this is happening. At first it seems like maybe he has a thing for the second female lead (Shang Guan Yi) or perhaps they know and hate each other from somewhere else—but, no. This is his new hobby. Thwarting Shang Guan Yi and trying to get Zao Zao and Ou Hae Chen together. Or humiliate Zao Zao. Or both.
    tbc

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      In a development that I really liked in the beginning when Ou Hae Chen starts dating Shang Guan Yi Zao Zao moves out of his house. She decides that she doesn’t want to watch the two of them together and instead focuses on school and work and moving on. Which is awesome. Except that Shang Guan Yi and Ou Hae Chen date for an entire year and its incredibly boring. During this year Ou Hae Chen realizes that he misses Zao Zao but he can’t figure out why. He doesn’t like it when Shang Guan Yi is mean to Zao Zao and he doesn’t understand why. He doesn’t like that Zao Zao seems to be avoiding him when they had just started to be pretty good friends before he started dating Shang Guan Yi. But he doesn’t understand why. During this year apart. Second lead (Han Fei) spends more and more time with Zao Zao. At one point when Zao Zao is completely over Ou Hao Chen Han Fei wonders if maybe he has fallen in love with Zao Zao. This is not mentioned again for like ten eps Eventually Ou Hae Chen realizes that he’s fallen in love with Zao Zao and for about 3 seconds this is really, really cute (this show tends to take really, really cute and drag it out way too long). He has used his business management skillset to determine a plan (weighing his strengths and weaknesses against something or other in something called a SWOT) to get Zao Zao to like him again. He tries to get her to go on dates with him and she shoots him down every time. The one time he gets her to have dinner with him he spends some time studying his SWOT board and examining his weaknesses and determines that around her he gets quiet and somewhat shy and domineering and they fall into awkward silences so to offset that he tries his hand at magic. And fails. Miserably. (he looks ADORABLE when he looks at her as she’s reprimanding him for ruining a perfectly fine dinner. He practiced for days those magic tricks to impress her)
      But just like the 1 year long relationship lasted too long—the show is 32 eps long. I think Ou Hae Chen and Shang Guan Yi started dating in like ep 10 and they broke up in something like ep 22 (it was like ep 16 that Han Fen realizes that he’s fallen for Zao Zao). I’m in ep 26 now. Ou Hae Chen has been actively pursuing Zao Zao since the break up in ep 22.
      Now…I like it when things are fair. I know that’s pretty ridiculous. Things are never fair. I think that’s why Dan Ah pisses me off so much in SD. How she treats others isn’t fair. We have now entered the unfair part of the drama. And as much as those 10+ eps of the show dragged when we were focused on building the friendship between Zao Zao and Han Fen and the relationship between Ou Hae Chen and Shang Guan Yi there was still enough cuteness to get me through. Now, I’m just annoyed.
      tbc

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        Ou Hae Chen has been bending over backwards to make Zao Zao see that he’s changed and that he likes her. She’s been staunchly refusing his advances. As is her right. She doesn’t have to like him just because he likes her now. She liked him for 4 years and got nowhere. Whats annoying me is that other than the throwaway scene almost 10 eps ago where Han Fen mentioned that he might be in love with her that storyline was completely dropped for the past 10 eps. There were no lingering glances. No casual brush of the fingers. Nothing to show that he saw her as anything other than someone that he delights in annoying. He did take Zao Zao out for her birthday but that annoyed the hell out of me. He didn’t know it was her birthday until he heard her on the phone making plans with her other friends and he snatches her phone out of her hand and cancels the plans so that he can take her out to dinner instead. This seemed so SELFISH to me. This was the start of his starting to actively pursue Zao Zao. Meanwhile, Ou Hae Chen has planned a surprise party with his parents and Zao Zao’s dad and he can’t find her to bring her to it (she hasn’t seen her dad in a really long time) because Han Fen has taken her phone and turned it off. Which reads possessive as hell to me.
        Ou Hae Chen has been actively pursuing Zao Zao for at least 4 eps now. Han Fen has decided seemingly out of nowhere that he’s going to go for it now. Like, WTF, dude. For like 14 eps you were in the clear. Take yo’ shot, homie.
        Now that Ou Hae Chen is making a play Han Fen is being uber aggressive. Like, every time I turn around he’s trying to start a fight with Ou Hae Chen. Ou Hae Chen for the most part walks away from the swinging fists or the overly aggressive basketball game maybe throwing back some smart ass taunts but that’s about it. Instead of this being about who Zao Zao wants to be with Han Fen has turned this into a fight/competition that no one wants any part of. But what burst my buttons is when during a basketball game Han Fen started a fist fight with Ou Hae Chen. The fight gets broken up and the two are screaming at each other and Han Fen breaks free from the guys who are holding him back (Ou Hae Chen isn’t being held back because he’s not trying to continue the fight at all. He didn’t even start it.) and moves to slug Ou Hae Chen was is just standing there. Zao Zao comes running between the two and puts herself in between the punch. Ou Hae Chen pulls Zao Zao behind him and tells her not to jump in front of flying fists and Zao Zao goes off on Ou Hae Chen when she just SAW Han Fen starting the fight and says that she knew that Han Fen wouldn’t hit her because he would never hurt her. GTFO. She then leads a smirking Han Fen away to tend to his wounds and a heartbroken Ou Hae Chen slumps to the ground and dumps some water over his head and mopes. So of course, the next day when its time for the big game (against Han Fen, NATCH) tbc

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          Ou Hae Chen is practically delirious with fever (whenever anyone gets wet in a drama unless its romantic rain they are on deaths door the next day), loses the game, and passes out on the court. Zao Zao runs over to him while Han Fen—petitioning to be the grand freaking puba at the petty parade—refuses to go over and see whats wrong with his supposed best friend/”brother”. Next thing we know we’re at Ou Hae Chen’s bedside and Zao Zao and Han Fen are bickering about how they should leave, want to leave but can’t leave because they are Ou Hae Chen’s “best friends’ so they should stay. GTFO. I ship him with NO ONE at this point. Han Fen drags Zao Zao aside to demand to know if she has any feelings left for Ou Hae Chen and once she assures him that she’s long since moved on Han Fen agrees to leave—to sit and wait for her in front of her dorm until she’s finished helping Ou Hae Chen.
          Ok. I get why Zao Zao is trying so hard to either not care about Ou Hae Chen. She liked him 4 years and chased him for 1. He was always clear (at times to the point of painful douchery) that he wasn’t in to her. Now that he is in to her I don’t blame her for guarding her heart. And for generally not wanting to go back to being that girl who was in love with him. She was pathetic as hell. But, she didn’t even check on him after that fight. Even when Ou Hae Chen didn’t like her he still looked out for her and cared about her because she was his friend. She’s not doing the same at all. Han Fen’s animosity that is bordering on hatred for Ou Hae Chen is legit coming from NO WHERE. Like, DUDE. WTF?
          So, Ou Hae Chen sees Zao Zao sitting on the side of his bed and he goes for a hug and she pushes him off and it takes work to get him off of her because even though she’s screaming get off me he’s not listening (its actually an uncomfortable scene to watch) and she storms off and falls down the steps and faints. A miraculously healed Ou Hae Chen carries her up to her old room where his parents fuss over her and he apologizes and decides to give up on her.
          I don’t mind changes to the origin story. But this shiz makes no sense. The characters that were fine and perfectly in character for the first 20+ eps are now doing stupid things to drag the plot along. At this point. I just want the OTP to be together. They’ve both suffered long enough. Dammit, I’ve suffered long enough. I just really, really hate that they took Han Fen who was amusing even though his purpose on the show wasn’t ever clarified and made him this super angry second lead when that was never his deal.
          End rant.

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