#some of my fave convos from the drama are between lian and yi

[seffjatur]

more thoughts about why i like kilen wang:

so most rich guy dramas that ive watched (probs from late 2000s, early 2010s kdrama, so pretty outdated) feature the guy being a huge douchebag to everyone in general, even the main chara/protag, with an insufferable ego and he only changes his attitude when he falls for the protag and even then not really (hes still mostly an asshat and he only really treats the protag w bare minimum respect)

so thats the kind of impression i have and ive always loathed that sort of rich dude because its flat af for storytelling and mostly bc im not a fan of boring assholes bc they are garden variety and u find one if u throw a stone

HOWEVER cutie pie gives us kilen wang who is presented to us as that typical rich guy asshole stereotype, only to turn that on its head and give us a wonderfully developed love interest chara of a protag whose behaviours, motivations and choices MAKE SENSE

the story establishes lian as someone who worked his way up from the bottom, and believes in equal opportunity and thats in line w the way he treats foei and the various service staff charas thru the drama. hes never rude, although hes def aloof, distant and keeps work purely as work. i find the "friendly, caring boss" stereotype a little concerning in the way its portrayed in dramas/fiction sometimes and we get lian, who looks out for his company staff without dragging them unnecessarily into his personal life

which, u may argue, but bruce, he gets foei to do all sorts of things!! yeah, foei is his PA, he gets foei to do all sorts of stuff and he DID unfortunately forget himself and make out with kuea in front of foei a couple of times but he never trauma dumps or makes foei do his emotional labour for him, which is a LOT more than i can say for a ton of charas in media who dont seem to realize their subordinates are not automatically their therapists

i also absolutely love that lian has self awareness, enough to pick up on the problems between him and kuea and realize the severity of them, and want to make changes where feasibly possible. he doesnt faff around blaming others or FUCK FORBID kuea for the shit that happens to him as a person. (from what i recall) he never puts the responsibility of his feelings or the shitty situations he ends up in on kuea. he always owns that shit (thank yi for also constantly calling him out) and makes the change. its phenomenal for me, in a male love interest chara of a protag.

does this mean lian is perfect or an ideal of a man? hell nah. he is flawed af. he makes unilateral decisions for him and kuea's relationship. as much as he has the best intentions, he overly monitors kuea's life and isnt honest about the shit he gets up to. are these behaviours understandable? yeah. but thats not the same as acceptable. still, at the end of the day, its realistic bc actual ppl do have flaws like that and ppl who love ppl make stupid ass decisions all the fucking time. lian is nuanced and we learn enough about him that he stands alone as a character, not merely a plot device who pushes the romance plot along, an idea of a person that the protag is projecting on

#some of my fave convos from the drama are between lian and yi #its so interesting to see two rich guy assholes being so human and real and AWARE of their shittiness #men taking responsibility for their behaviour and choices??? thats sexy af #every day i thank the writers and p aof for bringing cutie pie to life #also thank u zee and max for being such WONDERFUL actors who brought such depth and detail to lian and yi #b roll #kowalski analysis