Tumgik
#Bu Guangjin
storge · 2 years
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
I just want to eat.
Dear Diary ep. 5
283 notes · View notes
Text
Dear Diary (2021) - First Impressions (Eps 1-7)
It’s as cringey, funny, and watchable as everyone says it is, especially the first 2 episodes. Everyone’s comedic timing is just so on point. Although, I would say that The Day of Becoming You is slightly funnier overall because that drama managed to keep the humour up all the way through. I’m only on episode 7 of Dear Diary, but I can feel it move away from the comedy side, which isn’t a bad thing. The main source of comedy in the first two episodes is how ridiculous Rhydian Vaughan’s Babylonian prince character is. But once he tones it down and starts to assimilate into the “real” world, the charm wanes a bit. 
Edit: I take back what I said about the comedy. I just started episode 8 and laughed out loud within the first 5 minutes. 
The FL is highly relatable, which I find to be ironic since this drama is a critique of young, impressionable adolescents who tend to self-insert themselves into fictional stories (i.e., all of us at one point in time).  And yet, here we have a FL whom most of us can relate to, and therefore, serves as our own self-insert. 
Chen Mei Ru is an average-looking, introverted, socially anxious woman with OCD tendencies. Her traumatic life event was when her aunt forced her to read her personal romance fantasy aloud to the class when she was 12, and the entire hometown never let her live it down. Things get real in episode 5 when she vents her unhappiness to MRJL. She admits that she hates everyone and that she wants to be alone. She doesn’t want to talk to people. She’s tired of being friendly and cordial and appeasing people because that’s part of the social contract she needs to uphold. She’s tired of pretending to be happy. She doesn’t want to explain her job to people. She hates small talk. It’s how we all feel as young 20-something year olds. Her rant perfectly captures the disillusionment we all feel about life and society. 
Mu Rong Jie Lun, our ML, loves CMR unconditionally, because she wrote him to be that way. Like the FL, we don’t really see him as a real person because he’s just a wish fulfillment character come to life. But his reaction to CMR’s rant in episode 5 prompts you to begin to change your impression of him. She’s a depressed pessimist. There’s nothing special about her, nothing that makes her tick. She’s not an especially good person that will inspire him. But he appreciates her honesty. I like what he said about being optimistic enough about the world for the both of them. He likes this world and he thinks it’s beautiful. He doesn’t fully understand why, but we recognize that it’s because he’s now a real boy, given a chance at life, so we can understand where his joie de vivre comes from. He doesn’t try to deny her flaws, but he instead tells her that he’ll compensate for it. And I think that’s a foundation for a healthy relationship. You recognize, accept, and then learn to embrace someone’s flaws without romanticizing their flaws are being blinded to it. Two people are supposed to support each other in a relationship. And sometimes, when one person is venting about a problem, they don’t want you to come up with a solution to solve it, but they just want you to be there and listen. And that’s what he does. He doesn’t tell her how she can change and be less pessimistic, but he just reassures her that he’ll be there with her. I’m interested in seeing how the drama humanizes him. It’s clear that the drama is going to make the ML and FL fall for each other as real people, instead of just the idea of one another. 
And episode 5 is probably when I started to see some of the chemistry happen. Rhydian Vaughan and Tiffany Hsu look gorgeous together, but it’s easy to ship 2 good-looking people. That’s what most idol dramas are based on. But I’m looking forward to seeing how the ML and FL influence and change other other. This is going to be a drama about growth, and I’m here for it, although I’m aware that most cdrama tend to muck it up by the end. 
In fact, I like all 3 couples. We have 3 “real” characters who each have to navigate a relationship with a “fictional” character. The FL sees her fictional character as being a bad memory she wants to forget. But she slowly begins to remember why she created him in the first place, and through learning to love him, she’s also learning to love herself again. The SFL, Jiang Hui Zhen, is having a lot of fun with her fictional character, Ou Yang Wen Shan. He’s everything she hoped he would be. She knows he isn’t real, and doesn’t feel much remorse in exploiting him, both financially and sexually. But she’s starting to develop real feelings for him, and I can see how he’ll one day get the upper hand, and she’ll finally be beaten in her own game. Their relationship is fun to watch though. It’s flirty and mature. The SML, aka CMR’s childhood bully, feels incredibly lucky that the imaginary woman of his dreams, Dragon Lady, has actually come to life. He worships the ground she walks on, and would do anything for her, even break his own legs and help her win MRJL’s heart, even though he knows that it’s futile to change the trajectory of the story. But his ulterior motive is that he hopes that she’ll develop real feelings for him and deviate from the story. Duan Shui Liu is thus probably the most self-aware character out of the 3 “real” characters. He’s the first one to tell CMR that these fictional characters are living, breathing people. He’s the first one to embrace the situation and roll with it. He sees Dragon Lady as a real person and respects her goals even though he knows it’s pointless. That’s not to justify his unhealthy obsession with her though. 
As for the fictional characters, I can see how they’re going to develop real feelings and a sense of agency. I’m curious to see how they break out of their assigned roles. 
I like how the drama explicitly mentions feminism, women’s rights, consent, and indirectly mentions LGBT relationships, which was probably the most they could manage to get away with given the censorship. I also like how this drama admires western trends instead of bashing it in the name of patriotism, like when JUZ reminds CMR about how when they were growing up and looking at fashion magazines, they would love how American women are confident enough to not wear a bra, and JUI and CMR think that these women look gorgeous regardless. It’s a great statement empowering women, and as someone with a conservative Asian mother who condemns this, I think it’s great that cdramas are trying to normalize that women can wear (or not wear) whatever they want, even if it’s through a small offhand comment in a drama like this. 
Oh and another point is when CMR tells Dragon Lady how pretty she is and says only women are able to understand how pretty other women are. Like how most attention that women get on the street is from other women. It reminds me of how women often dress up for other women to see, not for men.
I think one of the lyrics of the subthemes said something like “If I came to life and found you when you grew up, would you still believe/remember me?”. And it just made me reflect on all the trashy stories and fanfics I wrote as a teen. It’s one of those dramas that make you reflect on your own life by comparing who you were when you were and who you’ve grown up as now. We’ve all come a long way since those days. And even for those of us who still write fanfiction now, it’s still humbling and nostalgic to reflect on how much we’ve changed (and also how much hasn’t). That inner teenager is still inside us. 
The production quality also feels high, even though it doesn’t seem like a drama that many would want to invest it since it’s so niche. The cinematography does feel more cinematic.
In terms of how this drama compares to other stories about transportation to a fictional world, this drama takes the opposite direction where the fictional characters get transported into the real world instead. Disney has done it with Enchanted, and Kate and Leopold was another romcom in a similar vein. But I like this idea being explored in a cdrama since it’s different from The Romance of Tiger and Rose and Lost Romance. 
8 notes · View notes
storge · 2 years
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
What are the other two?
Dear Diary Ep. 1               + Extra Bonus
Tumblr media
93 notes · View notes
storge · 2 years
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Dear Diary Ep. 8
65 notes · View notes
storge · 2 years
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Dear Diary ep. 8
60 notes · View notes
storge · 2 years
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
My prince was born for me. The charm I exude is a fatal attraction to him. He vowed to protect me from harm forever. Love can make people simple and ordinary, yet also glorious and brilliant.
Dear Diary Ep. 4
76 notes · View notes
storge · 2 years
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
-I just slipped. -Are you a fool?
Dear Diary ep. 6
54 notes · View notes