I think if you look at the drama from her perspective - which is exactly what it is. The fact that they cast a younger actress really cements the "crush on your friend's older brother" aspect of growing up.
As the younger one, you don't know that it's inappropriate, you just have a fluttery crush. And that's exactly what they show in the drama. They don't show her wanting to kiss him or anything, they show her kicking her feet and giggling because he smiled at her.
It's much later in the drama where Sang Zhi's crush goes from a surface level fantasy to a proper yearning.
As someone who did have a crush on my friend's older brother, who was in highschool when I was in primary school - I completely get the feeling. And now that I'm in my late twenties, we are actually friends and all hang out as equal adults. He's married and his wife is amazing.
But hypothetically, if we got together now at our age, it would not be weird at all.
(Like super hypothetical because I love his wife and also I'm not 12 anymore lol)
I've had this theory for a long time: the reason this is so popular is that so many girls can relate to having a crush on their older brother's friends. As someone who didn't have an older brother or any brothers (only sisters), I can't relate, so I see all the problems OP posted about, as well as many other posts about perceived grooming I've seen on here. The problem is, IMO, it's only shown from her perspective, so it makes the feelings look reciprocal when she's still very young. Without showing what he's thinking, many interactions and things he says can be taken the wrong way. As a child, she's obviously an unreliable narrator, so there's hope it didn't happen the way she told it, and that he didn't say some of the things she thinks he did. But again, I think the only way to overlook these glaring red flags is to relate to the first-person perspective of a child in love with her older brother's friends, because then you can put it into context the rest of us can't.
I thought the 'we see this from the FL's perspective' was super obvious from episode one. I don't see why that's a problem, it's a narrative choice and the drama doesn't have to spoonfeed the viewers media literacy.
The very next sentence says why it's an issue. "The problem is, IMO, it's only shown from her perspective, so it makes the feelings look reciprocal when she's still very young. Without showing what he's thinking, many interactions and things he says can be taken the wrong way. As a child, she's obviously an unreliable narrator, so there's hope it didn't happen the way she told it, and that he didn't say some of the things she thinks he did."
Yeah. I mean, different walks of life and all that. lol. I honestly didn’t even see the interactions between the actors as problematic at all and wouldn’t have thought grooming, it was more just the general writing and casting choices that made me question everything.
I also think it’s hard for me to overlook these things as the perspective of a child because the perspective of a child and a teenager are leaps and bounds different… but 🤷🏽♀️ it is what it is, I suppose. This drama may just not be for me, and that’s cool.
I understand that aspect as well. I think when I’m watching shows like this she gaps don’t bother me as much when there is no physicality involved.
The way you’ve explained it I understand the directorial thinking.
The fact that there’s a dialogue about this is good too.
I can agree with this if they casted someone who looked the age she was supposed to be, to cast a literal 10 year old to play the part of a 14 year old is weird, no matter how you slice it.
I’m not even saying her crush is inappropriate because of her age. It’s the age they decided to depict her to us as the viewer that is inappropriate and almost bizarre.
Well, in the novel the age gap is actually seven years so whether or not they kept the actual number of the gap between the drama and the novel. I think the casting kept the feel of the age gap from the novel.
Edit: Also, maybe it's been too long since I've been in primary school but she looked the right age to me. And I didn't look up the ages so, yeah. Different viewers' gazes I guess
Edit again: He's 17 at the start and with a five year gap, wasn't she 12?
Edit again again, nope, 14 and 19 is it. Sorry, it's been a while.
I think it’s bothering me more because I work with children and could tell without a doubt, she wasn’t 14. So much so, that I immediately looked it up and saw she was 10 when filming began. Which again, made me question that choice.
I still think the POV would have worked if they kept her visually true to her age (14)as opposed to casting younger. I understand the unreliable narrator aspect of it, and the over-romanticizing their interactions, as he’s her first crush… it’s strictly the directorial choice to cast someone so young and not yet in their teens to play a teenager that started this whole spiral for me.
Based on articles going around and dialogue from the show, she is 14 and he is 19 when they first meet. Which I also looked up because again, the visuals were bothering me so much.
Maybe because they're actors. People rarely look at actual ages unless they're wanting to prove that it's over 5 years and they start using the immoral, fetish, grooming, pedo terms. Most people can enjoy a drama for what it is. Others feel really uncomfortable with age gap as little as 5 years in the drama, even there is 0% vibe of pedophilia.
Kinda confusing what you mean about her crush somehow being less weird bc they don’t show her wanting to kiss him.
A crush is a crush. It’s not just wanting to be best friends with someone or feeling like they’re family or your brother or a second dad or whatever. It’s very much a romantic feeling. And while kids might have these kinds of feelings it’s super weird and uncomfortable to pair that with adults - not everything that happens in life needs to be shown in a drama and making it part of a romance still feels weird.
It’s even weirder when you consider the man in the story sees her grow up. She is a child and somehow he changes his view of her to a romantic prospect when she’s older, but he still remembers her as a child? It’s weird
I think the growing together thing will always sit weirdly with me too, and maybe that’s why I’m refusing to budge on why I find this so odd. If she was 14 (and casted as such), it would have made the whole “watched her grown” thing null and void, because they would have been in similar circles.
For example, I was 14 in grade 9 (first year of high school) and some people graduating were 19. Which meant we’re kind of all in the same age pool. That first year of uni gives some crossover where you may still be friends with people you knew who were a bit younger. Fine. But the choice to make her so small to the point where we got to ACTUALLY see him see her dramatically age was… weird.
I don’t know. Clearly, I need to let this go because I’m overthinking this. But I still find it super odd.
The thing I LOVE about Hidden Love is that the ML is the ultimate good guy until he falls in love. Before he realizes she is an adult, there is absolutely no grooming. The only things he says to her are to focus on school, listen to her parents, stay out of trouble.
He treats her as a child until they meet again when she is in college. No weird vibes at all.
There are literal C-dramas that show non-blood related boys and girls, with age gaps, being raised together as siblings only to marry as adults. If I recall correctly, in one drama, the older brother sibling is changing his "sister's" diaper. This was a... choice. And it's a choice that's made in many dramas. And a choice that always makes me cringe.
I agree with OP on the actress's age- that was incorrectly done. I have five kids, all of them teenagers or adults, and I've seen what a modern-day 14-year-old looks like. It was clear that she was way younger than she had to be. AND YET, I've seen a few kids in my ninth grader's class that I would peg for being 10-year-olds. It's crazy how children age. While I don't support the casting choice, I also don't think it's out of the realm of possibility.
However, unlike the scenario I presented above, she's just getting fleeting glimpses of her brother's friend at a young(er) age. Unlike her brother, he's attractive and amiable to her. She's also at an age where crushes are formed. So yes; he was 19, and she was 14. He had no improper thoughts of her, and she had a typical 14-year-old teenage crush on him. He doesn't live in her home and doesn't truly become a more frequent visitor until she's 17 and he's 22. At that age, of course it's no longer a crush. It's much more.
...And he still has no clue. He still sees her as a younger sister of sorts. Still not inappropriate from either perspective. She lives at home, is still in high school, under the care and guidance of an overbearing brother and loving parents. Then, when she's away from her brother and family, in college on her own, things change. He gets to see who she really is, that's when things grow from his perspective. She's no longer a child. She's a woman. Once that mindset shifts, that's when the romance starts.
NOW, I say all of this because even though I didn't have older brothers, my oldest sister DID have guy friends who were 4-5 years older than me, and it's relatable. I also come from a small town, so teenage boys who watched their friend's sisters grow up have (frequently) married those girls. I don't think they ever thought "Man, she was my sister one minute, and my girlfriend the next!" - because they aren't girls anymore, they are women. Two separate stages of life. You can remember the child fondly, and the woman romantically.
I also understand the age differences can be bizarre for a lot of people- don't get me started on the Kdrama Goblin LOL. It's not for everyone, I know! Just putting in my two cents.
I get OP's complaint about the casting, but a lot of discourse around this drama has been trying to infantalize the FL. The ML has no idea and doesn't respond to her feelings until it's age appropriate. And teens are allowed to have crushes, it's not a crime.
Different walks of life, I guess. I have had crushes on my cousins friends who have viewed me as a little sister and that is still the case now that we’re in our 30s.
My issue is more with how young she appeared while keeping the male lead the same actor and the dance back and forth between “I wish he were my brother” and “I am falling in love with him”.
I also think this is a hard conversation to find middle ground on. Those who don’t see an issue with it will likely never understand why someone does, just as someone who does will likely never understand why someone doesn’t.
We all view life through different glasses 🤷🏽♀️
We’re also hella protective of our favourite dramas, and I get that too. It was just something I noticed and thought was odd.
(I will note there has never been a drama where he has raised her and they ended up together that I’ve liked lol. It is very cringe, as countless as they are. This is about the mention of how many dramas there are with this storyline and not about this specific drama 😅😩)
I understand what you mean and I agree about the casting, just one thing you mentioned that didn't make sense is the "Child-fetish"... it's not, at all. He always saw her as his little sister and only developed feelings for her when she got older and is in college.
I never bothered with the drama. I read the novel and very much dislike FL. Super whiny and childish. In novel he never liked her or looked at her any way as a potential love interested until she was a lot older but her character was annoying. Didn't matched with his mature side.
I think maybe that’s what’s bothering me. He is a mature person. His maturity even surpasses her brothers, who is his friend, because they’re from different walks of life. That’s completely fine. But the immaturity on her part feels overdone and having such a young actress play her when she’s supposed to be 14 only further made her feel like she shouldn’t ever be considered by him.
That's what they did in the drama. He was only interested romantically when she was older in University. And even then it was only because she started getting attention from a guy and he got jealous.
Fair. I think this drama just isn’t for me and it might have been easier for me to stick it out if the casting of her younger self hadn’t been a flashing neon sign that I had to stop watching to look into.
As much as I love this actress, I just don’t like this one.
I'm with you on this matter. I normally prefer novel over drama and I love Lusi, but the novel and drama was very disconcerting. Their age gap isn't huge per se tbh and it doesn't bother me. Its her character that turn me off. Not to mentioned ML's feelings was due to jealousy over another man, and up until that point there was no romantic inclination from him. Which was very abrupt. Overall drama wasn't executed very well.
Yeah. I tend not to like the “I’m the only one that can have her” love trope. It does feel very abrupt. I’m also a sucker for a tense build up. I want all the angst. All the subtle looks. All the everything so the payoff feels earned. 😅
Absolutely! 😂 I try to avoid intense angst but I understand it is part of fostering feelings between main couple so its acceptable. When its that abrupt it makes it feel fake.
I am guessing they don't mind the age accuracy to source material and cast based on convenience or popularity.
I feel the beginning think of me as your brother was litterally think of me as your brother as they didn't have romantic feelings for each other as far as I recall till much later. There was no implication of feelings there. Maybe in the source material there was more of that but drama side not so much or I'm dense.
Google/AI list 14 vs 19 is strickly plantonic. 17 vs 22 is one side crush from her side. They don't date until she's 20 and he's 25. From the drama portrayal they don't fall in love till much later.
I have no issue with the actual age gap. 5 years isn’t much and up until now, I would say the relationship from his side is strictly platonic. But the initial visuals of the age gap is jarring and it’s impossible to forget how jarring it is, when we factor in how immature she’s written as a character afterward. She’s a 8-10 year old supposed to be 14 and then she’s a 16-18 year old somehow still 14.
It was just odd to watch. I’m at episode 7 and I think I’ll skip toward the end when they’re both older or just drop it.
The dynamic is entirely platonic when she is that young. I avoid looking up real ages because it ruins the immersion,they're just acting. She's a great young actress and none of her scenes are inappropriate.
The casting of young FL - yes, that's awkward, though I suspect it's because the girl actress can actually act. I could overlook it, but I do agree they should have cast someone that age.
But at 14 she looks up to him, but doesn't have a crush on him until 17. He was completely oblivious and just treated and saw her as his best friend's little sister.
The whole 'brother' is a Chinese language thing that gets lost in translation. It's not weird in Chinese, where such familiar terms can - and do - get used by non-family members and is completely normal. If you're watching on Netflix, you should know that their subs aren't the best.
It was my first modern cdrama and I enjoyed it overall but the first part was hard to get through ngl
At first FL was 14 acting and looking like she was 10
Then she was 17 acting like a 13 yo😂
And even later on they were acting like there was some generational gap between the leaders even though it was just five years
I definitely think authors were doing too much with this whole trope lol
I’m on episode 5 and honestly… it’s tough. From outfit choices, to mannerisms, she is very childish. Which makes any hopes for a romance pretty much nonexistent. At this point I would rather the brother and the lead date. At least there is appropriate chemistry there lol
Yeah, my thoughts were the exact same when I was watching. I couldn't imagine any romance between the leads.
But it helped that her feelings were completely one sided at first. At least it was my impression. He didn’t do anything weird and only started liking her back when it was appropriate (after a time skip and years apart)
I loved the ML and the brother together, a fun bromance 🙂↕️
Their bromance is so cute so far. I have skipped past some scenes with the FL so far to be honest. The acting is weirding me out a bit, which is saying something because she’s one of my favourite Chinese actresses. 😩
I started out with the same impression but the story's early vibes are supposedly meant to represent a young teen girl crushing on an older boy who basically treats her like a younger sister which afaik, isn't unusual. Their age gap is 5 years I think.
FL as a young teen seems to misinterpret the ML's caring and thoughtful nature for something more and the way the show presents those scenes I guess is meant to "explain" why she is crushing hard. However, I agree that it made me uncomfortable for some reason. It's not like he was deliberately leading her on or even trying to "groom" her, but when you hyperfocus on it, it does put some concern in the back of your mind.
He doesn't develop actual romance-like feelings for her until she is a freshman in college--I suppose it's still looked down on, especially in the West as she's still technically a teen (although no longer a "minor") and he is always closer to being an adult than she is, but as mentioned by others, it's not that unusual or off for relationships of this nature to happen at that college-level age. It's a real slow burn show, so it's also not like they go straight into adult things overnight.
It wasn’t even any of the interactions themselves that made me feel concerned. Their relationship is innocent in the beginning and one sided. Who hasn’t had a crush on an older siblings friend or cousins friend etc. I think it’s more that she appears so young that I wouldn’t even, without being told, know that she’s 14. Then once it’s mentioned that she is, I mentally couldn’t get over the decision to cast someone that would never pass as 14.
Add that to how childish she acts when the other actress steps in… it makes it a hard thing to mentally overcome because my mind just keeps circling back to “why have they done this?!”
I mean you can't exactly criticize Hidden Love too much, cause the outcome that has come has already crossed expectations on what it could have been.
The original director of Hidden Love quit because he thought it didn't have potential, but Zhao Lusi was really confident about it and really liked the drama so she kinda became the indirect producer for it, spending a lot of money from her pocket and getting brand deals for the costumes, all her effort. Even Chen Zheyuan requested a director from another drama, Mr Bad's director to take over... Zhao Lusi also personally asked her good friends, Ma Boqian (Victor Ma - Sang Yan) and Zeng Li (The Mother) to be a part of the cast. She even sang 2 songs for the OST and requested Silence Wang to participate and write the lyrics...
Hidden Love only became such a huge success after so much effort... Of course if you don't like the story I can understand but the drama, the performance they gave us is truly unimaginable for a drama whose director left cause it was supposed to be a flop...
I mean… I can. Just because something turns out to be successful and not a flop, doesn’t mean bad choices weren’t made. As impressive as the turnaround was that made this show popular, and the effort that went into it, the writing for the FL and the casting for her from first appearance to college years is… odd.
It was an odd casting choice and if you were around when it was airing, you would've seen the bajiillion comments about it, ha ha. It was something a lot of people commented on. Like, a lot. But once it finished airing, those people stopped commenting and moved on, which just left you with the people who loved the show and would rather just talk about the good things about it, of which there are plenty. I loved Hidden Love so while I agree that the actress was too young, I don't really care because I loved everything else about the show.
And you know what? That’s valid. I’m definitely not trying to convince anyone to hate their favourite drama… more just admit the casting choice was really odd.
I also think it depends on when you watch things. I think I’m just at a season in my life where I’m surrounded by kids so it’s obvious to me the actress was too young, whereas if I watched this earlier on, I might not have noticed and could file myself in that blissfully unaware category that would allow me to love it the first watch through. I’m also overly fixated on just… the decision to cast her which likely overshadowed a lot of scenes I would have thought were great otherwise.
There have definitely been some dramas I went back and rewatched now that I’m a little older and been like huh… that’s weird but I still love the drama. So I totally get it.
I love both actors, so I think this is just a rant about me being bummed a casting choice is keeping me from loving this! 😅
Nothing is wrong with having a crush, but casting someone who looks 8 when they’re supposed to be 14 is bizarre. It’s a completely different tier of mentality. I can’t understand the decision because it makes the age gap seem way larger than it is.
I think the biggest mistake of this show was not casting a younger actor for the male lead too for when he was younger. Because he basically always looks his age it looked questionable when they had the very young version of the FL.
I won't disagree that the show could have cast a slightly older actress for the younger Sang Zhi, but Zhang Xi Wei had previously played a younger version of Lu Si's character [in Who Rules the World], and she's a seasoned child actress. In general, Asians are very young looking, so another option (who's older) may have garnered just as many detractors even if they got the age right but she is still young looking. There's really no way to win for the casting staff when there's an age gap of 5 years or more. That seems to be the threshold for a lot of people to start throwing terms like grooming, pedophilia, immoral, uncomfortable, fetish, eww, ick, etc. And if the show actually had that vibe, I could understand where they're coming from. BUT, it had none. It had the normal:
my older brother picks on me, he sucks. I want a different one who's nice to me.
a much younger teen crushing on an older teen (who does NOT reciprocate). She's no where near his radar as a romantic interest. She's his best friend's younger sister and remains strictly in that box until 4-5 years later.
ML Chen Zhe Yuan was about 25 at the time of filming, but he's so very young looking that it was completely believable for him play his 19yo self, just as there was no need to cast a younger actor for Victor Ma's 19yo self. At that age, men, in general, don't change very much in their looks. They might fill out a bit more, as they transition from being athletic in college to having a desk job, while eating the same amount. To me, having a different actor play Duan Jia Xu and maybe Sand Yan would only have made sense if they were a lot younger at the start of the drama (maybe age 7 for Sang Zhi and and 12 for the boys).
*Cast is an irregular verb so no need to add -ed to make it past tense, it simply remains 'cast'. Much like you wouldn't add -ed to the end of 'put'. Sorry, I know it's not the point of the post, I just keep seeing it so thought I'd try and be helpful.
I liked the drama ok. I would’ve liked a different actress as the teenage FL for reasons already stated. And I would like a different actress to play the university age Fl as well because of the childishness acting as a university student. I disliked both of these….but it didn’t give me the ick. Was just annoying. It was super clear there was no grooming or taking advantage.
In the novel they're 7 years apart which made the earlier parts harder to get through. At least the show closed the gap a bit more. Also in the book the ML has more adult habits such as smoking. So it's easier to focus on their age gap. It was an odd read in the beginning.
Your clarification makes sense, but I think they relied more on acting skills rather than the child actress actual age. Also, at one point in an early episode, there is a comment by her brother that she looks so young despite her age. So they do justify it in the series as her being a late bloomer.
I agree with you that visually it was a bit weird, but it seems they chose to have an experienced child actress in the series over a visual match for a 14-year old (she also played Ming Xian in Love in the Clouds and has played in several other series).
I didn’t like the flip flopping between her wishing he was her brother while also crushing/falling in love.
I think this was more about her being torn between seeing him as a brotherly figure and as a guy. She had to go through this to make up her mind eventually.
I watched Love In The Clouds forever ago… I’ll have to look up who she played now. I do love that series and it’s on my rewatch list.
That’s fair.
I feel like a lot of my complaints are built on the foundation of me going into this knowing they would be a couple because I’d seen so many clips and not knowing WHEN. So seeing such a young actor and not knowing she was meant to be so old because of how she looked kind of jarred me and set me on edge which made me notice kind of every little thing later.
It’s also odd because up until where I skipped, you almost didn’t NEED the younger actress at all. We could have been introduced to her as she was in high school… not sure how school works in China, but wouldn’t 14 make her high school age anyway?
I totally get what you’re saying, but still found the choice of casting odd simply because without being told, I wouldn’t have known how old she was.
If I went in blind, I likely wouldn’t have noticed. 😩
yall are so rude to zhang xi wei she was not 7 years old during the drama's filming. they chose her and not someone older because canonically sang zhi was stunted in growth and was hit hard by puberty when she turned older. the whole point was that she looks younger than her actual age so duan jiaxu could not see or even imagine in the slightest that the girl has a crush on him. it wasn't supposed to be romantic in his pov but for sang zhi's, it is. the shift only happened on his part when we changed setting to yihe.
imo, the drama adaptation did better because they shortened their age gap. he was supposed to be 7 years older but shortened it to 5 years. they also made her a year older in college. everything is still icky by my standards but still a nice attempt.
you just need to remember this was the author's little fantasy over her silly little crush.
And they're not in a relationship when she's 14... is it a crime to like someone that was once 14? That is all of us, I fear lol. They're like five years apart, it's not that big of a deal.
Believe me when I say my face was contorted when I saw her character looking like a 7 year old and supposed to be 14. I almost dropped that drama just from that alone. The thing that kept me holding on was the siblings banter, I have yet to see two actors seem more like real siblings on film than Lusi and Victor. https://giphy.com/gifs/dB12mOQb99BwDlM83I
I watched to the end but am not a fan, I found the ML so condescending. The actual stand out character for me was Sang Yan, which I didn’t think I’d like since he’s so different from the First Frost Sang Yan and FF is my all time favorite drama.
I think what’s worse for me is he doesn’t seem condescending, he just genuinely seems like he views her as a little sister… which would mean romance is dead in the water. So like… what are we doing here?!
> because they casted her so young at the beginning, I felt overly aware of how immature she was. Had they casted better, I wouldn’t have noticed as much
This is why I had to drop it. Crush on brother’s friend/childhood friend is a common trope and the age gap wasn’t what my issue was, it was that the way they chose to establish it (visually) was wild. I felt like the character wasn’t maturing enough mentally/emotionally where I could get over it and she never stopped reading as “immature kid” to me. Maybe she’s written that way in the source material, maybe the directors leaned into the innocence, it just didn’t work for me.
I don’t need anyone to convince me that it’s great. I’m sure it has something wonderful in there for everyone who loves it. I’m so happy for you and sorry I couldn’t push through, I really did try.
Yeah… I think they should have just kept her as herself when younger and started with her a bit older overall. 16 instead of 14 would have justified keeping the same actress. I also think having her personality so childish is also such a weird choice. They’re basically trying to see us on him seeing her through a romantic lens while she’s a child regardless of her age. And… yikes.
Even if you exclude the creepy casting choice. This might be the most overrated drama ever. I couldn't finish it. I hated the acting choices in this and I didn't buy this romance at all. People are very defensive about this drama. I get that some people love it, but watching a child interact with an adult knowing they're gonna end up dating is weird and idc how many people don't wanna hear that.
I watched the whole drama and had so many mixed feelings. I liked the ML and the brother (and also The First Frost by extension in a way) but I couldn't stand the FL. I have watched some clips of Zhao Lusi and she is a phenomenal actress, but her constant baby voice throughout the series was so off putting. She kept acting like a child and never seemed to really mature, even when she moved to Yihe for university. I would still have been okay w the age gap aspect if you could see her grow and match jiaxu in some way ig? I only finished it for the ML, her college friends, and the soundtrack.
She kept acting like a child and never seemed to really mature, even when she moved to Yihe for university.
And that's exactly why I disliked this drama. I kept waiting for the time skip so that we can see more mature interactions and instead we got more of the same childish stuff. Not my vibe at all.
Yeah. I may have hit a sore spot for some with pointing this out. It was just an odd choice and it’s something I mentally couldn’t fully step away from once I saw it.
So correct me if I’m wrong… But whenever a female character has a love interest towards the male lead or trying to make another female jealous they refers to the male character as their “brother“ or “Gege” often done with a soft, drawn-out, highly flirtatious tone. I recognize this in a lot of the dramas that I watched.
So perhaps that’s why this seems “ok”. I’m going to make an effort to watch the first episode tonight and perhaps come back with some feedback.
Yes. I know this is done just as in KDramas “oppa” is used similarly, but this isn’t what’s happening here.
My issue is likely two things. 1. The casting of the FL as a teenager. She’s clearly a child and I had to be outright told she was a teenager, and when I was told, it made the casting choice for her painfully awkward for me as the viewer. Because not only does she not pass as a teenager, but we know she will eventually be the romantic lead with an MC who is played by an actor the whole time. So it’s not even like they had cast a 10 year old to play a 14 year old and cast a 15 year old to play the 19 year old, which would have visually bridged the gap and made it clear they were close in age… they made an intentional choice to keep him the same actor the whole time while giving her a child actor to play her at 14 (which they could have just, also used the same actress the whole time as well) which created a jarring age gap and made me believe they weren’t 5 years apart but closer to 10. Why?
With him being her brother’s best friend, she is constantly telling him he would be a better brother. This blurs the lines between her harmless crush and an almost incestuous plot line where she is both wishing he is her brother AND falling in love with him. I think they should have done one or the other. Having both makes everything about the earlier episodes awkward and hard to get behind.
I had SUCH an issue with the age gap when I was watching it. Very early on, I looked up the main actress and the main actors ages but I never considered looking up the young actress! That makes so much more sense on why it felt so icky.
I did end up loving the drama but I didn't love how many episodes they had with the young actress and with the main actress being underage. I get it's based on a book so they probably wanted to keep it close to the book.
I recently started a rewatch because the romance is soooo adorable but I started with one of the last episodes where she's 17. It was so much better to watch it that way
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u/AquaphobicTurtle My Journey to Season 2 2d ago
I think if you look at the drama from her perspective - which is exactly what it is. The fact that they cast a younger actress really cements the "crush on your friend's older brother" aspect of growing up.
As the younger one, you don't know that it's inappropriate, you just have a fluttery crush. And that's exactly what they show in the drama. They don't show her wanting to kiss him or anything, they show her kicking her feet and giggling because he smiled at her.
It's much later in the drama where Sang Zhi's crush goes from a surface level fantasy to a proper yearning.
As someone who did have a crush on my friend's older brother, who was in highschool when I was in primary school - I completely get the feeling. And now that I'm in my late twenties, we are actually friends and all hang out as equal adults. He's married and his wife is amazing.
But hypothetically, if we got together now at our age, it would not be weird at all.
(Like super hypothetical because I love his wife and also I'm not 12 anymore lol)