The Forbidden Flower (2023)

A confused happy heart

The gradual unfolding of the love story of the 2 leads provided time for character development. The pace was slow but the beautiful ost filled in any gaps and kept the story moving.

The ending was ambiguous. I choose to be positive. Xiao Han was willing to wait how ever long He Ran needed. So many things pointed to a possible good outcome. The symbolism with the two fish and the special plant opening and the 2 cups with toothbrushes implied waiting and then that they would be together. The abundant fields of pink flowers implied that when all other blooms were dormant, these would bloom late. Xiao Han was pensive but then again he had a quiet considering personality.

Others may see the ending in a sadder perspective. I, however, choose to see that year separation as a time of healing. The slow smile and the embrace in the fields of flowers indicates that their love was meant to last.

There is a mention of a season 2. Frankly, I would prefer it be more focused on He Ran's mother and Zhang's relationship. This romantic melodrama didn't really strike me as "a slice of life" genre. But, their relationship seems to be conflicted yet passionate. It has room for development.

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I will start with the ending.... because what was that 😭🤣 I really would have preferred something a little more clear, though I think that it was a sequence. Like he imagined her, she died but she never left his side metaphorically...? I don't know.

Anyway, I watched "Count Your Lucky Stars" and really wasn't a big Jerry Yan fan, but I have to admit that he was really good in this show. He looked super handsome, the long hair suits him well (minus the extra volume though....), and his styling was much better in this show. I thought it was almost comical how he almost doesn't really talk but overall I enjoyed his calm demeanor.

He Ran was a cute girl, but she could be a meanie when she was jealous lmao. I also think that her pursuing Xiao Han was quite.... intense and intolerable at times, she seemed super obsessive and almost stalkerish at times. But the actress did a really great job playing the character. She is youthful and absolutely stunning, conveyed emotions very well and had great chemistry with Jerry Yan! Loved that a lot.

Another thing that was STUNNING was the music as well as the beautiful cinematography. Just for that, the drama is already worth watching. Just stunning to watch in general. The wedding scene in the last episode was also just mesmerizing and beautiful, wow. The actress looked soso pretty in the traditonal costume and the whole ceremony was just filmed so nicely.

I skipped all of the mom's story and love-plot because I didn't care, I also HEAVILY disliked Han Yu. He was so delusional, I don't know why he bothered He Ran all the time. If someone showed disinterest THAT obviously to me, I would just call it a day. He just never read the room....

Overall, this was a surprisingly SPICY (??? omg) show, the acting was great from the leads, but the ending was only so-so for me. Highlights were the female lead's acting, the OST, and the cinematography.

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Beautifully shot, incredibly stupid

This is what people who've never been outside think romance is.

Of course it's inappropriate to pair a child with a middle aged man, but the even bigger problem is that their story is BORING. she's chasing him all the way to his village, when all he wants is to be alone and have that beer. she's stalking his work, she gets jealous and possesive in an incredibly immature manner, and this somehow is romantic. wow, sign me up

The only interesting part (hence the 4 stars, otherwise it would be 1 star), is the journey of the mother character. we get to see her protective but overbearing side while dealing with a sick child and the toll it takes on her. how strong she should be to support her daughter and hide all of this from her career. the relationship with the guy is so cute, they meet when she's at her lowest, shamefully shoving chicken in the storage room and he falls in love. cute as hell

TL;DR: the whole show looks stunning, yet it's laughably empty

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This is going to be a long review with parts that can be considered spoiler-ish.

The novel was written in Rococo style. What does that mean?
'...perhaps the most rebellious of design styles. It was exceptionally ornamental and theatrical – a style without rules. Compared to the refinement and seriousness of Classical style, Rococo was seen as superficial, degenerate and illogical..'

As the novel's synopsis states, '...In that year, she was beautiful and he was not old; after that year, she was eternally beautiful and he finally got old...' there's no more explanation of how this drama goes. At least the director/producer decided to at least take out/change the secondary EVIL male. The drama still ends up starting off nutso though.

From the first episodes, I wrote that this drama felt art nouveau due to the flowery sensual vibe of the scenery and cinematography. Towards the end, knowing this is based on a novel, I wanted a clearer understanding of what's happening that this drama isn't conveying well to me due to so many blank/black screen and poor choices in editing. I was utterly confused by any timeline or fullness of any particular scene. Majority of the time it felt like a scene left something missing. The fact that art nouveau was influenced by Rococo is not lost on me. I think this is why I find this drama to be a mess in many ways. Rococo is all about fantasy and illusions which this drama has in boatloads...topping it off with a grown ass alcoholic prancing her fantasies in front of a mirror rather than living in reality.

"The Rococo writing style is like lyrical poetry in which erotic, elegant and frivolous aspects are reinforced and exposed with dyes towards sensuality." The themes are based in more mischievous and festive aspects of daily life, using sensual pleasures that lack any seriousness or any particular etiquette or moralizations. To this style, the drama fit the novel to a "T". Jerry Yan, with the looks so many women seem to love, playing this main character along with a young actress who does fun-loving and flower sprite fairy so well doesn't surprise me that this drama got higher ratings than I'm willing to give. I have to admit, I am not one that has ever been in the Jerry Yan fan boat, however, I don't dislike his acting etc where appropriate. As Rococo style exemplifies, there wasn't much depth to Jerry's Xiao Han so I'm actually impressed how much more feeling he put into that character than I think was actually written on paper. High ratings go for the thousands of intimate scenes, touches, caresses, kisses, etc that all looked and felt REAL which is unusual in C-Drama territory. The OTP didn't shy away from being in each others arms very intimately. I also think this tickled a lot of girl's fantasies and bolstered the ratings.

I thought about giving this drama a higher rating than this because I watched it all the way through without FFWD any part of it. However, this drama actually did not illicit any emotions from me whatsoever. I felt more like I was watching a train wreck so I detached myself from being invested in pretty much anything the characters were doing.

I didn't understand why the family let that fool Han Yu go on and on obsessively like he did, almost encouraging it. Between her mother and Han Yu, 'family' relationships were so suffocating.

It took the drama too long to provide a background to why this family is so utterly broken. We get pieces here and there... Even worse Xiao Han doesn't even get all the pieces the viewer had gotten slowly until the very, VERY end. Xiao Han was too kind and good for the world this drama created. He Ran was too selfish to the very end. The only saving grace was her mom's psycho attitude got vindicated. We got to fully understand why she's such a broken person, but like her daughter's attitude to Xiao Han, even at the end I felt like she's the type to never believe anything happy should happen to her. That kind of depression is taxing on a human emotionally who is there trying to prove to them otherwise. I'd rather a boy live a fresh, clean life, with his lively, loving family and someone who properly fits into that happy world. He doesn't deserve the Rococo style of pure eroticism and superficial pleasure from a human who cannot ever give him anything more than that emotionally.

I stuck with the ending from the source material. If the way it was written was worthy of a drama, then let it be. I didn't get any emotional healing from it. I didn't see anyone grow emotionally. The choices were selfish. Having to make choices between happiness or suffering, being together to go through life's events, or crawl in a hole and everyone doing their own individual thing struggling on their own. The choices made weren't healing. They were torture and emotional abuse to everyone involved. There was absolutely NO peace in it whatsoever. She can go all the way to the highest altitude with him but he can't go with her on her journey? Made no sense. He is an esteemed horticulturalist despite his reasons for being a recluse. Are we saying he can't get a job internationally or something like that??? It's just archaic crazy talk. This is 2023 ffs.

The openness of the ending was to compensate for the fact that the story is a bitter train wreck where no one comes out of it truly okay. It was for those who watched not knowing the source material, like myself, to make up for having stuck it out watching this expecting to see a Silver Lining somewhere in it all...only to find none. I guess the best part was that the music 100% fit everything the drama took us through.

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Age doesn't MATTER because when your heart beats it

First of all, I just wanna write how I badly needed a 2nd season. This drama has left me bruised and empty for weeks and can't even watch any other drama without thinking of both He Ran and Xiao Han. I think I'm in love with the story, plot, casting and everything that makes up this drama.

To anyone wondering if it's worth watching, well, I'll d*mn say, its iffin worth your time! This made me more appreciative of how versatile Jerry Yan acts. I've finished watching 'Meteor Garden' and 'Count Your Lucky Stars' but Xu Ruo Han and Jerry Yan's chemistry is on another level. Especially when He Ran said 'I love you' and Xiao Han cried. You can see the love in his eyes and for that part, it felt like he wasn't acting but instead, genuinely confessing his feelings for Cici. It amazed me how Jerry Yan expressed so much love that even I as an audience could feel it.

This drama left a deep impression on my heart. I'll definitely rewatch again but maybe I need months to calm down and get back to it. Have fun and savor every moment of 'The Forbidden Flower'!!!

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<3

Despite the basic cdrama tropes still being present slightly, the overall major storyline is very nice and I enjoyed it a lot. It made me cry, it made me smile.... I loved the OSTs too.

The only thing I would've said is, the male lead doesn't really speak much (I don't think he's fully Chinese/raised in China? I could be wrong) so it loses a lot of its effect. Some people were commenting about how nice the male lead's voice was, but it personally wasn't for me. The female lead was a perfect actress though - from her emotions to her body language. I loved her so much.

The rewatch value is slightly lower though. The first few episodes were slow to get into, and I only started watching this because I watched a YouTube edit of this cdrama.

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Don’t waste your time. Bad pairing for main CP. Jerry Yan is so bad in this drama

I think Jerry Yan is too old to match with xử Rou Hàn in this drama. I understand it is a forbidden love between middle aged man and a younger, but their onscreen chemistry was horrible.

The story is so slow and draggy. I watched 6 episodes and I can no longer continue with it.

I wish Jerry Yan acts in better role that fit his age, something with mature relationship. Perhaps play a divorcée or widow dad, instead of RomCom where he is teaming up with actresses half his age.

Don’t waste your time with this drama in my opinion, and the supporting cast is also horrible, especially the mom.

Too bad, I really like the FL in Perfect and Casual with Miles Wei, a better pairing. I am dropping it and give it a 3.0 rating.

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Why is the rating so high?

I was super excited about another Jerry Yan series. I haven't watched anything recent of his so I was excited when this show was airing. Sadly, my excitement died down and I could not digest what I was watching. It's slow...like super slow. A story about a young girl falling in love with a mysterious man. I'm in 6 episodes and I'm sick of the long scenes of Jerry Yan looking hot. In my head, I'm playing behind the scenes of him crackling up as they film these.

I read an article that the directors were fans of his since Meteor Garden. I felt this was just a fan girl directing a fan service show. I had the impression that this was meant for them to reminisce about him during those years, especially his headband...he wore a lot of headbands during MG. And those slow supposedly sexy scenes of him... I was laughing the entire time. I think they were trying to make him look good but I couldn't help but shake my head.

The FL was very disappointing. For someone young and daring and wanting to fall in love I didn't sense that. Instead, I felt she was like a little girl just curious about a mysterious man. Also, another disappointment that I was rolling my eyes at half the time was the foreshadowing of her having cancer or some sort of sickness and was going to die soon. It is SLOW and BORING. I wouldn't recommend it even if you like Jerry. Dropping this series.

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Stunning Visuals Can't Mask Shallow Plot

I really get confused when it comes to the rating of any Cdrama. I haven't watched many but the majority I found rating should be at least 1.5 points less. this drama is no different. the only good thing here is super sexy Jerry Yan, oh yes also the cinematography. I am halfway, and now keeping it on hold as it's very boring. I will complete it sometime later but now I can't keep it going anymore.

Positive Aspects:

1. Jerry Yan's charismatic performance.
2. Impressive cinematography.
3. Beautiful locations, especially scenes on top of the mountain.

Negative Aspects:

1. Lack of character development.
2. Shallow relationships and lack of depth.
3. Absence of chemistry between the leads.
4. FL's lack of likability and depth.
5. Missing backstory and logic behind character actions.
6. Supporting characters' dullness. (though there aren't any significant ones)
7. There is no intriguing story, just some sexual tension between two leads that runs on for half of the drama.

Overall Assessment:
The drama falls short in various aspects. While it excels in visuals and Jerry Yan's performance, it lacks character development, relationship depth, and chemistry between the leads. The main female character's lack of likability and depth can be attributed to weak writing. The supporting characters also fail to engage the viewer. The drama's potential might have been better realized in a shorter format like a 2-hour movie rather than a series.

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