Beloved Enemy
I came across a short edit of Beloved Enemy and it looked interesting so I thought I would give the whole series a try.
Summary: Corporate gun Gu Qing Pei is poached by a huge investment conglomerate to act as CEO. His job is theoretically to restructure the company and look for business opportunities, but in practice the Chairman wants Gu Qing Pei to act as a business teacher to his wayward violent son Yuan Yang. Gu Qing Pei takes on the job but stipulates that he must have total freedom in the way he deals with Yuan Yang, including removing his access to money. Yuan Yang reacts extremely violently but realises that he has essentially been trapped into working with Gu Qing Pei. He enlists the help of his friends to bring down Gu Qing Pei by any means possible, so that Gu Qing Pei will then resign and Yuan Yang can be free again. One of their plans goes horribly wrong, and has serious repercussions for Yuan Yang, Gu Qing Pei and the company.
This show starts off as if it's a BL drama, there are certainly plenty of elements that would point in that direction. However the series quickly veers off in other directions, with its primary focus soon resting on the misfortunes and successes of the company's business. This could have been an interesting story in itself, and it is up to a point, but it's clear that the screenplay has had a complete rewrite to move the focus away from the Yuan Yang / Gu Qing Pei relationship. My guess would be the change is due to Chinese government censorship of the gay themes inherent in BL. The series struggles very early on as a result of this sudden split personality and never recovers. I definitely did not watch Beloved Enemy with a view to obtaining a half-baked insight into Chinese business strategies and practices. So while Gu Qing Pei and Yuan Yang may have had the initial hatred-to-friendship trajectory that suggests something much more emotionally involved later on, this theme is entirely dropped from the series and never picked up again. All we're left with is an overcooked melodrama acting as a corporate espionage thriller.
There's also a strong suggestion of rape that goes virtually unremarked upon, except that it will destroy the life of both the perpetrator and the victim if the story is made public. This is diabolically evil and still makes me angry every time I see it in an Asian BL drama. What on earth makes the writers think that rape and sexual assault are viable plot devices to bring characters closer? Why does the Chinese government not censor something so obviously offensive, but is instead happy to destroy a screenplay that has any hint of gay love in it?
There are some good elements to the series, such as the wonderfully offbeat character of Gu Qing Pei's friend's sister Ruan, the way the show deals with Gu Qing Pei's ex-wife, and the formidable costumes. Do Chinese businessmen really wear suits that are so magnificently crass? Production values are also impressively high. Unfortunately there's no chemistry at all between the actors playing Yuan Yang and Gu Qing Pei, and there are no subplots to distract us from the drudgery of the corporate drama.
Give this one a miss.
Rating: 7 out of 20.
Ending: honestly, who cares? There's no BL, so there's no couple to speak of.
Summary: Corporate gun Gu Qing Pei is poached by a huge investment conglomerate to act as CEO. His job is theoretically to restructure the company and look for business opportunities, but in practice the Chairman wants Gu Qing Pei to act as a business teacher to his wayward violent son Yuan Yang. Gu Qing Pei takes on the job but stipulates that he must have total freedom in the way he deals with Yuan Yang, including removing his access to money. Yuan Yang reacts extremely violently but realises that he has essentially been trapped into working with Gu Qing Pei. He enlists the help of his friends to bring down Gu Qing Pei by any means possible, so that Gu Qing Pei will then resign and Yuan Yang can be free again. One of their plans goes horribly wrong, and has serious repercussions for Yuan Yang, Gu Qing Pei and the company.
This show starts off as if it's a BL drama, there are certainly plenty of elements that would point in that direction. However the series quickly veers off in other directions, with its primary focus soon resting on the misfortunes and successes of the company's business. This could have been an interesting story in itself, and it is up to a point, but it's clear that the screenplay has had a complete rewrite to move the focus away from the Yuan Yang / Gu Qing Pei relationship. My guess would be the change is due to Chinese government censorship of the gay themes inherent in BL. The series struggles very early on as a result of this sudden split personality and never recovers. I definitely did not watch Beloved Enemy with a view to obtaining a half-baked insight into Chinese business strategies and practices. So while Gu Qing Pei and Yuan Yang may have had the initial hatred-to-friendship trajectory that suggests something much more emotionally involved later on, this theme is entirely dropped from the series and never picked up again. All we're left with is an overcooked melodrama acting as a corporate espionage thriller.
There's also a strong suggestion of rape that goes virtually unremarked upon, except that it will destroy the life of both the perpetrator and the victim if the story is made public. This is diabolically evil and still makes me angry every time I see it in an Asian BL drama. What on earth makes the writers think that rape and sexual assault are viable plot devices to bring characters closer? Why does the Chinese government not censor something so obviously offensive, but is instead happy to destroy a screenplay that has any hint of gay love in it?
There are some good elements to the series, such as the wonderfully offbeat character of Gu Qing Pei's friend's sister Ruan, the way the show deals with Gu Qing Pei's ex-wife, and the formidable costumes. Do Chinese businessmen really wear suits that are so magnificently crass? Production values are also impressively high. Unfortunately there's no chemistry at all between the actors playing Yuan Yang and Gu Qing Pei, and there are no subplots to distract us from the drudgery of the corporate drama.
Give this one a miss.
Rating: 7 out of 20.
Ending: honestly, who cares? There's no BL, so there's no couple to speak of.
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