Reel Tastes & Travels – a light dose of entertainment to wake you up

Finally, finally, we get to see Chong’s backstory. And it definitely helps explain the apparent contradiction between his adamant refusal to rejoin the national team and his comfort with doing all sorts of stunts during the various pseudo- match-ups we’ve seen in the earlier episodes. I had initially thought it was PTSD from his accident that was holding him back, but that didn’t seem to be the case since his hesitation only appeared to be about going professional again, rather than the sport itself.

But now we know that the accident happened during a competition that Chong was participating in so that he could use the prize money to get his sister prosthetics. It’s implied that the added pressure he put on himself caused him to overwork, potentially contributing to the accident itself. However, it is not fear, but rather guilt holding him back. The accident was devastating to him of course, but maybe even more so to his family – to his sister, who blamed herself since he was competing for her, and to his parents.

As a parent, I can empathize with his mother during these flashbacks. I can almost imagine the push and pull of her emotions from the moment he first started snowboarding, her awareness of the dangers of the sport wrestling with her desire to be supportive of his passions and talent. But having seen her (almost) worst fears realized with the accident, she is unwilling to fight herself anymore and just wants him to be safe and whole. And Chong sees that and understands and chooses to sacrifice his career and ambitions and walk away from the national team. I’m not sure why he doesn’t explain his reasons to the coach but perhaps he was trying to further shield his parents from any criticisms arising from his decision.s him, so it nice to see her get to know him as a brother, as a son, as just another person. And of course, provides for tons of romantic moments. Their relationship may be a slow burn right now, but that doesn’t mean there is a lack of swoonworthy happenings! 

Meanwhile, Zhi returns home to an ‘enthusiastic’ (to say the least!) welcome from Jiang Nanfeng’s brother, Yiming. On the face of it, Yiming seems like a nice guy – well-off, successful, helpful, supportive of her career as a comic artist and clearly head over heels for her. But on closer examination, there were multiple red flags, small ones to be sure and easy to overlook but they add up. Yes, he claims to support her art but he is also a tad patronizing about it, first calling it a hobby and then reassuring her that he can support her if she can’t make money off it (which might be a sweet thought if they were actually going out and money was a concern of hers but here she neither brings it up, nor shows any inclination to take him up on his offer). He is also dismissive of her interests (extoling the virtues of skiing over snowboarding despite the fact that she has just mentioned her interest in the latter) and doesn’t really seem to know how to connect with her despite their long-standing friendship since childhood.

But the biggest, most glaring red flag is his persistence in chasing her despite her very obvious lack of interest in him that way. Dude, if she is actively ducking your embrace, asking you not to sit next to her (even if under the guise of wanting to catch up with his sister), and trying to dodge a car ride with you, then read my lips… She is NOT THAT INTO YOU!!!

Could Zhi be more direct about her refusal? Of course, but we’ve seen already that direct confrontation is not really her style. Add to that her mom’s not so subtle encouragement of the match, her long standing relationship with his family and that he hasn’t actually come out and asked her out or proposed to her, and she’s stuck in a sort of limbo of politeness. But she is trying to draw some lines in the sand despite that which Yiming is willfully ignoring so I can’t even feel any sympathy for his eventual heartbreak. Bring back Chong and some more sweet romantic moments between our two leads! Or at least let’s get the ball rolling on the comic competition storyline.

Stray Musings

• Chong and Shan are peak sibling energy in this episode – of course Shen catches on to Chong’s feelings towards Zhi and of course, in typical little sister fashion, can’t resist pulling his leg about it!
• Zhi has finished assembling her team and now gets started on the actual work of the comic. Meanwhile, Manman continue to struggle with her feeling of inferiority compared to Zhi, not helped by Tiger Comics’ dismissive attitude towards her. It also leads her to ignore the sincere advice from her editor (a past mentor of sorts to Zhi) to create something she’s passionate about, in favor of catering to populist trends. That’s definitely not going to come back to bite her
• In a throwaway scene, Tiger Comics lawyer confirms that they hold all the copyrights to Zhi’s past work but mentions they are vulnerable to being sued since the contract terms are so unfair. Makes me wonder why Zhi and Jiang didn’t even consider that avenue when the whole mess started, especially given their business family background