Revive: Rebirth of An Obsession

I just watched the Chinese drama, "Revive"  recently after it came numerous times on my YouTube "Up Next" playlist. What piqued my interest in the beginning was the premise of the story: the fantastical element of being reborn into another person's body. Of course, I knew that I had to suspend my disbelief in order to watch this drama, because if reincarnation was even possible, then a lot of us would have the chance to right our wrongs, and do the things we intend to do in our past life, and do it in the new life. But not every second chance in life would let us freely do the things without repercussions, because other factors are at play that are beyond our control. You may want to do something without realizing the effect that your actions will make, and it may not turn out as you want them to be.

But I digress. This is about the drama, so I will get to the plot. Primarily, just because the title is "Revive", and is based on a novel, Reincarnation of a Superstar, does not mean reincarnation in the mythical sense. It did not begin as a supernatural or a spiritual transmigration, but  this rebirth is done by a human being using technological resources. We will find that this rebirth is a ploy by a sinister mind, trying to get revenge on his brother who wronged him in the past.  The mastermind, Li Chen , just so happened to be at the crash scene at the very beginning, in order to switch the bodies of Du Fei, and Mu Zi Che. With the resources at hand, he was able to implant Du Fei's brain / thoughts / memories into the latter's body. The logical me is saying "Yeah, right" when this happened, questioning the sheer impossibility of it, but then I remembered, that this is only fiction, and just to go along with it.

With that said, Du Fei becomes Yun Xiu, adopting his birth name, as Du Fei was his stage name when he was an aspiring actor whose life was cut short at the hands of his bestie, Xie Yi. The so-called best friend was actually harboring a jealous heart because he deemed that he was getting the short end of the stick, with Du Fei getting more roles and accolades than he was, despite being the better actor, or so Xie Yi thought. Also compounding the fact that Xie Yi's ladylove, Lin Xuan is actually in love with Du Fei, despite being friends for years. And this is also my problem, that it was only after Du Fei's "death," that Du Fei as Yun Xiu, acted upon his feelings. He probably thought he had all the time in the world, and pretty much Lin Xuan's love for him is a given, that Du Fei did not even bother to progress that friendship into a relationship while he was alive. So thus he spent his new life trying to make up lost ground, trying to woo back his love, but there were some obstacles in the way.

Enter Liu Yi, a girl who cannot take "no" for an answer, even when clearly Mu Zi Che, while he was alive, rebuffed her coldly. Maybe she thought he was just playing hard to get, so she equally and vehemently latched on to the new and gentler version of Mu Zi Che, and took his politeness as a sign that his feelings might be changing. Her childishness, despite being a full-fledged adult, astounds me. Or maybe because she is so used to rejection after being vilified several times in public, that it became second nature to her. I think if Mu Zi Che/Yun Xiu was readily available, Liu Yi would have already lost interest, and it is the challenge that she craves. I have to give her credit though, that eventually, she grew up in the end, and realize that letting go is also a form of love.

Let's get back to Lin Xuan, the love of Du Fei's life. Now she is a more mature character than Liu Yi, perhaps because she has been longer in the limelight, or just because it is in her character. She can hold up her own against Xie Yi and does not let him push her around. So it was also refreshing to see that despite appearances, she breaks down when it comes to Du Fei. Her longing for him was almost painstaking to watch and despite Yun Xiu's resemblance to Du Fei's demeanor, she did not jump into his arms.Sadly though, nice guys (or girls) finish last. Fate was not so kind to her. But I think I could not entirely blame fate for her untimely disappearance as she also made that decision on her own.

I am not too keen on the other minor characters, Amanda, Chu Feng, Li Xiao, Yuan Yu, and Li Rui's bitchy wife, I forgot her name. Or even the major villains, Xie Yi and Li Chen. The only one that endeared to me was Mu Zi Che's mother, Mu Lan. She eventually knew the fact that the one standing in front of her is not her own son, but an orphan, and yet she equally gave her love to Yun Xiu as if she's her own. She really has a big heart to be accepting of that, in spite of her own son's death. I loved the interaction between mother and son (Yun Xiu)'s. I think it is also because Mu Zi Che did not treat her with the respect that a mother should get, she is taking Yun Xiu's kindness towards her in kind.

Now for the reason that I watched this drama in the first place: the bonding between Yun Xiu and Feng Jing. If we were to look at the original novel's perspective, this should be a Boy's Love drama, but it is not entirely. Sure it lacks the smoldering kisses or the outpouring of romantic love between the two men, but it does not negate the fact that they do rely on each other for support, especially when either party were in the brink of destruction. Yun Xiu gave up his path of revenge after meeting love as he said, but we could not be sure whether he referred to Lin Xuan or Feng Jing, as he said it in the same sentence to Feng Jing: "I met love, I met you."

Just as much Yun Xiu did a lot for other people, Feng Jing gave up more of himself for Yun Xiu. A man with a high sense of pride, Feng Jing swallowed his ego and went around begging for roles to give to Yun Xiu, and even exchanged his hard-earned money just to get Yun Xiu a shot at the Cypress award. He was willing to give up his happiness, and stood by quietly just to see Yun Xiu get married to somebody who is having another man's child. In the end, Lin Xuan leaves Yun Xiu shortly after their marriage, whether to die or to run back to her boyfriend in America, who knows. Somehow, Yun Xiu tries to find her at the beach, because apparently this is quite a popular place where people run off to sulk or drown their sorrows. This must be the place to find people, if you need to find them.

So was being reincarnated worth it? Did Du Fei get a second shot a life and love? If he can predict the future, would he have wanted to come back and find out that Lin Xuan loved him but only left him in the end? What was different? He did not get his revenge on Xie Yi, but maybe because it wasn't as important anymore as he thought it once was. Similarly, Yun Xiu admitted that, though he was grateful, receiving the award he didn't get in his past life, was not as paramount as loving and being loved. At one point, he also said he would rather have all of Feng Jing's love than half of that of his company's. He treated him as a partner and as a family.

Was there a hint of romance brewing between them? In the drama, I can see on Feng Jing's part: he was so protective of Yun Xiu that he was attune to his well-being when he took good care of Yun Xiu when he was sick. Equally, Feng Jing's welfare is on constantly on Yun Xiu's mind. For instance, Yun Xiu spurned Liu Yi's advances during the commercial shoot for a mattress company, but he did not hesitate to bring the  mattress up to Feng Jing's house himself. Instead of asking the company to deliver, he carried the heavy weight across the long hallway because he remembered Feng Jing's comment that he could not sleep well at night.

The searching glances that they throw each other, the back hugs, and the undeniable sense of caring between Yun Xiu and Feng Jing, is to me, what should be the center of the story: their relationship. But because there were so many factors and characters at play, these were somehow lost in the retelling. The drama was trying to satisfy different audiences by packing in so much elements, that you have to pick and choose your "ship," but after watching this, I shipped nobody, except maybe myself and Joe Xu.

Speaking of revival, I chose to review "Revive" because I also went through a rebirth recently, that is the rebirth of an obsession for Boys Love Drama. Back in the day (almost ten years ago), I did watch some BL dramas, mostly Japanese ones. But as the offerings at that time were few and far between, and frankly not so great, I did not become addicted. So I stopped after watching after a dozen or so and went on watching mainstream Asian dramas. It was not until this year when I watched "Love O2O", did I venture again to BLlandia. It was the questionable friendship/bromance between the characters KO and Hao Mei that re-spiked my interest. Their adorable moments together, and the way that KO was very protective of Hao Mei, who in turn was following KO like a dog following its master. I found out later that in the novel, KO and Hao Mei are actually a couple. Their chemistry on-screen was amazing that it made me wonder what goes on behind closed doors. Hao Mei is incidentally played by the same actor who plays Li Xiao, the brother of Li Chen / Li Rui in "Revive".

And so the begins the rebirth of an obsession that seems to grow stronger every day as more BL options are out there from many countries, not just limited to Japan, I'm pretty sure they were out there once, but not as quite popular as today. Perhaps as time wears on, same-sex relationships become more "visible" but not necessarily more "acceptable" as we can see from the attitudes of censors from China and other countries. Here's to hoping one day, that Boys Love (or any type of LGBT theme) is not just a niche genre, but will become part of the norm.