The Outsiders: cliches made fresh
Now that The Outsiders is entirely subbed, my binge has begun and I finished ep 2 this morning (sign you are obsessed: you get up early to watch a drama). While it would probably take an Act of God for a drama to remove Mars from my list as the best twdrama, I think The Outsiders just might end up at number 2.
This is an irresistibly star-crossed story that I am sure will end in tragedy but is not in the least depressing or weepy. Yu Yen, in her last year of high school, is the sheltered daughter of a good family who is on a track of becoming a professional concert pianist. But her ordered life gets derailed when she falls for Ah Hao, the baddest boy in school, who leads his own gang. On the surface, it’s the cliché set-up of sheltered good girl falling for the bad boy, with tragic consequences for everyone, but it’s really not that at all.
But the thing is, this is not a story about women wanting what’s bad for them or some other stupid thing. You understand perfectly why Yu Yen falls for Ah Hao. Not only is he good-looking (oh BOY), but he is considerate of her (in fact he is perfectly willing to risk his life to protect her), and they have fun together. And for Ah Hao, Yu Yen is a beautiful fragile Madonna, something unsullied in the rough life of his. (They are both so terribly young).
And yet Ah Hao is a bad boy in the literal meaning of the term. He is not misunderstood. He is not someone who would be better with the love of a good woman. As nice as he is in his personal interactions, he has no hesitations about being a small time gang guy or indulging in violent fights with other crooks.
But (and that is why there is an operatic inevitability to it), it is the meeting between Yu Yan and An Hao that sets the escalating inevitable cycle in motion. He only gets entangled with the real gangsters as a result of trying to protect her. But she wouldn’t need protection in the first place if she hadn’t met him.
But then (and here is why it’s a tragedy, really), this was all set in stone from when she first came across someone trying to kill him in one of small-time gang fights and saved him. She didn’t even know him. It’s unsolvable as a good person could not possibly walk by and leave a person to be killed. And then of course he felt he had to repay the debt. All this was set even before they fell in love.
This is incredibly awesome and pitch-perfect and has super awesome guy friendship and star-crossed love and everything I want.
This is an irresistibly star-crossed story that I am sure will end in tragedy but is not in the least depressing or weepy. Yu Yen, in her last year of high school, is the sheltered daughter of a good family who is on a track of becoming a professional concert pianist. But her ordered life gets derailed when she falls for Ah Hao, the baddest boy in school, who leads his own gang. On the surface, it’s the cliché set-up of sheltered good girl falling for the bad boy, with tragic consequences for everyone, but it’s really not that at all.
But the thing is, this is not a story about women wanting what’s bad for them or some other stupid thing. You understand perfectly why Yu Yen falls for Ah Hao. Not only is he good-looking (oh BOY), but he is considerate of her (in fact he is perfectly willing to risk his life to protect her), and they have fun together. And for Ah Hao, Yu Yen is a beautiful fragile Madonna, something unsullied in the rough life of his. (They are both so terribly young).
And yet Ah Hao is a bad boy in the literal meaning of the term. He is not misunderstood. He is not someone who would be better with the love of a good woman. As nice as he is in his personal interactions, he has no hesitations about being a small time gang guy or indulging in violent fights with other crooks.
But (and that is why there is an operatic inevitability to it), it is the meeting between Yu Yan and An Hao that sets the escalating inevitable cycle in motion. He only gets entangled with the real gangsters as a result of trying to protect her. But she wouldn’t need protection in the first place if she hadn’t met him.
But then (and here is why it’s a tragedy, really), this was all set in stone from when she first came across someone trying to kill him in one of small-time gang fights and saved him. She didn’t even know him. It’s unsolvable as a good person could not possibly walk by and leave a person to be killed. And then of course he felt he had to repay the debt. All this was set even before they fell in love.
This is incredibly awesome and pitch-perfect and has super awesome guy friendship and star-crossed love and everything I want.