EPISODE 1 RECAP
This drama starts off with the most uncomfortable thing ever for any woman: a sexual harassment scene. Good thing our female lead is fearless. She beats the guy up and wait… something strange happens: her face changes into multiple different faces: man, woman, lion, etc.
Hmm, interesting. Is this taking place in an alternative universe?
Not far away, a man is playing tennis — could be a high school boy, I’m not sure. Here he is; you decide.
Back to the female lead — named Su Chengcheng (Landi Li) — she starts telling us a story about herself that took place recently.
In the story, she is on her way to a job interview. She meets two jerks who act high-and-might and sneer at her. They are mean, but in this case, if you wear jeans and a hoodie to a job interview, expect people to give you strange looks.
Not only that, the picture on her interview portfolio is also heavily edited and filtered — big eyes, pointy chin, etc, to the point that it looks nothing like her.
And what for, anyway? She looks a lot better in real life.
When the interviewer sends her home, she marches up to him and breaks an apple with her bare hand, then gives him half of it. This scares the guy to death. OK, but if you’re going to tell me that someone can break an apple in half with their hands, at least make it look like it wasn’t cut in half clean with a knife.
But what are the odds: while sulking about her failures, Chengcheng finds herself sitting right next to the tennis boy.
Nothing happens, though; they just sit there for a while and then leave.
Back at Chengcheng’s parents’ home, we find out why she is so physically strong: she took martial arts classes when she was a young girl. You bet she can punch any guy in the face if she wants to. She also isn’t seeing anyone yet. While everyone around her says this is due to her tomboy tendencies, we all know better than that.
While Chengcheng’ mother tells her she’s ok with Chengcheng not having a boyfriend and just pursuing a career right now, behind Chengcheng’s back, she’s secretly nervous and asks Chengcheng’s sister to set the girl up with someone. This breaks Chengcheng’s heart.
During a moment of reflection, we also find out that Chengcheng used to have a crush on someone in high school. It’s one of those super-popular athletic boys. Is this the Tennis Boy we see in the beginning?
Speaking of whom, Tennis Boy works in a lab. Ahh, so he’s both athletic and brainy. Cool. But he is totally the boy Chengcheng had a crush on back in school.
While working, he had these flashbacks about Chengcheng running behind him in gym when they were both in school. They seem to be unpleasant memories to him. Why, though, it’s still unclear. Because she could run faster than him? Or because he knew she was crushing on him.
An observation: the boy actor who plays Tennis Boy somehow looks more mature than his adult version.
One day, Chengcheng and her best friend go to a school reunion party.
Of course, tennis boy comes too, he walks in a suit that looks a little too big for him. Are they trying to emphasize his skinniness on purpose?
Anyway, everyone there acts like this man is the best thing we’ve had since Yang Yang played games in You Are My Glory. We can see that Tennis Boy tries hard to do that look of mysterious + forlorn + youthful maturity + etc; but I don’t think he’s there yet.
People start to recognize Chengcheng, too. They remember her fondly and cheer as she opens beer bottles with her bare hands. Can you really do that without your hand being cut by the bottle cap, though?
When the tennis boy comes up to Chengcheng with a bottle, an embarrassing thing happens: the bottle in Chengcheng’s hand explodes and beer is splashed all over her face. Her makeup gets ruined immediately.
Hmm, maybe she should think about changing makeup brands. Most of them are waterproof nowadays, even the cheapest ones.
Tennis Boy takes out his phone and takes a picture of Chengcheng’s face. What’s going on here? He seemed like a nice guy up till now. This is just childish, man.
Poor Chengcheng cries all the way home. She stops to buy some flowers from an old lady on the street.
Because Chengcheng overpays, the old lady gives her a bracelet also.
When Chengcheng sits on the subway later, the lights suddenly start to behave strangely; and when they’re normal again, we see that Chengcheng’s face has changed.
It’s a completely different face now. Very, very interesting.
COMMENTS
It took me a while to realize that the character Chengcheng has insecurities about her looks because, like always in these dramas, it’s a hard sell to say that Landi Li isn’t pretty.