Fans of love dramas from East Asia, primarily South Korea, China, Taiwan, and Japan, are accustomed to viewing slow-moving programmes with gender conventions that differ from those in the United States. When watching an international series, it is always beneficial to have a basic understanding of the local culture. But what if the culture shown in a series is something you may rationally justify but still personally find repulsive? When we saw The Rational Life, that is what transpired.
THE RATIONAL LIFE: IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Shanghai’s skyline is seen in the opening shot as a woman answers the phone while moving down a freeway.
The Short Version: Shen Ruoxin (Qin Lan), a legal consultant for an auto corporation, is in her early 30s. She is currently dealing with a self-driving model from her business that caught fire and burned the wife of one of their more powerful clients. She brings her flowers in an effort to patch things up, but she also questions sarcastically if the car was flooded or if something else occurred prior to the tragedy.
Despite the fact that Rouxin works in a field where men predominate, her male coworkers don’t give her with the respect she deserves, despite the fact that her supervisor Xu Mingjie (Calvin Li) does. They have worked together for years, but their three-month dating anniversary has her wondering if it’s time to terminate things with her controlling boyfriend, Cui Lixin (Tong Yue), who continually checking in on her. Her mother, who is solidly in Lixin’s side, continually nagging Rouxin to get married so she won’t end up an old lady, which just adds to her stress.
A young man named Qi Xiao (Dylan Wang) is going after his business partner, who effectively seized his investment in their internet store and chose to move to another city with her boyfriend, until she practically runs into him while shopping for a fruit basket to give to the accident victim. She reprimands him for grabbing his friend and lists the relevant laws and consequences.
Xiao chooses to go with Su Yang (Chen Peng Wan Li) to a rooftop bar on the Bund in order to show his support for the friend. They just so happen to be there while Rouxin is honouring her pal Ziyang’s birthday (Bao Wen Jing). Knowing where they are, Lixin decides to surprise Rouxin with flowers and a ring because he thinks they need to be engaged after three months of dating. Even better, he put money down on a condo for the two of them. An inebriated Xiao approaches, first yelling at Rouxin before standing up for her as she shows embarrassment over the whole thing.
Lixin ultimately gets the boot when she sees the condo because she thinks he’s placing too much pressure on her after they’ve only been dating for three months.
What TV series will it make you think of? The Rational Life is similar to That Girl in many aspects, but 50 years later. Both stories centre on a single professional woman who faces pressure to wed due to societal expectations that she should make her own decisions in life.
Our Opinion: The Rational Life apparently follows Rouxin’s love triangle with her boss, Xu Mingjie, and new assistant Xiao (who attends the interview in episode 2). She must choose between following her heart and choosing the younger man that she manages or choosing her boss’s more “socially right” option. She must strike a balance between this and her desire to be independent, which is still unusual for Chinese women in their thirties because they are stigmatised as “leftover ladies” if they reach that age without getting married.
The drama seems to be moving very slowly; 34 episodes were released on Netflix last week; as a result, it might take a while before Rouxin and Xiao start dating or before things start happening between her and her boss. The Rational Life’s tempo may put you to sleep even if you enjoy the way romance dramas like this one are acted out in other East Asian nations, such as Korea.
Currently, the plot is a rather straightforward love triangle that has probably been complicated by the families of individuals involved. We are aware that Xiao enjoys a warm relationship with his mother and that Rouxin does not; he often draws her intricate instructions for items like her new pressure cooker. Rouxin will consider such things, and she might decide to continue being single.
Your ability to accept China’s gender difficulties, which primarily centre on the pressure career women experience to get married and establish babies, will determine how much you appreciate The Rational Life. Women in the U.S. do experience these pressures, but in China and most of that region, people still have a much harsher perspective on women like Rouxin. It’s going to seem hopelessly dated to viewers in the West, as we indicated when we referenced That Girl above, but if they approach the show with some awareness of the culture there in 2021, it might make for a more enjoyable viewing experience.
Skin and sex: neither.
Final Thoughts: Rouxin, who is relieved to have gotten rid of Lixin, returns home to find images of a nebula received directly from an observatory on her laptop. She embellishes them with colour and posts them online, after which she projects them onto a large screen and enjoys the spotlight.
Sleeper Star: We liked Tong Yue as Lixin because, right down to his motions and demeanour, he perfectly captured the “goofy boyfriend doomed to get dumped” stereotype.
Pilot-iest Line: However, we fear that by the end of episode 2, the full narrative concerning Xiao’s online store partner stealing his money would likely be forgotten.
We say, SKIP IT. Even fans who adore Korean and other Asian romantic dramas will find The Rational Life uninteresting because of its slow pacing and dated plot.
