Contemporary Romance Chinese Drama Review: The Rational Mind (2021)

 

The Rational Life (2021)

35 episodes, watched on Netflix 

Synopsis from MyDramaList

Shen Ruo Xin is a professional career woman in her 30s and she has to navigate through many things in her life. From swimming through the cesspool of office politics with its nepotism, sabotage and company problems, to withstanding familial pressure to settle down and marry, to handling suitors interested in her for their own selfish personal motives, to being counsellor and mentor to her best friend and her juniors, she is one busy lady but watch as she handles them all with great aplomb while managing to find romance in an unexpected place.

8/10

* * * 

This was on my watchlist for awhile due to an enthusiastic review from  a cdrama review channel I follow, and I'm glad I gave it a go. 

First of all, Dylan Wang is a cutie. If you watched him in Meteor Garden or a very recent Love Between A Fairy and A Devil (both on Netflix, by the way), you'll know he is a good actor as well.

Secondly, the topic of May-December romance (older woman - younger man) has been really popular in cdrama world in recent years. I read that there is a specific social problem related to that. China stopped its one child policy around 10 years ago and during that policy there were more boys born than girls because culturally boys will stay in the family and look after the parents while girls would marry off into another family. Over the generations, it created a shortage of girls available. And that's why larger gaps in age between partners are becoming more socially acceptable. Again, this is an opinion, so what I'm writing here can be completely wrong. If that's the case, then don't bash me for it.

This is a very solid 4 star watch. It has strong independent, female empowering message. It accentuates the problems women over 30 face in Chinese society. There is a generational clash between the heroine and her mother, but throughout all of this there is plenty of warmth in half a dozen of various relationships.

A lot of Chinese dramas would play on romance clichés, but The Rational Life subverts it all. Instead of cartoonish villains and heroes there are normal people who make mistakes, go astray, swim in grey area of socially acceptable behaviour and either snap out of it or get their comeuppance.

For example, the guy Shen Ruoxin dates in the beginning, is meek and cowardly. In order to keep her from breaking up with him, he proposes to her in public and sends the video to their company, surveils her phone and even post a negative video of her anonymously online which allows her boss to demote her to promote his own nephew in her spot. All of this to push her to rely on him and to marry him.

She deals with it by confronting the guy and gives him a choice what to do next with himself. His shame at the consequences to her actually puts him on the right track. There are a lot of moments where you'd think the character is going to cause trouble but it just behaves like a mature adult and leaves you pleasantly surprised. 

I enjoyed The Rational Life. It was kind and, well, rational. The main characters are cute together and do feel like a great fit to compliment each other's strengths. Recommended.