Yesterday (2023)

Refashioned classic in to contemporary drama.

This drama used a classic as inspiration and drew four main characters from it. Similarly, it has an open ending but uses that to draw an educated guess that this drama has a HE. From the first episode, clues were dropped metaphorically, and it became clearer when the leads spoke aloud some of the well-known, legendary lines of an all-time best-seller in English.

Spoiler alert.

"Why, land is the only thing worth fighting for and dying for, because it's the only thing that lasts. It will come to you—this love of the  land."Unforgettable and famous lines from the iconic and classic book "Gone With the Wind" It's an emotional, powerful battle cry to evoke strong and brave determination to struggle, fight, and win against all odds. Substitute "land" for "education," and that's the theme of the drama. The power of education to change oneself and one's destiny .

The plot is an account of a girl's battle to attend university to escape poverty.

The primary four characters were modeled after the classic: Scarlett O'Hara (SOH), Rhett Butler (RB), Ashley Wilkes (AW), and Melanie Hamilton (MH).
 
Lou QiQi (QQ) was a strong,stubborn, smart, quirky, rebellious, and irrepressible girl with a strong ambition to better herself through education. This seed was planted in her by her adored grandfather when she was living happily with him in the rural countryside. He encouraged her love of reading and turned her childish curiosity into an analytical, logistical way of thinking. When she was brought back by her estranged mother to live in town,she was often neglected as her parents poured their care and attention onto her spoiled younger sister. At school, her grades were poor. She was often threatened by her mother to stop her schooling and work in a factory. She had to study hard every day for her journey to university. She turned resentful and rebellious, a short-tempered girl. She received her emotional support from XiaoBo (XB), a boy three years older than her, whom she regarded as an older brother. They promised each other to go to the university to change for a better future. Like SOH, QQ had the tenacity and perseverance to study hard, to be the smartest in school, and thus gain entry to university.

Zhang Jun (ZJ) was a good-looking, popular boy who lived alone, abandoned by divorced parents. That was reflected in his attention-seeking tendencies bordering on arrogant recklessness. His devil-may-care attitude hid feelings of insecurity and jealousy whenever he saw the closeness of XB with QQ. Inadequacy when QQ grades started to improve. He didn't understand her goal of being the smartest girl in school. They hid their innermost feelings, fears, worries, and doubts and hurt each other's pride and ego. Their stormy relationship was marked by fights and reconciliation because they didn't know what made the other tick. Things came to a head when XB told him that QQ planned to go to a lower-tier university with him. He was under tremendous pressure to measure up to her level and felt undeserving of her. The final straw was when she took revenge on him by betting with another top student to be first in  class.A role reversal that hurt his self-worth and self-respect. Replicating RB, though he cared for her, he still left her. He cares too much for her to drag down a high-flying kite like QQ.  


XiaoBo (XB) was a studious, reliable, hard-working, and dutiful son who lived with his mentally ill mother. He and QQ promised to go to Beijing University together. He fell in love with QQ but hesitated to tell her. He waited too long and missed his chance. Time and tide wait for no man. The tide of circumstances turned against him, and he failed in his finals twice through no fault of his own. The second time was when he was hiding from the police because of a fight and didn't turn up for the exam. That was his turning point when he gave up going to university, as he didn't change himself into an intellectual who didn't fight with his fist. He turned himself in and went to prison. It also meant he gave up being with QQ. In poignantly heartbreaking scenes in which he played out his fantasy as a boy buying his girl a dress and dancing with her on the dance floor for the first, last, and only time, Afterwards, he cut off all ties with her, as metaphorically shown with the bulldozer breaking down their old club house and significantly on QQ final exam day. Like AW, who was unattainable as he was married, QQ was unattainable because he has no degree and has a prison record. He always wanted the best for her, and he was not the best.

XiaoFei (XF), the best friend of QQ from childhood. Sweet, kind, gentle, and demure-looking, but like MH, underneath the soft exterior was a hard, resilient interior. She had nerves of steel as she bravely pointed her rapist at the police station. Her rapists were caught and sent to prison. However, she had to drop out of school because of the scandal and move to Beijing alone to begin anew. She took on many different jobs to work toward her goal of hotel management. The iron hand under the velvet glove.

The drama ended with an open ending, educated guess based on metaphorical clues from the drama as its HE. (This cannot be done openly as its Chinese adaptation was OE.)
1) Going by the classic, Frank Kennedy was SOH's second HUSBAND, whose wealth paved the way for her to regain her land. Chen Jin/CJ, the genius childhood friend of QQ, paved the way for her to study faster and more efficiently by telling her his tips. When she wanted to quit school because of poor grades, he motivated her with inspired words and showed her that she had the same potential and level as him when they both solved a math problem on the board. They spoke the same language and were in the same world.

2) CJ was the first boy she met in elementary school. In romance books and dramas, the first male lead, the FL laid eyes, was the one they ended up with.

3) In the first and last episodes, her face showed a look of unexpected surprise. Expect the unexpected.

4) Also in the first and last episodes were scenes of land. In this drama, education is represented by Land and CJ. The FIRST is to LAST forever.

5) In the second last episode, the final few minutes of a truck and a train( which she was on) were moving in unison. The fast-moving train then shot past, and the slower truck left the highway to diverge on a smaller road and faded into the darkness. It's an allegory, as the truck was ZJ and XB diverging from her while she was on the train to Beijing to meet CJ.

6) The poster showed XB and QQ in an allegorical highlight of the drama, as both had dreams of going to university. QQ was holding a book. A book is a symbol of education, as is the walking encyclopedia, CJ.

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