in a word, redemption

we all live through our own tragedies. each person is a story. and each story has it's own tragedy. how we face these tragedies is what makes each story unique. to each his own, so they say.

the last series i watched with uninhibited abandon was Mars. it stars vic zhou and barbie hsu, of meteor garden fame. it's not a sequel, if that's what you think. it's a totally different drama about two people living trough their tragedies and trying to get over them. trying to find a way in this life to forget and move on. trying to find, in a word, redemption. it was explained early in the series why it's caled mars. after the god of war. known to be temperamental and vindictive. but despite all that, he is also the god who helps people get through their tragedies. the god of redemption. and these two characters, chen ling and han qui luo, happen to be seeking for their own mars. someone who'll help them through their tragedy. someone they'll find in each other.

the series first caught my attention because, chen ling plays a biker. the real kind. the kind who races for speed. and since i have my history with bikers, i couldn't help but watch. just sit and watch. and the fact that vic zhou is yummier here than he ever was in meteor garden didn't hurt very much. as the story progresses and you acquaint yourself more with their stories, i realized that this series was proving itself far better than i expected. every character had a story to tell. every tragedy of their own. and sooner or later, you symphatize, even just a little, for them. as what chen ling's father said. in our life, we have good memories and bad memories. but somehow, it's the bad ones that linger more than the good ones. it's the sad part of our stories that affect us more. and sometimes, it affects us so much that it's the demon inside us we're fighting off already. and the even sadder part is that a lot of times, this demon wins. and we try to fight it each time it beckons. until you've fought it all that you have no more strength but to give up. and there isn't even glory in that. and who amongst us hadn't had any downfall?

i related to the characters in way that anyone would have. maybe a little bit more because there where times when i was watching that series that i felt sadder because i was watching someone familiar. mainly because he was a biker. he wasn't as violent as chen ling. in truth, i never saw him hit anyone. he didn't have that much issues. he had dreams besides racing on the track. and he never colored his hair. but seeing something similar in them wasn't hard. and maybe it just made me miss him. more so because i was seeing something i could have had.

as for mars and finding redemption, it couldn't possibly have hit closer to home.