The Whirlwind Girl 2

Review

6/10 is my rating. If you are a fan of Ji Chang Wook, you really shouldn't miss this one. He plays an excellent coach and tormented former top athlete. I kept seeing clips of him in this martial arts uniform which he wears quite well. I did not like this second one as well as the first. It continues the story but I thought they radically changed some aspects of the characters and the storyline and I wasn't a fan of the way they changed it. Am I sorry I watched it? No, I enjoyed many parts of it. Would I recommend it to others? Mainly those who watched the first, martial arts fans, and those that really like Ji Chang Wook. Rewatch value? Near zero for me.

Spoilers

Let me start by saying despite everything I still liked series, am glad I watched it as far as I did, but there are, in my opinion, a lot of problems which is probably why I don't see this turn up more on "what to watch lists."

It's not just that the changed the actress who played Bai Cao but the character changed as well. And not in a good way. She became less focused on the sport, more of a whiner, and I thought very selfish in many ways.

In the first season I really liked the Ru Bai character. He had the "there's no crying in baseball attitude" which is just what main girl needed because she literally had her head focused on just about anything but her sport. Ru Bai would get mad at her anytime he reason and focus wasn't for the love of the sport itself. That type of tough love coaching is just what this girl needed. Season 1 she spent most of her time only winning so her master would come see her. Which was frustrating. Season 2 it's just so that Rui Bai will come back, potentially from the dead I guess. Which is a great irony because he would have hated that. In fact, he would have disapproved of most of her behavior in the 2nd season. She totally disrespected the sport and he would have been "just quit" then.

Enter Coach An and at first he is also just what the doctor ordered. I am not going to coach you if you are only going to linger on someone who is no longer with us. Good. That is what she needed. Compete for the right reasons or not at all. He got her head back in the game. Finally. After a dozen or so episodes. Or so I thought, Then, the person who was trying to take out her knee gets injured. Why? Because she was training so hard to be able to injure main girl and punish her that one significant kick just about ended her. Okay. I get it. At first main girl thought it was her fault. Which was still ridiculous because you play competitive sports, especially something like martial arts or boxing, and you know injury is a possibility. Which is why, universally, deliberately trying to injure someone is not considered sportsman like conduct. But that family blamed everyone if their athlete was injured. Even if they were doing everything within the boundaries of the sport. Still main girl mired in that. She groveled to them. And, once again her head was completely out of the game. She even let her team mates lose and get beat up while she was over there being "punishing" herself for some imagined slight to the villain. And now Coach An is in love with her and just enabling all of her ridiculous guilt nonsense.

And Ting Hao. I loved him in the first series. He was a great 2nd guy but in this second he become overly forceful in his affection. Then, he blames her for his sister's outrageous behavior. He created that monster. Never made her take any personal responsibility. She could violate every rule of the sport and only be using it for revenge but that was okay. Even blamed main girl for stealing his sister's first love. Give me a break. He told his sister at one point give it up he has never liked you that way. But, now that he is anti Bai Cao suddenly she is the bad girl for "taking" his sister's crush. Dude you are just salty because she rejected you. Get over it. Quite whining. But oh, you are in good company half of the people in this show are huge whiners.

And why, every time main girl is confronted with a group of baddies does she forget she is a world class martial artist? That group of European toughs took her down way too easy. I didn't expect her to win but I did expect a good fight. And, whomever is with her, whichever top martial artist, also is suddenly completely helpless. So that leaves Bai Caio suddenly trying to defend her somewhat helpless self and another martial artist who is mysteriously completely helpless. I get a street fight is different than a controlled match but still. You can't even hurt them a little? And 2nd fight? You are so in your own head, feeling so sorry for your own self, you are just going to let your sister get beat? That is when I decided she was selfish. Selfish for letting everyone down and letting her hall go to ruin. Selfish for ignoring all the people that cared about her so she could go be sorry for herself and supposedly "punish" herself. And then selfish for letting them all fight to save the hall while she is playing Cinderella cleaning up after them.

Coach An. I loved the first part of the series coach. Tough and focused. He did need just a little softening. A little. Like maybe tell them why. That's all. Because our main girl still needs that tough love. You quit and she is all off doing everything but being a focused competitor. Literally someone needs to do it. Ru Bai is no longer around and everyone else is going to coddle her whiny butt. But, no, he goes mushy soft once he falls for her. Disappointing.

The girl was a siren but also an ice queen. I mean you have every eligible bachelor around you vying for your attention and you so obviously like some of them but you can't admit anything until they are literally dead or dying? That was very frustrating. I get it wasn't a romance but you are throwing romance in with so much potential but our girl is just cold as ice. Thaws a little here and there but mostly just cold. Which, if she had been focused on her sport I could have allowed a lot more. But she wasn't. She was always mired in some sort of self inflicted emotional misery. Such a waste of talent.

Tao Feng what the heck? He went completely Darth Vader. So he learns this big beef he had with Coach An was baseless. The kid he supposedly ended had a heart condition he was hiding and he was doing the right thing by making him quit. If anything Tao Feng contributed by helping him continue to train on the wheel. But no. It's your fault. So, he finally comes around on that. Learned anything? Nope. Blames main girl for his sister's injury when it was his sister who injured herself by over training. I lost all respect for his character. And that whole family. Grandpa. Was it worth it? It's just a game? Really? You were just having your granddaughter train like her life depended on it a couple of scenes ago. That entire family drove me nuts. They already practically destroyed one life because the mother is in a coma by her own martial arts mishap. So they blame her competitor. Destroy several lives there with that guilt. And let their hall just go away? That made no sense.

I did not watch the last couple of episodes. I was so frustrated I read episode reviews and learned she essentially rejects Coach An. It is bad enough when you have to experience lead girl break one person's heart but she just broke hearts all over the place. And it wasn't that she didn't like them she was just selfish and completely dishonest with herself. So, I had no desire to watch that. I also found out the last episodes are mainly flashbacks and many of the story lines are never fully resolved. The cincher though, was in the book she gets with Ting Hao. Rejects Coach An and gets with Ting Hao. What? Even knowing that is a possibility turned me completely off of watching the end. I rage quit it. Still irritated about it because it could have been good.

Synopsis

This is a 2016 continuation of the story of Whirlwind Girl. They are sequential and the story is threaded through both seasons. It would be possible to watch either solo, but parts of the continuous story would be missing. It is notable that the main character, Baicao is played by a new actress in this second season. There are 36, 40-minute episodes.

Baicao (An Yuexi) is coming to terms with the loss of her mentor. At the same time, she is trying to regain confidence after injuring an opponent. Her prospects turn around when Chang An (Ji Chang-wook), a brilliant and skilled Yuanwudao athlete begins coaching her. What started as a plan to use Baicao for revenge turned into a genuine desire to coach her to her ultimate success in the sport. As Chang An pushes the talented athletes to new limits a spark unites between the two. Fang Tinghao (Chen Xiang) hasn't given up his interest in Baicao and resents the new male presence in her life. Season 2 continues the story, but the rivalries have intensified, characters have matured, and the martial arts component is even stronger. Action, love and romance intertwine in the final tale of Baicao's rise in the sport she loves.

#TheWhirlwindGirl2 #JiChangWook #ChangXiang #AnYeuxi

•