Love you ( 醉後決定愛上你)
In short: Girl and boy get drunk, wake up married to one another. Think of a romantic-comedy version of 'The Hangover.' Similar to 'Fated to love you'.
Won points for: Awesome drama actors with good chemistry on screen - Rainie Yang (Lin Xiao Ru) and Joseph Chang (Song Jie Xiu), Good drama acting from both leads, A lovely romance with lots of passion ;), Some really good angsty episodes that made the whole story come together, Some really awesome laughs, good music selection especially Rainie's 我們都傻, A good and well aired out ending (a very rare occurance indeed!), A lovely film clip for the closing credits and good publicity calls - Rainie Yang had Joseph Chang star in her film clip for 我們都傻
Lost points for: There were a few middle episodes that were a little yawn-worthy - some were repetitive and didn't advance the story at all, some comedy scenes stretched the slapstick comedy element to its limits, and the series was deemed a sequel for 'Fated to love you' so it was often compared to that very popular storyline and borrowed from those conventions.
Joseph Chang was a good choice for partner in crime. I was a bit skeptical when I first saw him as the male lead. I hadn't seen him in anything before and wondered if he was a newbie. But then he totally blew my perspective of him in this series. It's easy to play the stereotypical Mr Darcy in these dramas, but to bring a high level of passion, spark and intensity to a character, and to create and maintain genuine chemistry with another actor for 18 episodes is not an easy feat. But Joseph Chang did a damn good job. And I suppose he's quite good looking, and skilled in doing that lost-in-love expression which does help ;) Haha, in the end he became quite endearing to me and I'll be sad to see him move on from being Song Jie Xiu.
Given that both actors did not really know each other before filming, they had wonderful chemistry (They'd been in a drama together once, but that had been some time ago). And all those hot and heavy scenes were done with great intensity...(I imagine fangirls watching those scenes with blood noses :P) Which was interesting as Asians often try to create implied scenes rather than film them explicitly (But then again, Taiwanese dramas do trump other asian dramas in this department :P)
In terms of the 'villians,' I found it refreshing to have bad guys that I didn't totally hate. Some might reckon it takes away from the drama experience, but I felt that Tang Ai Wei(Tiffany Hsu) and Geng Shuo Huai(Alien Huang) characters were surprisingly realistic towards the end of the series. It was nice to see bad guys that evolved and moved on, as painful as it was for some of them. It's true to life that sometimes no matter how badly you want things to work out for you, they just don't and you have to live with it. Sigh.
If I had to be critical of one thing, it'd be with sections of the plot. It was never as tight as some of the other dramas I've seen, which was both a curse and a blessing. It wavered the major climax structure that a lot of dramas follow - where all problems tie together and all hell breaks loose after a confrontation - for the little wave format - where a problem arises, is solved, arises, is solved and so on. So I guess it was a 'curse' because it meant some episodes lacked substance in that they were not building up to anything that would enhance future episodes. They became the filler episodes that lacked romance and story development and tried for comedy but sometimes made it too silly to appreciate. But it was also a very big blessing because the usual drama issues were resolved quite quickly - none of that hidden-conflict for 18 episodes! It revealed a lot more of the characters and it made them stand out to me, both in their stories as individuals and lovers.
Warning for Spoilers:
The unexpected angsty arc towards the last 3-4 episodes (where Samantha slips and Xiao Ru thinks it's her fault and Jie Xiu is struggling with grief and trying not to blame this wife) is one of the best mini drama arcs I've seen. It added substance to the fading middle story and made it into a an actual drama that hooked onto your heartstrings.
And on a final note: This story had one of the best drama endings I've seen for awhile. Possibly a bit cheesey, but otherwise, it was great - there was time spent pulling each aspect of the story apart for viewers. None of that last minute cramming a problem-and-solution into a finale dilemma, No unnecessary use of the 'vague' ending where viewers were left to imagine the rest of the story and No neglect of comedy or romance in the final episode. It was all perfectly balanced out - a beautiful wedding sequence and a sweet montage of their new lives together. And even though there was comedy at the end (as the Taiwanese can never resist it at the last minute), it was toned down and tailored to the honeymoon scene, so that it shared some of that intimacy with a laugh :)
No comments:
Post a Comment