Guns and Ammos
I marathoned...the drama Black & White in about a week.
The drama isn't my standard thing since I usually watch Taiwanese romantic comedies. I actually heard about this drama before but always avoided it since it seemed very serious. But I'm pretty glad I watched it since it was addictive, probably like crack. Every episode ends on a cliffhanger, which was why I was up until 2am one day watching it.
In any event, the basic plot is about this "good" cop, Wu Ying Xiong (literally, "Hero") who ends up partnering up with "bad" copy, Chen Zai Tian. Despite their very obvious differences in outlooks and attitudes on life and their job, they ended up becoming friends. Within all that is the very complicated other plot about them trying to uncover a drug ring that leads to an assassination plot to a terrorist threat to a serious need for a paternity test to some irresponsible parenting choices to a spy plot to an election plot, etc.
So, the pros:
Vic Chou - I mentioned this before but it's worth mentioning again that his acting in this drama surprised me. From being an Idol Drama star and a boy band member, I expected nothing from Vic Chou. I mean, all he had going for him were different head tilts in Meteor Garden.
Above: Hua Zhe Lei, always mentally playing the violin. Below: Chen Zai Tian, doing more than head tilts!
It's pretty damn impressive. Apparently, his co-star Mark Chao ended up winning best actor for this drama even though they were both nominated. Vic Chou was obviously robbed since Mark Chao's character was just okay.
Strong support cast - There's a huge cast of characters in this drama, including Taiwanese Matthew Broderick.
There are also a lot of female characters, which is impressive for an action drama. All of them are pretty competent. None of them are shrieking harpies that require constant rescuing by the main leads.
There's the mob boss' daughter, played by Ivy Chen.
There's the head of the forensic lab, played by Janine Chang.
If this was a romantic drama, one or both of them would probably play second fiddle to the two male leads. But they're both competent in their own right, advances the plot by doing things on their own, and (spoilers) no one ends up hooking up in the end.
Other support characters include Allen Chao, who is apparently Mark Chao's father in real life, and plays the police chief.
I have a positive opinion of Allen Chao from Seven Heroes and Five Gallents back in the mid-90s so it's good to see people I like still working in the 2000's.
Also from the 90's is Tang Zhi Wei, who played my favorite brother in Four Brothers of Peking.
Not Taiwanese Jackie Chan.
He plays the...district chief? I'm not really sure what Chinese police titles correspond to what English titles. But he reports to Allen Chao's character.
Good plots - The main plot, which I would say would be the relationship between Chen Zai Tian and Wu Ying Xiong was done pretty well. To some extent, some of the more complicated plots are okay too. There's the side plot of Chen Zai Tian's real identity, though that also leads to plot holes all over the place (more on that later). That plot started pretty well with the backstory that Chen Zai Tian was (spoilers) some "ugly" homeless guy that was given plastic surgery and money.
At least they didn't just give him glasses.
But then the end reveal was just too twisty and dumb. There's also the side plot with McDonald's Girl (played by Vic Chou's in real life wife Reen Yu) which was also pretty good up until the end. So I would say the plot for episodes 1 through 21 are very good. Then it starts unraveling in the last three episodes into a huge mess.
Fight scenes - Being some sort of action drama, there's a good amount of gunfights and fistfights. For the most part, the early gunfights are done pretty well. And there's the end gunfight which is okay, although it falls into the cliche where they all conveniently don't have guns when they need to fight the end boss (the actual character is referred to as Boss). Like, pick up some ammo! Pick up that gun the bad guy dropped! But anyways, it's probably all done so there can be an end fistfight with Boss versus Chen Zai Tian, Wu Ying Xiong, and deux ex machina played by Shiou Chieh Kai (more on that later).
Style - Guns and ammos!
And bonus:
Fully zip-uppable hoodies for when you need to evade the cops!
And now for the cons:
Oh god, plot twists! - Everything is M. Night Shyamalan's fault. Back in the days, people can just tell a story. Maybe there's a twist in the end, especially when it comes to detective action dramas. That's fine. But now, there needs to be a twist on top of that twist and maybe a twist within that twist too.
(Lots of spoilers beneath)
Chen Zai Tian meets and loses this McDonald's Girl several times and that's cool and fine and makes a good story. But then there has to be a twist in the end that she's actually still alive and some sort of master assassin. Why is that even necessary? Her whole plot was already finished and over with at the end. No need to bring her back to life and make her evil on top of it! Does that mean her McDonald's Girl was a cover? Why did she have to be pretend nice instead of just Judo-chopping homeless Chen Zai Tian when he robbed her McDonald's? Did she know who homeless Chen Zai Tian was? Was that all a cover too? It just leads to all manner of questions which the drama doesn't answer.
It turned out that Chen Zai Tian was given the whole plastic surgery/money/job gift by the mob boss because he's the mob boss' bastard son. That's pretty cool and also leads to possible incest conflict with the mob boss' daughter. Then turned out that the mob boss made a mistake and it's actually Wu Ying Xiong that's the bastard. I guess even that's pretty okay in that it shows some pretty cold-hearted parenting choices as the mob moss immediately cuts Chen Zai Tian off even after Chen Zai Tian went through the trouble of breaking him out of prison. But then there's the final reveal that neither of them are the mob boss' bastard and Wu Ying Xiong is actually the president's bastard son. And the whole time the mob boss was just taking the fall for it because he and the president are such good bros. Like, why is that even necessary? Why let his daughter think she might be screwing her half brother? The whole president plot line just felt so tacked on since he wasn't even mentioned in the first half of the drama. The twists should have just stopped at the reveal that Wu Ying Xiong is the mob boss' son and that's that.
Somewhere as an almost afterthought, Wu Ying Xiong's old flame comes back to screw (in both meanings of the word) with him. She steals his weapon and frames him for murder. That all should just stop right there because that's a pretty good plot. But then there's a twist that she actually does love him and kills herself for him. And that leads Wu Ying Xiong into such a pit of despair even though most of the drama was about how much he loves the mob boss' daughter but doesn't have a chance with her because she's in love with Chen Zai Tian. But now he's apparently so broken-hearted over this evil old flame that he can't go on with police work. Like, why? Why is that necessary? Again, just so tacked on towards the end of the drama to create more twists and drama.
Xiao Ma - This character, played by Shiou Chieh Kai, is just the worst. He's not annoying or bad or anything. He's just omnipresent. Like, serious deux ex machina. Need someone to explain all the plots? Xiao Ma will pop up. Need someone to get the heroes out of a situation that means certain death? Xiao Ma will come to the rescue with his awesome guns a blazing. And why is he helping them? That's still questionable to me.
Plot holes - With all those twists, it's inevitable that there are plot holes. I'm not even going to try and overthink the twists. But the main plot hole is: why the hell would Wu Ying Xiong even consider continuing his and Chen Zai Tian's partnership after it's revealed that Chen Zai Tian never went through a day of police training or gun training, all his documents are forged, and even his identity is forged? I get that they may be good bros by then. But Wu Ying Xiong was still going on about proper police work and procedures and here he is with someone very much not a cop! His personal preference aside, isn't he also putting the lives of all the other police officers at risk whenever they go on raids with this untrained fake cop?
(end spoilers)
In the end, I would still say this drama is very good. Just imagine the last two episodes didn't happen and come up with your own ending and it's pretty brilliant. It definitely make me more interested in the more serious action dramas and I'll probably also look into Vic Chou's other dramas.
In a somewhat unrelated/maybe related bit, my mom and I are watching Bromance and she goes, "that Megan Lai seems familiar". And she goes on talking about this drama about this guy that owns a motorcycle shop and some girl and the whole time, I'm going "did you watch this without me?" because it didn't ring a bell at all. Well, apparently Megan Lai was in Mars which stars Vic Chou in which he rides a motorcycle. Maybe that's the one my mom is talking about? Somehow, my mom seems to have a better memory than me when it comes to recalling what dramas I have or have not watched. But in any event, I'm going to give drama watching a break since I already have a lot lined up to watch with my mom. But I'll try to pick up with Mars the next time I start up drama watching.
The drama isn't my standard thing since I usually watch Taiwanese romantic comedies. I actually heard about this drama before but always avoided it since it seemed very serious. But I'm pretty glad I watched it since it was addictive, probably like crack. Every episode ends on a cliffhanger, which was why I was up until 2am one day watching it.
In any event, the basic plot is about this "good" cop, Wu Ying Xiong (literally, "Hero") who ends up partnering up with "bad" copy, Chen Zai Tian. Despite their very obvious differences in outlooks and attitudes on life and their job, they ended up becoming friends. Within all that is the very complicated other plot about them trying to uncover a drug ring that leads to an assassination plot to a terrorist threat to a serious need for a paternity test to some irresponsible parenting choices to a spy plot to an election plot, etc.
So, the pros:
Vic Chou - I mentioned this before but it's worth mentioning again that his acting in this drama surprised me. From being an Idol Drama star and a boy band member, I expected nothing from Vic Chou. I mean, all he had going for him were different head tilts in Meteor Garden.
Above: Hua Zhe Lei, always mentally playing the violin. Below: Chen Zai Tian, doing more than head tilts!
It's pretty damn impressive. Apparently, his co-star Mark Chao ended up winning best actor for this drama even though they were both nominated. Vic Chou was obviously robbed since Mark Chao's character was just okay.
Strong support cast - There's a huge cast of characters in this drama, including Taiwanese Matthew Broderick.
There are also a lot of female characters, which is impressive for an action drama. All of them are pretty competent. None of them are shrieking harpies that require constant rescuing by the main leads.
There's the mob boss' daughter, played by Ivy Chen.
There's the head of the forensic lab, played by Janine Chang.
If this was a romantic drama, one or both of them would probably play second fiddle to the two male leads. But they're both competent in their own right, advances the plot by doing things on their own, and (spoilers) no one ends up hooking up in the end.
Other support characters include Allen Chao, who is apparently Mark Chao's father in real life, and plays the police chief.
I have a positive opinion of Allen Chao from Seven Heroes and Five Gallents back in the mid-90s so it's good to see people I like still working in the 2000's.
Also from the 90's is Tang Zhi Wei, who played my favorite brother in Four Brothers of Peking.
Not Taiwanese Jackie Chan.
He plays the...district chief? I'm not really sure what Chinese police titles correspond to what English titles. But he reports to Allen Chao's character.
Good plots - The main plot, which I would say would be the relationship between Chen Zai Tian and Wu Ying Xiong was done pretty well. To some extent, some of the more complicated plots are okay too. There's the side plot of Chen Zai Tian's real identity, though that also leads to plot holes all over the place (more on that later). That plot started pretty well with the backstory that Chen Zai Tian was (spoilers) some "ugly" homeless guy that was given plastic surgery and money.
At least they didn't just give him glasses.
But then the end reveal was just too twisty and dumb. There's also the side plot with McDonald's Girl (played by Vic Chou's in real life wife Reen Yu) which was also pretty good up until the end. So I would say the plot for episodes 1 through 21 are very good. Then it starts unraveling in the last three episodes into a huge mess.
Fight scenes - Being some sort of action drama, there's a good amount of gunfights and fistfights. For the most part, the early gunfights are done pretty well. And there's the end gunfight which is okay, although it falls into the cliche where they all conveniently don't have guns when they need to fight the end boss (the actual character is referred to as Boss). Like, pick up some ammo! Pick up that gun the bad guy dropped! But anyways, it's probably all done so there can be an end fistfight with Boss versus Chen Zai Tian, Wu Ying Xiong, and deux ex machina played by Shiou Chieh Kai (more on that later).
Style - Guns and ammos!
And bonus:
Fully zip-uppable hoodies for when you need to evade the cops!
And now for the cons:
Oh god, plot twists! - Everything is M. Night Shyamalan's fault. Back in the days, people can just tell a story. Maybe there's a twist in the end, especially when it comes to detective action dramas. That's fine. But now, there needs to be a twist on top of that twist and maybe a twist within that twist too.
(Lots of spoilers beneath)
Chen Zai Tian meets and loses this McDonald's Girl several times and that's cool and fine and makes a good story. But then there has to be a twist in the end that she's actually still alive and some sort of master assassin. Why is that even necessary? Her whole plot was already finished and over with at the end. No need to bring her back to life and make her evil on top of it! Does that mean her McDonald's Girl was a cover? Why did she have to be pretend nice instead of just Judo-chopping homeless Chen Zai Tian when he robbed her McDonald's? Did she know who homeless Chen Zai Tian was? Was that all a cover too? It just leads to all manner of questions which the drama doesn't answer.
It turned out that Chen Zai Tian was given the whole plastic surgery/money/job gift by the mob boss because he's the mob boss' bastard son. That's pretty cool and also leads to possible incest conflict with the mob boss' daughter. Then turned out that the mob boss made a mistake and it's actually Wu Ying Xiong that's the bastard. I guess even that's pretty okay in that it shows some pretty cold-hearted parenting choices as the mob moss immediately cuts Chen Zai Tian off even after Chen Zai Tian went through the trouble of breaking him out of prison. But then there's the final reveal that neither of them are the mob boss' bastard and Wu Ying Xiong is actually the president's bastard son. And the whole time the mob boss was just taking the fall for it because he and the president are such good bros. Like, why is that even necessary? Why let his daughter think she might be screwing her half brother? The whole president plot line just felt so tacked on since he wasn't even mentioned in the first half of the drama. The twists should have just stopped at the reveal that Wu Ying Xiong is the mob boss' son and that's that.
Somewhere as an almost afterthought, Wu Ying Xiong's old flame comes back to screw (in both meanings of the word) with him. She steals his weapon and frames him for murder. That all should just stop right there because that's a pretty good plot. But then there's a twist that she actually does love him and kills herself for him. And that leads Wu Ying Xiong into such a pit of despair even though most of the drama was about how much he loves the mob boss' daughter but doesn't have a chance with her because she's in love with Chen Zai Tian. But now he's apparently so broken-hearted over this evil old flame that he can't go on with police work. Like, why? Why is that necessary? Again, just so tacked on towards the end of the drama to create more twists and drama.
Xiao Ma - This character, played by Shiou Chieh Kai, is just the worst. He's not annoying or bad or anything. He's just omnipresent. Like, serious deux ex machina. Need someone to explain all the plots? Xiao Ma will pop up. Need someone to get the heroes out of a situation that means certain death? Xiao Ma will come to the rescue with his awesome guns a blazing. And why is he helping them? That's still questionable to me.
Plot holes - With all those twists, it's inevitable that there are plot holes. I'm not even going to try and overthink the twists. But the main plot hole is: why the hell would Wu Ying Xiong even consider continuing his and Chen Zai Tian's partnership after it's revealed that Chen Zai Tian never went through a day of police training or gun training, all his documents are forged, and even his identity is forged? I get that they may be good bros by then. But Wu Ying Xiong was still going on about proper police work and procedures and here he is with someone very much not a cop! His personal preference aside, isn't he also putting the lives of all the other police officers at risk whenever they go on raids with this untrained fake cop?
(end spoilers)
In the end, I would still say this drama is very good. Just imagine the last two episodes didn't happen and come up with your own ending and it's pretty brilliant. It definitely make me more interested in the more serious action dramas and I'll probably also look into Vic Chou's other dramas.
In a somewhat unrelated/maybe related bit, my mom and I are watching Bromance and she goes, "that Megan Lai seems familiar". And she goes on talking about this drama about this guy that owns a motorcycle shop and some girl and the whole time, I'm going "did you watch this without me?" because it didn't ring a bell at all. Well, apparently Megan Lai was in Mars which stars Vic Chou in which he rides a motorcycle. Maybe that's the one my mom is talking about? Somehow, my mom seems to have a better memory than me when it comes to recalling what dramas I have or have not watched. But in any event, I'm going to give drama watching a break since I already have a lot lined up to watch with my mom. But I'll try to pick up with Mars the next time I start up drama watching.