我穿梭金星木星水星火星土星追尋追尋你*
*"I pass through Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Saturn searching, searching for you" - 夠愛, R-Chord
Like most people, I'm stressed going to interviews. But who knew I'd be so stressed with being the interviewer?! In any event, it's one down and one more to go tomorrow and then I think I'm done with being an interviewer. If neither of these two work out for our office, I'm going to go on my own job hunting interviews.
So after all that stress, let me talk about my brain-healing drama to calm down!
Back when I first heard of The X-Family, I thought it was going to rip off The X-Files. But it makes far more sense that it probably rips off the idea of the X-Men since people with powers and stuff.
Basic Plot Background
The drama is a sequel to K.O. One and is about the Iron Dimension, a parallel dimension (of which there are over 10 in this drama universe) to the Gold Dimension that the first drama takes place in. The idea is that different versions of the same people exist in each dimension, thereby allowing the cast of K.O. One to come back and play "different" people.
At the end of K.O. One, the main characters lose all of their powers in fighting the Big Bad. In order to get their powers back, they need to reply on their counterparts in the Iron Dimension to travel to the Gold Dimension and infuse their powers together...or something vague like that. To get through the dimensional doorway, the person must have a certain level of K.O. points. Since the main characters in the Gold Dimension lost all their K.O. points, they have to reply on Shu, a dimension guardian or sorts, to help them find their counterparts in the Iron Dimension. The rest of the story focuses on the counterparts in the Iron Dimension and how they got their K.O. powers.
Got all that?
Cast and Characters
Shu
Dimension traveler, dimension guardian, and lead guitarist of fictional band Dong Cheng Wei, Shu is played by Shu Chen (K.O. One), the actual band leader and guitarist of real life band Dong Cheng Wei.
The fictional band members are all guardians of the dimension. I'm not sure if it's ever made clear if this Shu is from the Iron Dimension or the Gold Dimension since the band (some difference in lineup) also shows up in K.O. One set in the Gold Dimension. But lead singer A-Chord is Shark Boy in the Gold Dimension. Ahh, it's better not to think too hard about the logic of this show.
Xia Tian
Xia Tian, the counterpart to Wang Da Dong from the Gold Dimension, is played by Jiro Wang (K.O. One, It Started With a Kiss, They Kiss Again, Hana Kimi, ToGetHer, Absolute Darling), former member of boy band Fahrenheit and co-founder of the real life band Dong Cheng Wei. Jiro Wang does dopey so well that I never get tired of any of his dopey characters in any of his dramas, as you can tell from my knowledge of his extensive filmography of playing dopey characters.
Egads! I prefer the dopey look.
Unlike Da Dong in the Gold Dimension, Xia Tian is a "good" kid (although not necessarily good student) that's super honest but also kind of not that bright.
Lan Ling Wang
Lan Ling Wang, the counterpart to Wang Ya Se from the Gold Dimension, is played by Calvin Chen (K.O. One), also former Fahrenheit member.
Dang, that's too much muscle.
Lan Ling Wang started out pretty cool being some sort of assassin with his giant ass sword. Then he spends most of the drama moping. Something about losing his powers and his whole family dying, blah blah blah. Although he does gain more of an amusing personality towards the end of the series.
Apparently, Calvin Chen was considered the ugly one in Fahrenheit. I mean, he's kind of funny looking, but he looks fine if he keeps his shirt on.
Jiu Wu
Jiu Wu, the counterpart to Ding Xiao Yu in the Gold Dimension, is played by Aaron Yan (K.O. One), the (IMO) least charismatic member of Fahrenheit and therefore reduced to not showing up in the Iron Dimension until halfway through the drama.
Though to give him some slack, he was the youngest member of Fahrenheit and wasn't really as chummy with the rest of the group since there's a 6-year age gap between them. So maybe a lot of it could be attributed to that. Damn, I've been reading up too much on Fahrenheit.
Alright, button that shirt back up.
In the Iron Dimension, Jiu Wu is the leader of families with special powers. Think Professor X but not a cripple and not bald. Annnd...that's it. He's just the most bland person so I can't say anything else about him.
Xia Yu
To round up the boy band/band members/hanger-ongers in the cast is the money-grubbing older brother of Xia Tian played by Danson Tang (K.O. One, Hana Kimi). His counterpart in the Gold Dimension would be Lei Ke Si, but that's hardly mentioned since Lei Ke Si was a good guy that turned minor villain turned back to good guy in the Gold Dimension.
Of all those guys, the one person that looks like he would have a nice lean body I couldn't find a shirtless pic of.
Honorable mention goes to R-Chord (K.O. One, Hana Kimi), playing A-Chord.
A-Chord is the lead singer of the fictional band Dong Cheng Wei and R-Chord sometimes write songs for the real Dong Cheng Wei band.
And to complete the Fahrenheit member quota, Wu Chun (K.O. One, Hana Kimi) shows up in the last two episode as the Fire Ambassador there to destroy the whole Iron Dimension.
If the destroyer of dimensions look slightly confused, it's because that's how this guy looks.
I get the feeling Wu Chun is the most mature member of Fahrenheit and probably rolled his eyes so hard when pitched with K.O. One and The X-Family but agreed to show up for a few episodes to support the rest of the band.
There are lots of other people in this drama. The main ones are probably are grouped into this giant ball:
Let's see if I can name them all:
The back row from right to left (starting with guy in eye-catching blue jacket):
Xia Mi (or Wa Ge - I can't tell them apart), Ren Chen Wen, Wa Ge (or Xia Me), The God of Guns, played by George Hu (ToGetHer, Love Around, Love, Now, Prince of Lan Ling) and is the main lead in the next K.O. drama.
Next row: Xia Liu (name is a homophone of "scumbag") - the Xia family's grandfather; Si Ren (name is a homophone of "dead person") - the father of the Xia family; Xiong Ge, the mother of the Xia family, and A-Chord.
Next row: Shu; The Fire Ambassador (showing up here because he's played by Wu Chun in order to compete the Fahrenheit member quota), Xia Yu; Xia Mei, Xia Tian and Xia Yu's little sister.
And front row:
Lan Ling Wang, Han, Xia Tian, and Jiu Wu
There is no ball out there big enough to contain all the characters in there, so I refer to Wikipedia for its handy list of characters.
The Good
A very Wuxia story told anew
Underneath all of its immature comedy, cheesy acting, repetitive (sometimes draggy) writing, and bad production value, the core story of the drama is a very good story about family, honor, duty, courage, sacrifice, and love (between bros, family, and lovers). The story brings in obvious Wuxia elements but it also uses a lot of references from other media like video games, RPGs, manga/manhua, and other dramas. Nothing is a straight up ripoff and everything feels like a loving homage.
Except Lan Ling Wang's Cloud costume, which was a straight-up rip off.
The special doctors for those with powers are Xiao Long Nu and Guo'er, characters from Return of the Condor Heroes. In the original book, Xiao Long Nu's name is literally "little dragon girl". In the drama, the "dragon" becomes "deaf", since those two words are homophones in Mandarin. So the repetitive joke is that people are often talking loudly around her.
Those two are great cause their facial expressions are so excellent.
There are lots of other references but to name them all will take too long.
Comedy
As with K.O. One, the main genre of this drama would be comedy. Pretty much everything is a joke yet the drama manages to find a nice balance between comedy and drama.
When characters re-hash plot points, they use their magic Wave.zip power to make a long story short.
When they need to talk about back story, they break the fourth wall and ask to roll VCR (maybe people still use VCRs in this dimension). The entrance to the demon dimension is through the Xia family's refrigerator. This is the name of the pub they sometimes hang out at:
In Chinese, "Old Ass Pub".
The show is rife with poor visual gags like:
Sweaty heads when people are confused (Taiwan is hot. Just ask Subway Cat who gets all hot when confused):
Crows flying across the screen when people tell a bad joke:
Sometimes, it will be a cold polar bear accompanying a bad joke:
It's immature, but the drama knows what it is and goes along with it.
The fighting, when it happens, is just two people standing across from one another in a fight staredown.
The "put down your drumsticks" spell.
There's no fight choreography to speak of and it's totally fine. The end boss fight is a band play-off like they're Tenacious D versus the Dave Grohl Devil or something.
As cheesy as the acting can get, the actors actually have pretty good delivery. At one point, there's a totally serious discussion between Xia Tian and Lan Ling Wang about saving their respective girlfriend/fiancee.
Xia Tian goes with a straight face (paraphrasing): We're good bros and we've been through thick and thin. What's yours is mine and what's mine is yours. The woman you love is the woman I love. The woman I love is the woman you love. Therefore, I will do anything for you and Bin Xing (Lan Ling Wang's fiancee).
Lan Ling Wang is very touched, though looking a little confused. So he says to Xia Tian (paraphrasing): I really appreciate what you and Han (Xia Tian's girlfriend) are willing to do for me and Bin Xing. But let's make this clear: The woman I love is the woman I love. The woman you love is the woman you love.
And out comes Xia Tian's sweaty head as he realized what he had said. I'm probably telling it poorly, but that scene is done very well in a balance between two characters talking about very serious things and a joke to lighten the mood without making whatever they were talking about (basically, Bing Xin is about to die) any less serious. (Mainland) Chinese writers could really take a lesson.
Chemistry
What probably helps a lot in pulling all that comedy off is that the actors have so much chemistry together. Obviously, most of them already worked with each other on K.O. One. But even before that, some of them worked together in various bands/dramas. So I think the sense of camaraderie really comes through even if no great acting is done in this drama.
Music
The music is obviously good, since boy band members and real band playing a fictional band. The opening song is "Superb" ("出神入化") by Fahrenheit.
And probably Dong Cheng Wei's most famous song and also most famous song from this drama is "夠愛", written by R-Chord:
Fahrenheit also does the ending song, "Can't Love" ("不會愛"), which is also pretty okay. Maybe I ought to listen to Fahrenheit more.
Asides from just general soundtrack goodness, it's also clear that people in the drama play their own instruments/sing. I've watched too many (mainland) Chinese dramas recently so I've gotten used to expecting people playing instruments where their fingers don't match the music or their lips don't move in sync with the song. So it's a huge plus to see people play the guitar, drums, and violin and it being obvious that these people were actually playing and/or (being musicians as their side job) they actually know how to mime playing a musical instrument in time to the music.
Apparently, filming for this drama took eight months (September 2006 to April 2007). That's, like, four month more than the average (mainland) Chinese drama. If it takes an extra four months for China to not dub, get actors to mime playing musical instruments properly, and have good comedic writing, then I suggest China slow down their drama-making pace!
The Bad
If one overlooks the cheesy acting, the immature comedy, and low production value - which, let's be honest, is part of this drama's charm - there's very little wrong with this drama. Probably the only thing bad with it is that it's incredibly long. At 55 45-minute episodes, it's just way too long! I like all the characters. I like all their foolish escapades. But it's just really unnecessary for it to be this long!
Now that that's over, I'm craving more Taiwanese drama. I sure love the way how they're not dubbed and their comedy is competent!
Like most people, I'm stressed going to interviews. But who knew I'd be so stressed with being the interviewer?! In any event, it's one down and one more to go tomorrow and then I think I'm done with being an interviewer. If neither of these two work out for our office, I'm going to go on my own job hunting interviews.
So after all that stress, let me talk about my brain-healing drama to calm down!
Back when I first heard of The X-Family, I thought it was going to rip off The X-Files. But it makes far more sense that it probably rips off the idea of the X-Men since people with powers and stuff.
Basic Plot Background
The drama is a sequel to K.O. One and is about the Iron Dimension, a parallel dimension (of which there are over 10 in this drama universe) to the Gold Dimension that the first drama takes place in. The idea is that different versions of the same people exist in each dimension, thereby allowing the cast of K.O. One to come back and play "different" people.
At the end of K.O. One, the main characters lose all of their powers in fighting the Big Bad. In order to get their powers back, they need to reply on their counterparts in the Iron Dimension to travel to the Gold Dimension and infuse their powers together...or something vague like that. To get through the dimensional doorway, the person must have a certain level of K.O. points. Since the main characters in the Gold Dimension lost all their K.O. points, they have to reply on Shu, a dimension guardian or sorts, to help them find their counterparts in the Iron Dimension. The rest of the story focuses on the counterparts in the Iron Dimension and how they got their K.O. powers.
Got all that?
Cast and Characters
Shu
Dimension traveler, dimension guardian, and lead guitarist of fictional band Dong Cheng Wei, Shu is played by Shu Chen (K.O. One), the actual band leader and guitarist of real life band Dong Cheng Wei.
The fictional band members are all guardians of the dimension. I'm not sure if it's ever made clear if this Shu is from the Iron Dimension or the Gold Dimension since the band (some difference in lineup) also shows up in K.O. One set in the Gold Dimension. But lead singer A-Chord is Shark Boy in the Gold Dimension. Ahh, it's better not to think too hard about the logic of this show.
Xia Tian
Xia Tian, the counterpart to Wang Da Dong from the Gold Dimension, is played by Jiro Wang (K.O. One, It Started With a Kiss, They Kiss Again, Hana Kimi, ToGetHer, Absolute Darling), former member of boy band Fahrenheit and co-founder of the real life band Dong Cheng Wei. Jiro Wang does dopey so well that I never get tired of any of his dopey characters in any of his dramas, as you can tell from my knowledge of his extensive filmography of playing dopey characters.
Egads! I prefer the dopey look.
Unlike Da Dong in the Gold Dimension, Xia Tian is a "good" kid (although not necessarily good student) that's super honest but also kind of not that bright.
Lan Ling Wang
Lan Ling Wang, the counterpart to Wang Ya Se from the Gold Dimension, is played by Calvin Chen (K.O. One), also former Fahrenheit member.
Dang, that's too much muscle.
Lan Ling Wang started out pretty cool being some sort of assassin with his giant ass sword. Then he spends most of the drama moping. Something about losing his powers and his whole family dying, blah blah blah. Although he does gain more of an amusing personality towards the end of the series.
Apparently, Calvin Chen was considered the ugly one in Fahrenheit. I mean, he's kind of funny looking, but he looks fine if he keeps his shirt on.
Jiu Wu
Jiu Wu, the counterpart to Ding Xiao Yu in the Gold Dimension, is played by Aaron Yan (K.O. One), the (IMO) least charismatic member of Fahrenheit and therefore reduced to not showing up in the Iron Dimension until halfway through the drama.
Though to give him some slack, he was the youngest member of Fahrenheit and wasn't really as chummy with the rest of the group since there's a 6-year age gap between them. So maybe a lot of it could be attributed to that. Damn, I've been reading up too much on Fahrenheit.
Alright, button that shirt back up.
In the Iron Dimension, Jiu Wu is the leader of families with special powers. Think Professor X but not a cripple and not bald. Annnd...that's it. He's just the most bland person so I can't say anything else about him.
Xia Yu
To round up the boy band/band members/hanger-ongers in the cast is the money-grubbing older brother of Xia Tian played by Danson Tang (K.O. One, Hana Kimi). His counterpart in the Gold Dimension would be Lei Ke Si, but that's hardly mentioned since Lei Ke Si was a good guy that turned minor villain turned back to good guy in the Gold Dimension.
Of all those guys, the one person that looks like he would have a nice lean body I couldn't find a shirtless pic of.
Honorable mention goes to R-Chord (K.O. One, Hana Kimi), playing A-Chord.
A-Chord is the lead singer of the fictional band Dong Cheng Wei and R-Chord sometimes write songs for the real Dong Cheng Wei band.
And to complete the Fahrenheit member quota, Wu Chun (K.O. One, Hana Kimi) shows up in the last two episode as the Fire Ambassador there to destroy the whole Iron Dimension.
If the destroyer of dimensions look slightly confused, it's because that's how this guy looks.
I get the feeling Wu Chun is the most mature member of Fahrenheit and probably rolled his eyes so hard when pitched with K.O. One and The X-Family but agreed to show up for a few episodes to support the rest of the band.
There are lots of other people in this drama. The main ones are probably are grouped into this giant ball:
Let's see if I can name them all:
The back row from right to left (starting with guy in eye-catching blue jacket):
Xia Mi (or Wa Ge - I can't tell them apart), Ren Chen Wen, Wa Ge (or Xia Me), The God of Guns, played by George Hu (ToGetHer, Love Around, Love, Now, Prince of Lan Ling) and is the main lead in the next K.O. drama.
Next row: Xia Liu (name is a homophone of "scumbag") - the Xia family's grandfather; Si Ren (name is a homophone of "dead person") - the father of the Xia family; Xiong Ge, the mother of the Xia family, and A-Chord.
Next row: Shu; The Fire Ambassador (showing up here because he's played by Wu Chun in order to compete the Fahrenheit member quota), Xia Yu; Xia Mei, Xia Tian and Xia Yu's little sister.
And front row:
Lan Ling Wang, Han, Xia Tian, and Jiu Wu
There is no ball out there big enough to contain all the characters in there, so I refer to Wikipedia for its handy list of characters.
The Good
A very Wuxia story told anew
Underneath all of its immature comedy, cheesy acting, repetitive (sometimes draggy) writing, and bad production value, the core story of the drama is a very good story about family, honor, duty, courage, sacrifice, and love (between bros, family, and lovers). The story brings in obvious Wuxia elements but it also uses a lot of references from other media like video games, RPGs, manga/manhua, and other dramas. Nothing is a straight up ripoff and everything feels like a loving homage.
Except Lan Ling Wang's Cloud costume, which was a straight-up rip off.
The special doctors for those with powers are Xiao Long Nu and Guo'er, characters from Return of the Condor Heroes. In the original book, Xiao Long Nu's name is literally "little dragon girl". In the drama, the "dragon" becomes "deaf", since those two words are homophones in Mandarin. So the repetitive joke is that people are often talking loudly around her.
Those two are great cause their facial expressions are so excellent.
There are lots of other references but to name them all will take too long.
Comedy
As with K.O. One, the main genre of this drama would be comedy. Pretty much everything is a joke yet the drama manages to find a nice balance between comedy and drama.
When characters re-hash plot points, they use their magic Wave.zip power to make a long story short.
When they need to talk about back story, they break the fourth wall and ask to roll VCR (maybe people still use VCRs in this dimension). The entrance to the demon dimension is through the Xia family's refrigerator. This is the name of the pub they sometimes hang out at:
In Chinese, "Old Ass Pub".
The show is rife with poor visual gags like:
Sweaty heads when people are confused (Taiwan is hot. Just ask Subway Cat who gets all hot when confused):
Crows flying across the screen when people tell a bad joke:
Sometimes, it will be a cold polar bear accompanying a bad joke:
It's immature, but the drama knows what it is and goes along with it.
The fighting, when it happens, is just two people standing across from one another in a fight staredown.
The "put down your drumsticks" spell.
There's no fight choreography to speak of and it's totally fine. The end boss fight is a band play-off like they're Tenacious D versus the Dave Grohl Devil or something.
As cheesy as the acting can get, the actors actually have pretty good delivery. At one point, there's a totally serious discussion between Xia Tian and Lan Ling Wang about saving their respective girlfriend/fiancee.
Xia Tian goes with a straight face (paraphrasing): We're good bros and we've been through thick and thin. What's yours is mine and what's mine is yours. The woman you love is the woman I love. The woman I love is the woman you love. Therefore, I will do anything for you and Bin Xing (Lan Ling Wang's fiancee).
Lan Ling Wang is very touched, though looking a little confused. So he says to Xia Tian (paraphrasing): I really appreciate what you and Han (Xia Tian's girlfriend) are willing to do for me and Bin Xing. But let's make this clear: The woman I love is the woman I love. The woman you love is the woman you love.
And out comes Xia Tian's sweaty head as he realized what he had said. I'm probably telling it poorly, but that scene is done very well in a balance between two characters talking about very serious things and a joke to lighten the mood without making whatever they were talking about (basically, Bing Xin is about to die) any less serious. (Mainland) Chinese writers could really take a lesson.
Chemistry
What probably helps a lot in pulling all that comedy off is that the actors have so much chemistry together. Obviously, most of them already worked with each other on K.O. One. But even before that, some of them worked together in various bands/dramas. So I think the sense of camaraderie really comes through even if no great acting is done in this drama.
Music
The music is obviously good, since boy band members and real band playing a fictional band. The opening song is "Superb" ("出神入化") by Fahrenheit.
Click to viewAnd probably Dong Cheng Wei's most famous song and also most famous song from this drama is "夠愛", written by R-Chord:
Fahrenheit also does the ending song, "Can't Love" ("不會愛"), which is also pretty okay. Maybe I ought to listen to Fahrenheit more.
Asides from just general soundtrack goodness, it's also clear that people in the drama play their own instruments/sing. I've watched too many (mainland) Chinese dramas recently so I've gotten used to expecting people playing instruments where their fingers don't match the music or their lips don't move in sync with the song. So it's a huge plus to see people play the guitar, drums, and violin and it being obvious that these people were actually playing and/or (being musicians as their side job) they actually know how to mime playing a musical instrument in time to the music.
Apparently, filming for this drama took eight months (September 2006 to April 2007). That's, like, four month more than the average (mainland) Chinese drama. If it takes an extra four months for China to not dub, get actors to mime playing musical instruments properly, and have good comedic writing, then I suggest China slow down their drama-making pace!
The Bad
If one overlooks the cheesy acting, the immature comedy, and low production value - which, let's be honest, is part of this drama's charm - there's very little wrong with this drama. Probably the only thing bad with it is that it's incredibly long. At 55 45-minute episodes, it's just way too long! I like all the characters. I like all their foolish escapades. But it's just really unnecessary for it to be this long!
Now that that's over, I'm craving more Taiwanese drama. I sure love the way how they're not dubbed and their comedy is competent!