Taipei 101, drink.
We finished Falling Into You last night and it's once again "what to watch next" time.
In no particular order:
1. Nowhere Man
As best as I can tell from half-assed research, it's about the ML (Joseph Chang) who breaks out of prison in order to save his son. Then possibly Taiwanese gangsters are after him/after his son. Twists happen. Alyssa Chia and Greg Hsu are also in it and I generally enjoy watching those Taiwanese actors.
It's 8 episodes of 30-60 minutes each. It's weird how it varies so much in length (that's what she said!). Maybe because it's backed by Netflix.
2. BORDER
Because I'm lazy, I'm just copying and pasting from my previous post about this:
Not sure why the title is shouting at us. It's about a guy that gets shot. But instead of dying, he gets superpowers to see the dead and solve crime. It sounds like the Taiwanese drama, Fearless (not to be confused with Jet Li's The Fearless). But BORDER was released before Taiwanese Fearless so it's probably the other way around. It's a short Japanese 9 episodes of 45 minutes each.
3. The Victim's Game
It's another Taiwanese drama with Joseph Chang as the ML and Tiffany Hsu as FL. Sadly, it's also another Netflix production. This time, ML is a forensic scientist solving crime with a journalist in 8 episodes of 60-ish minutes each.
So anyways, let me briefly talk about Falling Into You
Falling Into You is a fairly standard romantic comedy and I wouldn't watch it if not for Jiro Wang, Puff Kuo, and that serial killer from Some Day or One Day. And it lived up to my expectations of being just okay but buoyed by the likability of its cast.
Cast and Characters
Overbearing CEO ML is played by Jiro Wang (It Started With a Kiss, They Kiss Again, Hana Kimi, Rolling Love, K.O. One, The X-Family, ToGetHer, K.O. 3 Guo, Absolute Boyfriend, Fabulous Boys, The Crossing Hero, Rakshasa Street - goshdarnit! I probably watched 80% of his filmography!).
Cold Woman FL is played by Puff Kuo (Miss Rose, Pleasantly Surprised, Lost Romance)
And then there's lovable, chubby-faced serial killer (not actually a serial killer in this drama) sidekick to the ML played by Yan Yu Lin (Some Day or One Day). Dang, it looks like his Chinese name would be so hard to write - 顏毓麟. I would have no idea how to pronounce any of those characters if not for pinyin.
Story and Stuff
Dar...does it really matter? It's about ML and FL who meet...
...have misunderstandings...
Are they ever going to run out of creative way for people two "accidentally" kiss?
...but end up falling in love. ML is a CEO. FL does Taekwondo. There's a side couple.
Everyone gets together in the end. The end.
Con - It's just a standard romantic comedy. There's very little substance to it. There's probably a message in there about following your dreams.
Pros
Characters
What makes that extremely blah premise bearable is the likability of the cast and the characters they play. Despite this being a romantic comedy, at least the writing of the characters has evolved beyond emotionally unavailable ML and clumsy FL.
ML comes off like a standard overbearing CEO, but that's just on the surface. Jiro Wang is very good at playing dopey and likable and he does it well here, too. FL may start off being a cold woman, but once she becomes closer to the people around her, she lets her feelings show. They're not one of those couples in drama that deny their feelings all the way up until the end and it's just frustrating to watch.
The side characters are good too. No one is an irrational villain that tries to tear the leads apart for no good reason. Even the FL's grouchy mom and Taekwondo rival have explainable reasons for their actions. So I would say it's a drama in which the side characters are also well fleshed out.
Music
Jiro Wang does the songs for the drama and they're fairly standard pop songs I expect out of him.
End Thoughts
Again, not a drama I would normally watch. But the things I do to try and 100% Jiro Wang's filmography (frankly, impossible thanks to Chinese dubbing on some of his dramas).
In no particular order:
1. Nowhere Man
As best as I can tell from half-assed research, it's about the ML (Joseph Chang) who breaks out of prison in order to save his son. Then possibly Taiwanese gangsters are after him/after his son. Twists happen. Alyssa Chia and Greg Hsu are also in it and I generally enjoy watching those Taiwanese actors.
It's 8 episodes of 30-60 minutes each. It's weird how it varies so much in length (that's what she said!). Maybe because it's backed by Netflix.
2. BORDER
Because I'm lazy, I'm just copying and pasting from my previous post about this:
Not sure why the title is shouting at us. It's about a guy that gets shot. But instead of dying, he gets superpowers to see the dead and solve crime. It sounds like the Taiwanese drama, Fearless (not to be confused with Jet Li's The Fearless). But BORDER was released before Taiwanese Fearless so it's probably the other way around. It's a short Japanese 9 episodes of 45 minutes each.
3. The Victim's Game
It's another Taiwanese drama with Joseph Chang as the ML and Tiffany Hsu as FL. Sadly, it's also another Netflix production. This time, ML is a forensic scientist solving crime with a journalist in 8 episodes of 60-ish minutes each.
So anyways, let me briefly talk about Falling Into You
Falling Into You is a fairly standard romantic comedy and I wouldn't watch it if not for Jiro Wang, Puff Kuo, and that serial killer from Some Day or One Day. And it lived up to my expectations of being just okay but buoyed by the likability of its cast.
Cast and Characters
Overbearing CEO ML is played by Jiro Wang (It Started With a Kiss, They Kiss Again, Hana Kimi, Rolling Love, K.O. One, The X-Family, ToGetHer, K.O. 3 Guo, Absolute Boyfriend, Fabulous Boys, The Crossing Hero, Rakshasa Street - goshdarnit! I probably watched 80% of his filmography!).
Cold Woman FL is played by Puff Kuo (Miss Rose, Pleasantly Surprised, Lost Romance)
And then there's lovable, chubby-faced serial killer (not actually a serial killer in this drama) sidekick to the ML played by Yan Yu Lin (Some Day or One Day). Dang, it looks like his Chinese name would be so hard to write - 顏毓麟. I would have no idea how to pronounce any of those characters if not for pinyin.
Story and Stuff
Dar...does it really matter? It's about ML and FL who meet...
...have misunderstandings...
Are they ever going to run out of creative way for people two "accidentally" kiss?
...but end up falling in love. ML is a CEO. FL does Taekwondo. There's a side couple.
Everyone gets together in the end. The end.
Con - It's just a standard romantic comedy. There's very little substance to it. There's probably a message in there about following your dreams.
Pros
Characters
What makes that extremely blah premise bearable is the likability of the cast and the characters they play. Despite this being a romantic comedy, at least the writing of the characters has evolved beyond emotionally unavailable ML and clumsy FL.
ML comes off like a standard overbearing CEO, but that's just on the surface. Jiro Wang is very good at playing dopey and likable and he does it well here, too. FL may start off being a cold woman, but once she becomes closer to the people around her, she lets her feelings show. They're not one of those couples in drama that deny their feelings all the way up until the end and it's just frustrating to watch.
The side characters are good too. No one is an irrational villain that tries to tear the leads apart for no good reason. Even the FL's grouchy mom and Taekwondo rival have explainable reasons for their actions. So I would say it's a drama in which the side characters are also well fleshed out.
Music
Jiro Wang does the songs for the drama and they're fairly standard pop songs I expect out of him.
Click to viewEnd Thoughts
Again, not a drama I would normally watch. But the things I do to try and 100% Jiro Wang's filmography (frankly, impossible thanks to Chinese dubbing on some of his dramas).