doramas: Devil Beside You, The Little Fairy, Hu Ge
DBY info is actually dated, as I typed this up at work last night but couldn't post it until now. Commentary is through ep 8, I'm up to 14 now(hey, there's not much to do out there except watch something, stroke the cats and read, and reading makes it difficult to stroke the cats)
Eight episodes into Devil Beside You now, and liking it much more. Though, pretty much just for the secondary OTP.. Qi Yue and Ah Meng are ok, but there's too much "Look how cute she is!" with Rainie and "Look! He's a hot, violent bad boy in leather" with Mike and both feel really forced and over the top in that regard. Plus, Ah Meng left "bad boy" behind and crossed into "punk" about 10 levels of characterization earlier. They're both likable enough and they have decent enough chemistry, but I'm getting whacked over the head with cute/dangerous just a little too much to really get into them. Plus, I need a little more than "Mom walked out on me" for me to accept this level of behavior and attitude(yeah, in RL it can cause it, but for a romantic hero who I'm supposed to see as the poor woobie, I need a little more...)
But Qing Zi and Yuan Yi? Pure love. Well...pure love for her from the start. Yuan Yi was as interesting as the dirt in your backyard the first few episodes, at at first, all liking and OTP approval was of the "because Qing Zi likes him and Qing Zi should get what she wants" variety(and some still is, though he's FAR better now) but I like them on his merits, too, though he hasn't quite regained all the points he lost when he forgot about their date because he was with Qi Yue, though he's regained most, between realizing how much he screwed up there and that he didn't really deserve the second chance he was giving her, and then for going out and buying her shoes the right size because the ones she had were too small and hurting her feet.
It's kinda odd, actually. Normally a character like Qing Zi doesn't appeal too me-the kinda flashy friend always hanging around with advice that may or may not be that worthwhile...actually, I usually just don't care a lot for the best friends in dramas...maybe because they often end up disappearing when there's trouble and being more talk than anything else, but Qing Zi I loved almost immediately, and she was the first one I latched on to, and still my favorite. I also have a thing for unrequitted crushes when they're done well, and this one was. I liked thatshe kept quiet about her crush on Yuan Yi because she knew Qi Yue liked him but was never jealous, but the second she knew Qi Yue liked someone else and that admitting her crush wouldn't make them rivals, she wasted no time. While I like Qi Yue well enough-I just need less cutesy-Yuan Yi definitely traded up (his and Qi Yue's scenes were the most boring thing ever.)
I also really like Ah Meng's dad(and Qi Yue's mom as an extension) I usually can't stand the "useless but oh so lovable parents who make the poor woobie with no idea what a real family is like fel at home" type-I FF-edthrough every non-crucial looking scene with the heroine's parents in Meteor Garden, Goong and Hana Yori Dango-but I like them. The only other one I've liked is Yu Rin's dad in My Girl. I think it's because the parents here really are good and responsible parents, as silly as they seem, and in My Girl, he wasn't portrayed as "useless but oh so loveable" but as a screw-up who really did love his daughter and tried to do what was best for her, he just always messed up(and, unlike the others, they didn't portray his uselessness as a reason to love him and think he was cute, but as a flaw, which made him likeable.)
Also, I decided to see what trailers my The Little Fairy dvds had, and check out the opening credits. The trailer was for The Hero and the Legend...didn't catch much about it except that it looked very pretty and had Fan Bing Bing, but it looked like she might play a villain. But The Little Fairy itself had a scene before the credits, and it was one of those that was events from later in the series. In it, Ariel Lin is abducted to the heaven's by her father, the king of the heavens(or so I gathered) and Hu Ge stormed the heavens to get her back. Despite acquitting himself well(it IS Hu Ge in a wuxia role...) he would have literally ended up extra crispy if he hadn't brought along a pair of more experienced friends. When Hu Ge confronted the king, he challenged the king's undermining their love, saying that he'd love Ariel in every life and would follow her into hell if he had to, and the king basically says "ok" and opens the floor beneath him and he starts plummetting. There were still a few miles between him and the ground when it cut to the credits, so who knows, but it looks really good. It's probably my next dorama.
Also, I don't know how, but in all his wuxia roles(which is all I've seen him in or have on my list, but then, I don't know of any non-wuxia series he's done...) he manages to look completely heroic and dashing, while still somehow being completely adorkable. Also,
calixa spammed me (in a good way) with Hu Ge pics, yesterday and one was of him and Ady An and it made me really want them to do another drama together. Preferably one where they get together and it doesn't end in a giant ball of angst.
Eight episodes into Devil Beside You now, and liking it much more. Though, pretty much just for the secondary OTP.. Qi Yue and Ah Meng are ok, but there's too much "Look how cute she is!" with Rainie and "Look! He's a hot, violent bad boy in leather" with Mike and both feel really forced and over the top in that regard. Plus, Ah Meng left "bad boy" behind and crossed into "punk" about 10 levels of characterization earlier. They're both likable enough and they have decent enough chemistry, but I'm getting whacked over the head with cute/dangerous just a little too much to really get into them. Plus, I need a little more than "Mom walked out on me" for me to accept this level of behavior and attitude(yeah, in RL it can cause it, but for a romantic hero who I'm supposed to see as the poor woobie, I need a little more...)
But Qing Zi and Yuan Yi? Pure love. Well...pure love for her from the start. Yuan Yi was as interesting as the dirt in your backyard the first few episodes, at at first, all liking and OTP approval was of the "because Qing Zi likes him and Qing Zi should get what she wants" variety(and some still is, though he's FAR better now) but I like them on his merits, too, though he hasn't quite regained all the points he lost when he forgot about their date because he was with Qi Yue, though he's regained most, between realizing how much he screwed up there and that he didn't really deserve the second chance he was giving her, and then for going out and buying her shoes the right size because the ones she had were too small and hurting her feet.
It's kinda odd, actually. Normally a character like Qing Zi doesn't appeal too me-the kinda flashy friend always hanging around with advice that may or may not be that worthwhile...actually, I usually just don't care a lot for the best friends in dramas...maybe because they often end up disappearing when there's trouble and being more talk than anything else, but Qing Zi I loved almost immediately, and she was the first one I latched on to, and still my favorite. I also have a thing for unrequitted crushes when they're done well, and this one was. I liked thatshe kept quiet about her crush on Yuan Yi because she knew Qi Yue liked him but was never jealous, but the second she knew Qi Yue liked someone else and that admitting her crush wouldn't make them rivals, she wasted no time. While I like Qi Yue well enough-I just need less cutesy-Yuan Yi definitely traded up (his and Qi Yue's scenes were the most boring thing ever.)
I also really like Ah Meng's dad(and Qi Yue's mom as an extension) I usually can't stand the "useless but oh so lovable parents who make the poor woobie with no idea what a real family is like fel at home" type-I FF-edthrough every non-crucial looking scene with the heroine's parents in Meteor Garden, Goong and Hana Yori Dango-but I like them. The only other one I've liked is Yu Rin's dad in My Girl. I think it's because the parents here really are good and responsible parents, as silly as they seem, and in My Girl, he wasn't portrayed as "useless but oh so loveable" but as a screw-up who really did love his daughter and tried to do what was best for her, he just always messed up(and, unlike the others, they didn't portray his uselessness as a reason to love him and think he was cute, but as a flaw, which made him likeable.)
Also, I decided to see what trailers my The Little Fairy dvds had, and check out the opening credits. The trailer was for The Hero and the Legend...didn't catch much about it except that it looked very pretty and had Fan Bing Bing, but it looked like she might play a villain. But The Little Fairy itself had a scene before the credits, and it was one of those that was events from later in the series. In it, Ariel Lin is abducted to the heaven's by her father, the king of the heavens(or so I gathered) and Hu Ge stormed the heavens to get her back. Despite acquitting himself well(it IS Hu Ge in a wuxia role...) he would have literally ended up extra crispy if he hadn't brought along a pair of more experienced friends. When Hu Ge confronted the king, he challenged the king's undermining their love, saying that he'd love Ariel in every life and would follow her into hell if he had to, and the king basically says "ok" and opens the floor beneath him and he starts plummetting. There were still a few miles between him and the ground when it cut to the credits, so who knows, but it looks really good. It's probably my next dorama.
Also, I don't know how, but in all his wuxia roles(which is all I've seen him in or have on my list, but then, I don't know of any non-wuxia series he's done...) he manages to look completely heroic and dashing, while still somehow being completely adorkable. Also,
calixa spammed me (in a good way) with Hu Ge pics, yesterday and one was of him and Ady An and it made me really want them to do another drama together. Preferably one where they get together and it doesn't end in a giant ball of angst.