And of course I have less time to watch my beloved t-dramas! Though I do still make it a point to watch an episode of something every day haha. A drama I've watched recently features one of the most loved couples in the t-drama scene, MingEn, made of Ming Dao, and Chen Qiao En. They've acted in quite a few dramas together, from "Prince turned to frog" to their newest drama together "Ying Ye 3 Jia 1". I saw CQE in "Fated to Love You," and she was really adorable in that. and of course, I loved Ming Dao in "Magicians of Love." I also -just- finished Prince turned to frog...but I saw Ying Ye 3 Jia 1 first, so I'll blog about it first :)
Ying Ye 3 Jia 1 (YYSJY) is about 4 childhood friends who have to use their martial arts skills in order to solve a mystery involving one of the members' father. Literally, Ying Ye 3 refers to the three boys in the group, Yang Jia Jiang (Ming Dao), Bulu (Jason Hsu), and Fang Wei (Huang Zhi Wei), while the +1 refers to the sole girl, Xia Tian (CQE). The three of them have been best friends since childhood, and have grown up doing martial arts with each other (Bulu's dad owns a martial arts school).
Jia Jiang is the leader of the group, and is an upright and loyal guy, who would rather be blamed for any mishaps, than to see his friends punished. When he was young, he covered for Fang Wei and Bulu when they did something wrong, and got severely beat up for it...Since then, Fang Wei and Bulu have been his loyal friends. Jia Jiang and Xia Tian are also best friends - as well as mortal enemies, pretty much. They pick on each other all the time, but stand up for each other against any sort of harm. Their friends joke around that Jia Jiang and Xia Tian secretly like each other, but are both too proud to admit it...which of course both parties heatedly deny.One day, one of Xia Tian's female friends gets in trouble with the school bully (who is the son of a powerful senator), and Xia Tian rushes to save her. The three boys, in turn, come to rescue Xia Tian. Afterwards, the senator puts pressure on their school to expel the three boys. Xia Tian's father comes to the school to speak up for his daughter's friends - he's a police officer, so his word is pretty respected in the Ying Ye area. That day, there's a bit of a hullabaloo at the school, and his gun goes missing! This is a pretty dangerous thing for a cop...and so the three boys, chastened, agree to spend the next few months until graduation figuring out what happened to Officer Xia's gun.
While solving the mystery of Officer Xia's gun, the four stumble onto a hidden crime scene and various awesomely cool martial arts hyjinks ensue. I have to admit that I never pegged Ming Dao or CQE as the martial arts type - I was pretty impressed! During this time, Xia Tian falls for Jia Jiang, but refuses to admit it. At the same time, Fang Wei confesses to Jia Jiang that he (FW) has liked Xia Tian for a long time. Fang Wei's pretty rich, and usually goes for the sweet and stereotypically feminine type, so Jia Jiang is really surprised at first. And then really jealous. Fang Wei goes to great lengths to confess his love to Xia Tian, but when he finally does, he realises that Xia Tian likes Jia Jiang...and pretends that the whole thing was a joke. Xia Tian and Jia Jiang spend a drunken night together - well she was drunk :) - and Xia Tian tells Jiang that she thinks she might like him. He agrees to pretend to be her boyfriend for the evening...and of course, realises that he's always loved her and can't imagine being without her. He decides to confess his feelings the next day (this scene is really cute), but is involved in an accident and falls into a coma the very next day.
Xia Tian falls apart, and scrambles around Taiwan looking for a firefly to symbolise their love together. On the way, she is helped by DK Hsu (Viter Fan), an undercover cop who she actually knew in childhood. He was the only person that could pull her away from the YY gang when they were little - she even wore a dress for him! DK is a close family friend, and he and Xia Tian renew their friendship. Jia Jiang awakes and finally asks Xia Tian out...they go out all of a week together before they break up - JJ is jealous of DK blah blah. The gun is found (remember that plot line?) and things go back to normal...
...until DK suggests that Xia Tian return to America with him to train as an undercover FBI agent. Xia Tian wants to stay with JJ, but JJ pushes her away for reasons of his own (he's going blind), and so she decides to leave with DK. Right at the end, she decides to stay, and the two reunite. The show ends on the cutest note - the entire gang become secret service agents, and we get to witness one of their missions.
This blog entry is kind of uncoherent (sorry!), but I think that's because I wasn't the biggest fan of this drama. I did like it, and I enjoyed the sparks between Ming Dao and CQE, but I didn't understand the hype! In the Taiwanese drama world, there are a few "golden couples", and I couldn't for the life of me understand how MingEn became one of them (though I did after watching one of their old dramas, which I will try and blog about this weekend). There were a few really touching moments between them - for example, during that drunken night that I mentioned earlier, Xia Tian ends up staying over at JJ's house, and the two of them end up falling asleep together side by side. In the morning, JJ wakes up slightly before Xia Tian, and as he watches her sleep, it dawns on him that he loves her. He plays with her hair (it's usually up), and comments on her features, and reveals a tender side of JJ that we hadn't seen before...now the chemistry in that scene was off the screen! But in general, the bond between the two actors wasn't as strong as I expected it to be - and for me, one of the biggest draws in a drama is watching the relationship unfold...
Plot wise though, this was pretty decent. I loved the stunts in it, and I actually thought that the story line was quite innovative. I actually didn't expect a lot of the plot twists that occurred...but this definitely did not compare to MingEn's first drama :)
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