I have this one my list and was anticipating it since it started filming. So, of course I had to watch it when the drama finally aired. Oh, aside from the first episode, I waited until it was released fully before I came back. Because I didn’t want to suffer from withdrawal waiting every week. Anyway, how was it? Um, let’s say mixed feelings throughout. This had a lot to do with the fact that I could no longer enjoy high school dramas like I used to. Or more like dramas based around school themes in general. Although this was supposed to be gang-related, half of the background focused on the school one.
So, anyway, to get back to the reason why I started to watch this in the first place. It was because Kai Hsu posted it on his page, so I was curious. Also, the cute interactions between Angus Hsieh and Liang Zhe sold me even more, lol. The two were hilarious during the filming of it and eventually during different promo events.
I have to admit I didn’t warm up to the characters until episode 4. Then was mostly hanging on for the sake of the mystery aspect regarding the investigation. I wasn’t all into the plot until episode 8. I’ll elaborate later. So, let’s dive in with the usual before I continue with my complaining. Yes, there are more complaints.
Main Cast:
- Kai Hsu (徐愷) as Fan Zhe Rui (范哲睿). I’m actually impressed. The reason is because it’s my first time watching him in a serious manner. I mostly follow his YouTube channel because of his coverage of different outings in Taiwan, like how I follow some others. So, yes, this is my first time watching him in a major role. The cute, hilarious scenes were fun to watch. However, the serious parts were impressive, especially the delivery. Has he portrayed a cop role in the past? Because if he’s ever involved in those investigation dramas, I would totally watch. The role in Travel Across the Ocean to Love You (飄洋過海來愛你) didn’t count since he was an aviation officer who only appeared a little at the beginning.
- Taro Lin (林毓桐) as Bai Zong Yi (白宗易). I don’t know what to say because I was confused at times with his expressions. However, his most impressive scenes were actually with his family members. Especially the part where he returned and they had a reunion. I broke and cried when Zong Yi’s father did. Because he felt he destroyed his son’s future with that offer. It showed their bond, etc.
- Nat Chen (陳柏文) as Chen Yi (陳毅). I thought he was smarter than that but he was seriously clueless regarding stuff. Or he was clueless regarding some things. Anyway, he was too eager to prove himself that he caused a tragedy to unleash later on.
- Louis Chiang (姜典) as Ai Di (艾迪). I was really annoyed with him at first for being so loud and fussy. Yet his character grew on me over time. Probably started around the time he sought Zhe Rui out to drink with him and mope over Chen Yi. That caused Zhong Yi to be jealous and spied on them. But it was a hilarious scene. Then later, I realized he was quite righteous, even sacrificing himself to go protect Zong Yi in prison. Even if he did it for Chen Yi but it wasn’t an easy task. Sure, he was in a gang after all and was used to the tough life but being caged in with a bunch of criminals, that was scarier. He did suffer from the effects of always being on his guard later but kept firm and endured everything with Zong Yi.
Supporting:
- Liang Zhe (亮哲) as Chen Dong Yang (陳東揚). The leader of the Righteous Cloud Alliance (義雲盟). (Don’t ask, I didn’t name the gang, lol. It sounds better in Mandarin and Han Viet if you understand, lol.) Initially, he seemed quite laid-back for the leader. Or possibly because he had his second in command person to handle everything for him? He could be so fierce when it called for it. The confrontation between him and Nat’s Chen Yi showed their relationship dynamic in general. He trusted the men under his commands hence letting go. So it was justified that he lashed out because they involved an innocent bystander. Then he had to step in to clean the mess. Even if they all knew the deal sucked but it was the only way to sort things out at that point.
- Angus Hsieh (謝承均) as Zhou Ming Lei (周明磊). The second in command of the Righteous Cloud Alliance. I think Angus was my vibe for the majority of the series. Seriously, because his face totally reflected his pain and suffering for having to babysit all those members. Yes, his tolerant level was definitely low. I swear he looked like their leader more, all fierce and not tolerating their BS. NOT saying Liang Zhe didn’t look like the leader, he did. But Angus just didn’t care to spare anyone’s feelings from the very start.
- Yang Lie (楊烈) as Fan Hong Da (). Fan Zhe Rui’s grandfather. He was an asshole and that was saying it lightly. Because he was beyond cruel and acting like those privileged snobs. I still haven’t forgiven him nor the creators of The New World for that past disaster so this was stretching it with appearing in here. Before you laugh and say these were just his role, it was basically the same roles with different names. Also, he got away with stuff once again just because. So yeah, I’m bitter as hell.
Discussions:
- The unrealistic foundation of the story. Yes, I know it’s fictional so not everything has to make sense. But the concept of the storyline of how the two main leads met at the beginning bugged me to no end, which made it hard for me to get into the drama later on. So they met when Bai Zong Yi was walking along this back alley and found a severely injured Fan Zhe Rui. Fan threatened Bai to take him home and heal him or he would frame Bai for his death. Fan proceeded by planting the knife into Bai’s hand, which transferred Bai’s prints onto the knife thus evidence. What didn’t make sense? If Fan was that badly injured, Bai could just leave him to die or finish the job himself and hide the evidence, etc. Let’s disregard the fact that Bai isn’t that type of person because we, the audience, do not know much about him up till that point anyway. It was too early. What we did know at that point was he was studying to be a doctor. So he could just do all those things I said to get rid of the evidence and no one would know. Even if he isn’t going to be a doctor, he could just panic and react. According to the story, of course, he didn’t. It was still a weak start. Fan took a major risk but it sure was naive. And yes, I watch way too many crime shows, so I always imagine the worst scenario.
- Their height difference bugged the world out of me. Yes, sounds vain as hell but it was bothering me too much. Was that in the novel? Just wondering but that was messing with my head too much regarding how the older one was shorter. Kai is the same height as Ehlo Huang. (I didn’t make it up, it was in the segment where the guys went on the crazy waterfall jumping adventure together with Zhao Jun Ya and some others.) That means Taro is too tall. So I actually shipped Nat and Louis more since it was less distracting for me.
- Only about three people looked like they belonged in a gang. Seriously, the rest of them looked like they were playing make-believe. Yes, harsh and looks can be deceiving but it was seriously hard to endure. Who were the ones I mentioned above? Angus, Liang Zhe, and Kai. Ironically, according to the plot, Kai’s character was too virtuous to be in a gang. And yes, even the dude who portrayed the crazy Zhang Teng looked like he was playing make-believe. They did try to make him looked fierce but he barely scratched the surface of the character. Or possibly it was the lack of screen time.
- They spelled the word “calculus” wrong. Yes, that bugged the hell out of me. Not sure how subtitles worked with iQiyi. Yet they could have at least checked, considering how it was ironic with that part of the story taking place in a school setting after all. (It only matters if you’re watching with English subtitles.)
- Taro totally took advantage of the situation as the director by stretching out the bed scene, right? Yes, I went there. Seriously, I was surprised how long it was. Usually, they fade to blackness after a few kisses, etc. This one was bordering on those Hollywood styles. And yes, they listed someone else as the director but iQiyi credited Taro as one of the directors too so I was wondering. Unless they are wrong, then I take it back. Actually, I’m joking and I couldn’t care less one way or another. Because I usually don’t care for bed scenes since I find them unnecessary regardless of context. Maybe because I’m not into voyeurism like the majority of the people, feeling the need to watch their favorite celebs go at it. Yes, I said it. Come on, it’s in there, I didn’t force them to put those scenes in, They opened the topic for discussion.
- Episode 8 was the turning point. It was because of the incident of the past catching up to Fan Zhe Rui. Like he narrated, it was the beginning of their future together but also the end. The fact it took that long for me to be invested in the drama showed how messed up my mentality is. Because it wasn’t until then that things became complicated. I was fused on anger toward the Fan family in general so had to watch on to see if they were going down. But was once again disappointed that it could only be halfway carried out. Mostly because Zhe Rui had chosen to use the evidence he collected to buy his own freedom. I understood why he did it and why it made sense with the story. Yet once again a Taiwanese production was disappointing regarding revenge plot. Too bad.
- The Same-Sex Marriage Act came into effect in Taiwan on Friday, May 24th, 2019. (Not sure if this was in the novel because I don’t have access to read.) This was mentioned by Kai’s character, Fan Zhe Rui, in episode 8. That was the other reason why episode 8 was important. Because aside from the other conflicts they had to deal with, the rest of the plot focused on getting support and acceptance from different parties, especially family members. Zong Yi’s sister knew because she caught them one time, so she secretly supported them early on. It was difficult for Zong Yi’s father at first but he knew he loved his son and cherished his family. So, he showed support after a serious talk with Zong Yi. He even had an honest talk with Zhe Rui when they bumped into each other out in the street after so many years later. It was an equally important conversation as the one he had with Zong Yi previously. Zhe Rui’s grandfather only knew of reputation, saving face, and pulling connections to expand his empire so he was completely against it. Not to mention how he wanted to sold his grandson out to this rich family to pull more connections, so yeah. Even if that wasn’t part of what caused the hostility between them, his grandfather never treated him like a real person anyway. He even regarded Zhe Rui as a “dog” straight to his face on many occasions. It mostly had to do with the fact that Zhe Rui was an illegitimate child of the family (according to them). It was also the reason why Zhe Rui ran away from home and wanted to join the gang previously. If it wasn’t for the other incident, he wouldn’t have returned. Aside from that, Zhe Rui’s half-brother supported them. He was the reason Zhe Rui and Yong Yi reunited. (Zhe Rui’s half-brother actually wasn’t bad. He just loved playing dumb in front of his grandfather. I actually liked that there wasn’t any siblings’ rivalry between them–although I was suspicious of him at first too.)
- What was the deal with Zhang Teng anyway? I’m still confused why he had such a grudge toward Fan Zhe Rui and wanted to bring him down. I got it that Zhang Teng was crazy and things he did didn’t make sense. But the flashback showing their past relationship seemed to portray Zhang Teng as somewhat timid, almost shy. It seemed like Fan Zhe Rui brought him out of his shell or something. Were they involved? Then he found out he was used hence he went insane? Or were they just friends but Fan Zhe Rui betrayed his trust and used him to extract info for the other side so he was mad? I don’t know. The production team just had to involve those details and never really answered so I was curious. It would have been better that they cut back on those repetitive flashbacks and worked on those gaps. Or was it that way in the novel too so they couldn’t change it?
- Zhang Teng’s sister’s identity was a good one. I was shocked too. The reveal made sense to keep her identity a secret till the end.
- Flashbacks. Omg, I thought that was done away already in recent years except for some necessary recap for context. But the later episodes got me annoyed mostly because of that. Even if these were short episodes, seriously.
- They killed Angus’ character off just like that. Okay, he wasn’t dead yet but he might as well be with the coughing fit at the end and it was probably blood.
Trivia:
- The age of consent in Taiwan is 14 years old. Yes, I looked it up. I had to watch it so, of course, I looked it up. And yes, I do know they only filmed some parts and nothing happened. (Not to mention both actors were well above 18 when they filmed that part.) But the context of the storyline, I was trying to see how they got away with it–even if it was fictional. With how it was broadcasted and all, people would wonder, etc. The production team would have to cover their asses or it would be a major issue if someone were to bring it up.
Recommended? I think if you like cutesy stuff with a side of gangster mixed in with school related stuff then yeah. It was supposedly from the same author who wrote We Best Love. I actually liked We Best Love more and felt the other two had better chemistry. Yes, it was also school-related but the other two were seriously cute together. Not to mention, I was still able to enjoy school-themed ones at that time. I’m at a different place now. This team was just unlucky with me picking on them. It’s all right, they’re still quite successful and touring around to promote the drama. Anyway, enough about that. But I think the important thing is you need to enjoy the boy love genre to appreciate the series.