Ti Amo Chocolate Review

Title: Ti Amo Chocolate

AKA: Set chocolate

Genre: Romance

Episodes: 80

Broadcast period: 2012-Apr to 2012-Jul

Theme song: Undefeatable by Van Ness Wu and Lee Jun Ho from 2PM

Cast: Van Ness Wu, Joanne Tseng, Michael Zhang, Ah Ben, Dou Zhi Kong, Guo Shu Yao and Wang Zi.

Fang Jia Hua (Van Ness Wu) is a stubborn and sometimes rude heir of Taiwan’s most famous food company. His mother left him when he was younger in order to follow her dream of making chocolate. This has made Jia Hua’s father hate chocolate, and even refuse to sell it as a product. One day Jia Hua has enough of his father’s tyranny and decides to follow his dream, which he has in common with his mother: to open up a chocolate store. So he leaves his father’s house and wealth, and leaves the house with only one bag of things. While driving, he bumps into a car that belongs to Hong Xi En (Joanne Tseng), who wants to sue him for the damages, but is also mistook for a boy by Jia Hua. Promising to pay back, he takes her family and her to dinner, only to find out that his cards are blocked, infuriating Xi En, who now has to pay for an extremely expensive dinner.

Adding it to his debt, she commands him to stay at his house, in order to make sure he doesn’t run away, but also makes him pay rent - expensive one at that.

As she and her family get a low income, Xi En is forced to work. As the local chocolate store is looking for workers she lies about her gender to get the job, and as fate has it she meets Jia Hua again who wants to buy the store, but when Jia Hua loses a bet he reluctantly has to work at the shop.

The two start working together, and slowly get attracted to one another, but Xi En cannot tell anyone about her secret or she’ll lose her job, and Jia Hua cannot tell anyone about his real identity since it might get people biased… What is going to happen?

Okay, so decided to watch this drama some time back, for one reason only: Van Ness Wu. I love this dude, yet I finished it because of Dou Zhi Kong who I remembered from Love Around. To be honest the main love story is nice and sweet, even envious but it kind dragged on for the last 20 episodes. The other love stories were okay, but my favorite was Lu Zheng Ting (Dou Zhi Kong) and Hong Xi Hui (Guo Shu Yao), just because the made me: 1 blush, 2 excited when they had screen time, and 2 they are so great together! Besides that their storyline was much newer and thrilling than the typical guilt-ridden story.

As a general the family stories and the love stories are very well though through and they are quite detailed. But somehow this one doesn’t become what I wanted it to be, and just kept on dragging on. Yes the actors are pretty good, and yes it is funny at times, but after the 60-point in the main story, it just gets LONG. So yeah, I seriously only watched the rest because of the second leads.

I don’t want to spoil anything, but I think I would recommend it to rom-com lovers, as it isn’t your typical ‘girl-dressed-as-boy’ story. It has MORE heart…

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

Love Keeps Going Review

Title: Love Keeps Going
AKA: Mei Le Go!
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Drama
Episodes: 13
Broadcast period: 2011-Jun to 2011-Aug
Opening theme song: Don't Cry by Cyndi Wang
Ending theme song: Sticky Sticky by Cyndi Wang
Cast: Mike He, Cyndi Wang, Albee Huang, Michelle Zhang and Xiao Xiao Bin.

When 10-year-old Mei Le (Cyndi Wang) overhears her parents fighting about their divorce, and how none of them want her because she is ‘stupid’, she decides to change that. She starts being a good student, does all the chores, helps everyone and is polite towards anyone. This leads her to having no enemies what so ever and several diplomas as an adult.
Her boyfriend, who fell for her due to her independent and hardworking personality, tells her about his dream of opening a bakery, which Mei Le takes to heart, and used all her saving so that they together can open a bakery. Even his family sees her as their guardian angel, her life couldn’t be any better.
That all changes when her boyfriend asks her to pick up his younger brother Yi Lie (Mike He); a famous composer known as ‘J-king’ in the music industry, and is known for being somewhat of a jerk.
From the beginning, both butt heads, but when something suddenly changes, they are left with only each other…

I missed these kinds of dramas: romantic without being too melodramatic.
This drama is also very different than the usual Taiwanese drama; it doesn’t have the typical ‘flow’. The scenes are more creative, and the process of the drama is also unique.
The character suits Cyndi Wang perfectly, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen her, and even though Mike He acting as an arrogant and mean guy is more than typical, I didn’t mind it, I mean it’s Mike He.. lol..
Anyhow, pretty good drama, well made, even though it had loads of tacky scenes, but that’s what you get used to while watching these dramas : P

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts

18 Jin Bu Jin Review

Title: 18 Jin Bu Jin
AKA: 18, Censoring or Not?
Genre: Comedy / School / Romance
Episodes: 20
Broadcast period: 2007-Apr to 2007-Sep
Opening theme song: SHA LA LA by EaStyle
Ending theme song: Tian Tian Quan Donut by Albee Huang and Ah Ben
Cast: Ah Ben, Li Jia Wen, Ah Mei, Xiao Cao, Albee Huang, Michelle Zhang, Amanda Zhou and Carmen Tang.

This drama is about a class, where the school rules are a bit different; boys and girls go in different classrooms, but are the same year. Boys and girls are not allowed to be involved nor are they allowed talking to one another.
One day, the school nurse persuades the school director to make an ‘experimental-class’, to join females and male into one class. Right at the beginning, HUGE hostility is made between the genders; because of the separation with the boys, the girls have become feminists and scary believing boys are nasty creatures, and the boys have become perverts who watch porn at every single occasion.
So it starts the clash of the two sexes...

I started this drama several years ago, I think around 6 years ago. There simply wasn’t a single subbing group interested in subbing this, and others just didn’t go further than an episode per 3 months or something like that. I loved the series. Yeah, it’s dirty and yeah ridicules a lot of times, but I gotta say... Splendid. I don’t know if it’s bad acting or if it is the comedy that does it, but the acting was just, well, different. And most of it was a bit stupid. But seriously, it was kind of cute that after every episode there was this “confession” that the person who did wrong says, and apologizes, or the entire episode’s moral is summed up. Fun :P
All in all, it’s okay.

☆☆☆ / 3 out of 5 stars.

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts