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dangermousieHeh. It sounds like a research paper. Too bad nobody will give me a grant.
ISWAK is a very popular Taiwanese drama (based on a Japanese manga) starring Ariel Lin and Joe Cheng. The plot is hilarious and simple: our heroine, Chang Xin, is a high school girl who is rather on the dumb side academically and doesn't really have much of a goal in life. Well, except one goal, that is: she has a major yen for the tall, good-looking fellow student, Zhi Shu, who in addition to looks and athletic ability, is also the smartest student in school.
The story starts when Chang Xin nerves herself to give Zhi Shu a love letter confessing her feelings and he not only refuses to take it and walks by her as if she doesn't exist, but tells her "do you really have nothing better to do with your time?" That is humiliating enough, but soon after Chang Xin's housing situation becomes nonexistent and she and her widower father move in with that father's old friend - Zhi Shu's Dad. Yes, Chang Xin and Zhi Shu are, henceforth, doomed to live under one roof. Did I mention that Zhi Shu's mother, who is the one who runs the family, has decided that no girl could be better for her son?
When I first started ISWAK, years ago, it was that rare beast with dramas - love at first sight. It usually takes me a couple of episodes to warm up to a drama but here, it took less than five minutes. When Zhi Shu rejected Chang Xin and she literally toppled backward, arms still stiffly held out, from the emotional shock, and then lay there with arms still held up, it looked so absurdly anime, I knew it was love. I wanted to know how on earth those two would end up together. I marathonned the drama to the detriment of my sleeping schedule, and when we moved, I remember unearthing the DVD player so I could finish ISWAK (grinning like a loon) among the boxes.
And I think I will still love it today, even if I am fully cognizant of all the drama's problems from a feminist point of view - Chang Xin literally has no goal, no life, other than loving Zhi Shu and wanting to have him love her back, something he is not interested in for the longest time. But I don't know - somehow this drama always worked for me. Chang Xin might have odd goals, IMO, but she does get what she wants in the end, and she is pretty strong in pursuing them. And Zhi Shu ends up needing her more than she needs him - when the story starts he really is like a space alien, without understanding human emotions, or anything other than logic - I don't think he even realizes that he hurts Chang Xin because being hurt emotionally is something from another planet for him. And later, it's lashing out because he doesn't want to acknowledge he loves her. Once he does, though, he is everything that is considerate and she twists him around her little finger :D (That wedding!) In a lot of ways, ISWAK is about growing up.
Or maybe I just dig Joe and Ariel's chemistry and the trope of icy guy and warm girl chasing him has always been my favorite.
I wonder what I'd feel rewatching ISWAK. Am too lazy to do so, so instead I will watch the sequel, the also popular They Kiss Again. Seeing that it starts with her pranking him and making the whole plane watch their wedding videos as he facepalms in embarassment, I think I might enjoy it.
Here is an adorable MV:
ISWAK is a very popular Taiwanese drama (based on a Japanese manga) starring Ariel Lin and Joe Cheng. The plot is hilarious and simple: our heroine, Chang Xin, is a high school girl who is rather on the dumb side academically and doesn't really have much of a goal in life. Well, except one goal, that is: she has a major yen for the tall, good-looking fellow student, Zhi Shu, who in addition to looks and athletic ability, is also the smartest student in school.
The story starts when Chang Xin nerves herself to give Zhi Shu a love letter confessing her feelings and he not only refuses to take it and walks by her as if she doesn't exist, but tells her "do you really have nothing better to do with your time?" That is humiliating enough, but soon after Chang Xin's housing situation becomes nonexistent and she and her widower father move in with that father's old friend - Zhi Shu's Dad. Yes, Chang Xin and Zhi Shu are, henceforth, doomed to live under one roof. Did I mention that Zhi Shu's mother, who is the one who runs the family, has decided that no girl could be better for her son?
When I first started ISWAK, years ago, it was that rare beast with dramas - love at first sight. It usually takes me a couple of episodes to warm up to a drama but here, it took less than five minutes. When Zhi Shu rejected Chang Xin and she literally toppled backward, arms still stiffly held out, from the emotional shock, and then lay there with arms still held up, it looked so absurdly anime, I knew it was love. I wanted to know how on earth those two would end up together. I marathonned the drama to the detriment of my sleeping schedule, and when we moved, I remember unearthing the DVD player so I could finish ISWAK (grinning like a loon) among the boxes.
And I think I will still love it today, even if I am fully cognizant of all the drama's problems from a feminist point of view - Chang Xin literally has no goal, no life, other than loving Zhi Shu and wanting to have him love her back, something he is not interested in for the longest time. But I don't know - somehow this drama always worked for me. Chang Xin might have odd goals, IMO, but she does get what she wants in the end, and she is pretty strong in pursuing them. And Zhi Shu ends up needing her more than she needs him - when the story starts he really is like a space alien, without understanding human emotions, or anything other than logic - I don't think he even realizes that he hurts Chang Xin because being hurt emotionally is something from another planet for him. And later, it's lashing out because he doesn't want to acknowledge he loves her. Once he does, though, he is everything that is considerate and she twists him around her little finger :D (That wedding!) In a lot of ways, ISWAK is about growing up.
Or maybe I just dig Joe and Ariel's chemistry and the trope of icy guy and warm girl chasing him has always been my favorite.
I wonder what I'd feel rewatching ISWAK. Am too lazy to do so, so instead I will watch the sequel, the also popular They Kiss Again. Seeing that it starts with her pranking him and making the whole plane watch their wedding videos as he facepalms in embarassment, I think I might enjoy it.
Here is an adorable MV:
