就想賴著妳 / Jiu Xiang Lai Zhe Ni

Down With Love

January to May, 2010 CTV drama (16 episodes) about a pitiful, young girl (Ella Chen as Yang Guo) at a crossroads in her life when she happens upon her Prince Charming in the form of a brash attorney (Jerry Yan as Xiang Yu Ping) with ice for a heart.

She also bumps into his best buddy: a dashing designer (Michael Zhang as Qi Ke Zhong) with a big heart but who has spent the past, seven years pining away for the attorney's estranged girlfriend (Chen Zi Han as Ding Hui Fan) - a famous movie star in Taiwan.

To keep these guys well-connected throughout the show, the writers placed Yang Guo's sister (Kelly Huang as Yang Duo) in the attorney's office as his secretary.

Michael Zhang isn't bad looking, and whenever he wasn't wearing specs, his eyes were rather sexy - but ...



I had a REALLY hard time with the scab underneath his chin.

Seriously, when I was a little girl, there was a boy who came to school one day with this dastardly-looking scab under his chin, and he tried really hard not to cry as he explained to us curious onlookers about the fact that he fell off his bike, sliding his face across a tree trunk - and when I first saw Michael in this drama, that was exactly what it looked like to me.

NOT a big fan of facial hair any more than I can appreciate super-short hairstyles on hot guys - they just, don't go together imho.

Anyway ...

Yang Guo isn't meant to be sexy, attractive, or even appealing to the opposite sex, and her stupid hairstyle (a prominent cowlick growing from the side of her head) makes matters worse (for me at least).



She tends to make stupid faces that don't seem to embarrass her, along with some weird noises at inappropriate times that were downright annoying (to me at least), and the best she can think to do in the wardrobe department are t-shirts and baggy overalls.

STILL!

She managed to grab the attention of the two, male leads, both of whom are far, more desirable, sexy, and appealing than ten Ella's (I mean Guo's) combined.

Yes, Ella is pretty, funny, and a good actress - just not in this drama.

I'm not the only 'fan' of these things who has commented about the fact that when it comes to Taiwanese dramas/movies, the stars tend to over-do it in every aspect of their profession, and Down With Love proved that point time & again.

ie: The distorted facial expressions, the rapid speech in a loud tone, and the so-called comedic instances that are neither believable nor laughable a majority of the time.

ALTHOUGH I must admit, they did manage to tame (or at least tone down) the sickeningly sappy, pre-teen crapola this time.

I don't know what it is about their crew (behind the scenes), either, but I've yet to watch a Chinese drama where the sound isn't messed up in almost every scene - like, one minute the actors voices are drowned out by cicadas, pouring rain, or heavy traffic, and then suddenly it disappears and we hear clearly the dialogue - or they are inside, yet it is obvious the outside or background noise isn't being suppressed for some, unknown reason.

A great example of this comes in episode 15, when they are entering the restaurant to meet with Qi Ke Zhong's mother - it sounds like a herd of stampeding buffalo heading toward her when the actors are only walking across a wooden floor.

That aside, this wasn't as bad or obnoxious a Taiwanese drama as I'm used to seeing.

The storyline was interesting, but the Cinderella theme is getting really old, and I'd like to see something more mature, more captivating, and a bit, more believable from these guys now.

Maybe they hire all the hot actors for these stories, and since that's all I'm really in it for, it is all I ever see?

Speaking of HOT ...









then, there's just his royal hottness:







Honestly, if he wasn't starring in this one, I doubt I'd have given it a go.

EVERY time the dude entered the picture, I got that thrilling stir in the pit of my stomach, and every time they zoomed in on his crotch, it sent me over the edge.

Guy is smokin' from head to toe, and though he most-often appeared in black pants and a white button-down, it never became monotonous or stale.

Tight bod, amazing bone structure, and gawd, how I want to run my fingers through his hair!!!!













He cuts it off the way Choi Minho did, and I'll probably cry.

Hey, is Aiyo a new, Mandarin word meant as a play on the Korean eye goo (aiygu)?

If I rated this strictly for the eye-candy content, it'd have received the coveted 5-hearts, but since I'm trying harder not to be so shallow, I am sticking more to the content of the story, which forced me to rate this a 3 out of 5.

I STILL LOVE YOU, THOUGH, JERRY!