Definitely my favorite actors: the best talent Ariel Lin and the equally dashing Joe Cheng
Obviously ZS fell in love with XQ's determination and simple-mindedness and her stubbornness in wanting to do something for others.
As the line repeats itself:
"She can't do the 90% that I can do, but I can't do 10% of what she can do." - ZS
So, ISWAK ended with the wedding of the lovebirds...which I thought it was totally ... 無理頭...or KUSO if you would have it in Taiwanese terms.
Joe Cheng and Ariel Lin in a photo shoot. No, this is not in the drama. This was where the Japanese girl got married though.
This was shown in the dramas in intervals where XQ and ZS were taking wedding photos. Notice ZS's hair, indicating the first season of ISWAK. The first picture had him in a more mature haircut. At first I thought it was not so nice, but it actually fitted him and his character well.
And then They Kiss Again 惡作劇2吻, the sequel to It Started With A Kiss started last year in December and lasted for about 20 episodes....70-90 minutes each episode...yup, in Taiwan nowadays, people watch dramas for 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours. Amazing.
So anywayz. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The poster.
They Kiss Again started with the honeymoon to Guam, where ZS speaks English and XQ has no clue. XQ wanted to enjoy the honeymoon but was interrupted by this cute but annoying Japanese girl who took a fancy to ZS....
A sleeping ZS was harassed by his new wife who wanted badly of his attention, till she actually went all the way to play the wedding video in the plane for all to see!
The story goes. XQ is still very unsure of ZS's love for her because he is so cold and unable to express his feelings (as contrasted to XQ's hilariously idiotic fantasies about him), therefore she got very vexed when he seemed to be so cool with her and with everybody else.
But of course, throughout the course of the marriage...
XQ met up with ZS's grandfather...and at the same time with the dead great-grandfather...
XQ failed her uni, so she can't graduate. She was so frustrated with ZS who reacted so unkindly to her (which was what was needed to be said anyway) that she actually ran away from home and him. ZS, being still so clueless on being an affectionate husband, does nothing. Ends up with XQ nearly got kidnapped and who came to save her? None other than the brother and the pet dog!
XQ had a new friend named Christine, who's an exchange student from England. Lo and behold, while Jiro Wang's 汪東城 Ah Jin 阿金 is still suffering from a heartbreak in the course of XQ and ZS's marriage, Christine actually fell in love with this blur and .. blur chef...
Christine and Ah Jin during the confrontation of ZS and XQ which ZS acknowledged how jealous he was.
XQ wanted to try teaching. ZS thought it was the most absurd idea that his wife should ever think about. She got into training, and she ended up teaching A Class where the brother is and F class where a girl who likes ZS's brother is. Obviously, she failed. But she did get appreciation from her students anyway. At the same time, she tried to be her brother-in-law's matchmaker...
ZS was improving as a doctor. XQ now wants to become a nurse and help him. She got into nursing school, and met a bunch of friends, where Danson Tang 唐禹哲 (Gan Gan 幹幹), Figaro Ceng 曾少宗 (Qi Tai 啟太), Cai Yi Zhen 蔡宜臻 (Zhi Yi 智儀) and Jiang Pei Zhen 江佩珍 (Ni Na 妮娜) were her classmates.
Nina, Qi Tai, Zhi Yi, XQ and Gan Gan. All of them are fans of ZS (except QT) and wanted to see who ZS was married to. XQ that time had kept the secret that she was married to ZS, to keep it low key...imagined the surprise when they all knew that she was the WIFE!
Figaro Ceng's character Qi Tai developed a crush on XQ and tried to replace ZS. Wow, that got the couple really in deep water. So deep that it was few of the most heart-wrenching episodes.
So what you know? From then on, XQ realised how jealous ZS got, and realised that he actually loves her.
It's always all these less "passionate" gestures such as a hug, a quick kiss and how he would touch her face that made the romance really sweet.
And for the remaining episodes, XQ discovers how ZS loves her, while ZS discovers how to express his love more.
Yup, no more breakups from that point. ZS learned to smile more, learned to hug his wife more, learned to comfort and encourage her more...very alike to the manga Itazurana Kiss created by Kaoru Tada.
Oh wait, there was one more breakup. ZS was enlisted for the army and he left XQ for a year plus. It was really a painful sight for XQ cause she missed him so much that she actually studied real hard to pass the nurse exam. This was when some characters grew. But it was really sweet part cause she learned not to depend so much on her husband and she matured as well. As you watch further episodes, she finally becomes a good wife (aside from the still-terrible cooking) and finally found her real purpose on being a nurse.
Of course there were a few differences from the manga, especially the last episode. Since Kaoru Tada could not finish the mange due to her erm...untimely death, the last episode was a little different...just to end it.
Petty Yang and Candice Liu, XQ's best friends from first season.
There were also side stories, obviously.
Aaron Yan's character Ah Bu finally realised what a fool he is to let go of Chun Mei.
There's the story of Aaron Yan's 炎亞倫 character Ah Bu 阿布 and XQ's best friend from school Petty Yang's 楊沛婷 Chun Mei 純美 who got pregnant and wanted to marry Ah Bu. Ah Bu wavered a little then realised what a fool he was to lose Chun Mei, and despite Ah Bu's mother's meddling and chastisement, they got married and gave birth and she's in peace with her mother-in-law.
There's also the story of Ah Jin and Christine. Christine was so much like XQ that she could not get her mind of Ah Jin and tried all her ways to let Ah Jin notice her. With ZS's genius sarcasm, Ah Jin was forced to come to terms with his feelings and the next challenge was to get married to Christine...
There's also the story of the brother Yu Shu 裕樹 and his admirer Hao Mei 好美. What started off as a childhood reluctance turned to a teenage romance between them. Yup, they were the only ones minus one who "grew" in the show, played by different actors.
There's also other stories which binds the story together and made it interesting. There was that annoying grandmother who was XQ's first patient in her training who adored ZS so much that it was scary. There was also an appearance of Taiwan's new boyband, Lollipop's 棒棒堂 Prince 王子 who played as Yu Shu's childhood friend, Ah Nuo. He was also one of those who "grew" in the show.
Lollipop's Wang Zi, who acted as Arnold (Ah Nuo), the sick boy from first season.
What I like about TKA was the portrayal of the marriage life of the lovebirds. We seldom get marriage life in idol dramas. And it was a refreshing watch. Though the storyline was similar to Itazurana Kiss, there were all the idiosyncrasies that was unique to the show. Sometimes it gets a bit out of hand, a bit KUSO till it was lame, and sometimes it gets overdone (especially the making love parts!)...
I watched TKA because of Ariel Lin for her acting and the soundtrack. TKA this time though does not have a vast variety of newbies as was in the case of ISWAK's soundtrack, they did showcased Ariel Lin and Joe Cheng's voices (no, not in a duet.) A simple ending song "You" was done in two ways: Fun and Melodramatic...and Ariel Lin delivered in both. Though I still like the slow version, the fast version was a fun song to listen to. Cute.
From L to R: Jiang Ma Ma (who is the best mother-in-law ever), XQ, ZS, Yu Shu (the grown up, not as cute as Zhang Bo Han from the earlier episodes, but equally charmingly sarcastic) and Jiang Pa Pa with their Xiao Ke Ai the dog.
Overall, TKA did not fail my expectations. Though sometimes I felt that they drag the story because of that 70-90 minutes show (it's no joke writing 74 minutes script) and therefore made it a little shallow, lacking some substance...but bear in mind, it's not an action movie. There isn't a racing segment like some idol dramas (think Rainie Yang) or stiff competition (think Rainie Yang again) or punching men like in all your favorite Korean dramas.
However, I did wish that they could just get over with the making love sections. Not that Joe Cheng couldn't kiss or that it lacked passion. I just felt that when you push it too hard, it will fail. Maybe because I like subtext...play SUBTLE. What is not shown sometimes bring more excitement. And for that matter, he does kiss her neck so very often. One would think he would kiss her forehead more (since he's like a head and a bit taller than Ariel).
Director Qu Yu Ning 瞿友寧 made a cameo yet again as the same person in TKA. It was totally out of the script but hilarious.
TKA all in all has great actors who pulled it off naturally. Ariel and Joe played very well as a couple, and the show does not leave people like me feeling like there's nothing to be learned. Whatever it is, TKA taught and proved one thing: Marriage is hard work, but the results are worth it.
Read more about They Kiss Again and detailed synopsis in their official website.
Enjoy TKA, cause I enjoyed it more than ISWAK. It was a good growth that all the characters went through.
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