332. Never Let You Go 小女花不弃 (2019) Chinese

Ariel Lin, Vin Zhang, Ausitn Lin, Tiara Huang

Drama Rating: 5/10     Neck Score: A+++

I am at the point where I will watch anything for Vin Zhang and I need to stop, because while he is awesome, not all his dramas are. Also, he is usually the broody second male lead who never has a chance. That's why I was so excited for this one. He was the male lead and he wasn't an evil broody one either (not that he didn't have his broody moments, but those are hot, so I wasn't complaining about a few). To make it even better, Ariel Lin is the lead, and I love her, so I was really excited for this one. But, in true C-drama fashion, the drama took some drastic turns to the point that it became completely unrecognizable by the end. But the redeeming quality was that the main couple is cute beyond all reason. Yes, I watched just for them, but it was too long a drama for just that. There was sadly not enough main couple being cute scenes. I would watch 50 episodes of just that, if they'd let us. But no, they didn't do that. There really might only be 5 episodes worth of good content. Sigh.

84. It Started with a Kiss 惡作劇之吻 (2006) Taiwanese

Joe Cheng, Ariel Lin, Jiro Wang

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: B

Oh the shows I watch for Aaron Yan.  Yep, I watched this one for Aaron Yan who was in it for like 5 scenes and never got a close up.  However, I did get to appreciate his band mate Jiro Wang, who was seriously the best part of this show... as the other guy.  This is the Taiwanese version of Playful Kiss and way better than the Korean version (which was even based somewhat on this one).  As much as I wasn't a super big fan of Joe Cheng, at least he can act.  It was so obvious that he like her that I wondered why she never got that.  He was always in her face teasing her though, which was weird because he was literally in her face, like get out of her bubble dude.  Jiro Wang was so cute, and did a good job of being the silly other guy without being too over the top.  The worst part was the ending.  It was like "wut?"  One of the Taiwanese dramas faults is sacrificing too much for the sake of humor, and the ending of this with the cross dressing wedding was literally too much.  However, it was a lot closer to the manga, and I found Ariel to be a much more sympathetic and understandable main girl.  I thought she was fun and not annoying.  Much more realistic and not as annoying.  Still the newest Japanese version is the best (Mischievous Kiss: Love in Tokyo) and this takes second place in the Mischievous Kiss drama versions.