444. Falling Into You 因為我喜歡你 (2020) Taiwanese

Puff Guo, Jiro Wang, Zhang Ben Yu, Chen Jiong Jiang

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A

I realized that it had been a while since I've watched a Taiwanese Drama (I've been focusing on Mainland China lately) and so I browsed what was there, and I realized that I had missed watching this drama with Puff Guo, which is terrible because I absolutely love her. I will watch anything and everything for her. Added bonus was that Jiro Wang was her male lead, and I don't mind that one bit. He's hot. So I immediately pressed play and it immediately filled the hole that my last fluffy drama ending had created. It was so cute and fun. I loved that it was shorter (13 episodes) so they didn't drag things out or waste time on unnecessary stuff. I loved that it was once again about a fighter girl, this time a taekwondo athlete, and a dude who falls in love with her because she's an awesome and a fighter, and I love the mutual respect. Were there still some problems? Yeah, it's awkward at times, but ultimately it was cute, fluffy, and funny. It was even on the meta side, especially with our self-centered, bubbly start up CEO male lead who thinks of himself as the male lead of a drama anyway, and so is constantly referencing it.

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.