Graduation

It's now official. I've graduated from a kdrama addict to a fan of asian drama. Though I must say that I don't dig tdramas as much. My obsession still remains with the korean fare.

This move to other dramas was spurred by the lack of good kdramas at my disposal so I ended up watching Devil Beside You, a taiwanese drama from 2005, which casts Rainine Yang (of the Meteor Garden fame) and Mike He (practically unknown to me prior to this watching). Now on to the analysis...

Devil Beside You has soooo much similarities with Meteor Garden. Nice girl meets naughty boy who bullies her on end; they fall in love; naughty boy's fiance appears and a love rival starts wooing the girl. Both dramas tread the same plot, with MG exploiting the overly used rich boy - poor girl storyline while DBY is pushing the sister-brother love tale which we see so much of in kdramas. But I must say that DBY is a much lighter version since MG, in my opinion, sucks too much energy from you while watching because of its heavy plot. This one is comparable to a light read.

There's not much of a "memorable" scene here. Though the chemistry between the leads is hard not to notice. Rainie Yang is adorable here and she suits the role perfectly. She's funny and her performance is so apt to the character. She's the one who makes this drama exciting and bearable to watch. Plus, as I've said, Rainie and Mike do seem to mesh really well that you'd ask "are they still acting?"

Now now, if I point out the down-side of this drama, I may not have enough space for my other posts. But, hey, I can't help it. First off, the supporting characters here are so unrealistic. The mom of Qi Yue (Rainie) is soo irritating. You can't believe a lovestruck middle-age woman could be like that. Sheesh! Then there's the dad of Ah Meng (Mike). He really is too good to be true. Endlessly jovial, overly positive and cheesy that it makes you want to gag. Also, the unbelievable ease in which the stepsister-stepbrother love affair was accepted just makes you shake your head in disbelief. Hmmm, they probably didn't want to complicate the plot too much.

This series also made use of Rainie's singing prowess which, to my delight, was quite refreshing. I've just recently found out that Rainie packs in good vocals. The OST was so-so. But her songs did make some scenes create much more impact. I may keep an eye on this girl just for this.

All in all, this series makes for a light watch. It's easy to breeze through the episodes with commendable acting by Rainie, wonderful chemistry between her and Mike, plus lots of "kilig" moments between the two.

photo courtesy of www.wikipedia.org