Black & White, ep. 19-24
Tue, Aug. 25th, 2009 03:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterWah, no more! It's not even that good, but I am still a bit homesick for Taiwan, and now I do not even have episodes left of this to watch.
Spoilers have more plot twists than I can keep track of
OMG! So now instead of Chen Zai Tian being the son of the San Lian Huei boss and his childhood love, it's YING XIONG! I actually find this much more effective, given a) Mark Chao's better acting ability, and b) Ying Xiong's previously demonstrated devotion to being a cop. I also seem to be greatly fond of Ying Xiong because I felt very bad for him, starting from his being framed and being taken off the force to the sudden revelation re: his parentage. But! He is not actually the son of the San Lian Huei boss! NO! He is the son of the presidential candidate BWAHAHAHA! That is actually probably good because I was worried how he'd keep being a cop with the San Lian Huei background. Not that it seems to matter, since Chen Zai Tian can apparently be head of the division and be dating Chen Ling, who is the current head at the end of the series.
Oh, also, Chen Zai Tian's brief turn into evil makes me dislike him more. I am sure it's supposed to parallel Ying Xiong trying to stop Chen Zai Tian and Chen Ling from springing the San Lian Huei boss, but it totally does not for me. The latter read as less malicious because Ying Xiong has fairly consistently been pro-law and he has been going after the San Lian Huei for a while, whereas Chen Zai Tian going after Ying Xiong mostly just looked like a temper tantrum on his part. I think Ying Xiong's was supposed to be a bit of a temper tantrum as well, but the way Mark Chao played it just didn't read that way to me.
I mostly just rolled my eyes at the entire Lei Mu Sha plot because it meant shirtless Mark Chao (my mom laughed at his tan line). And of course she kills herself to save him! All the women in this are either dead, evil, or saintly!
Alas, Chen Ling's romance with either of the two guys is not well developed and not very believable. I probably could have bought into Ying Xiong/Chen Ling had they given it more screen time and had they not obviously been going for Chen Ling/Chen Zai Tian, but no. Plus, Chen Ling being relegated to The Girl is particularly annoying, as I actually like the character and she got to be somewhat kickass before she was stuck as the romantic interest.
And it wasn't enough for Xiao Mei to be the Perfect Dead Girlfriend, no! She is instead a killer as well!
Even Xiao Lu is evil! And the cool cop woman who briefly showed up to help Chen Zai Tian and Lan Xi Ying is sadly shot.
Amazingly, Lan Xi Ying seems to have gotten away with getting to be cool the most, since she no longer has to serve as the love interest. Granted, a lot of her time is spent being knocked out or tied up, but at least she is actively forwarding the plot. And she gets to shoot someone! I am also hoping she will get even more to do in the movie, given that her long-missing brother seems to be a plot point. That said, I very much hope they do not make her and sister-obsessed-killer-guy a couple, as I feel the hyphenated adjectives for the guy really say it all.
I have no idea if the plot in the end makes sense or not, because I stopped paying attention to it long before. I am sure my dad will have many comments on the implausibility of it all though.
Overall, although this drama has great production values, I don't think I'd rec it unless you like labyrinthe plots that don't particularly make sense and chase scenes. The gender roles largely suck, the plot has a ton of holes, and I dislike half of the main character duo, but I still watched because hey, Taiwan!
My favorite parts are probably the slapstick between Ying Xiong and Chen Zai Tian and the gruff "I will not admit I actually like you so instead I glare at you for getting stuff wrong" thing that Ying Xiong does. I keep feeling this should be slashy like whoa, and yet, it's not for me, largely because I find Chen Zai Tian completely unattractive. This is particularly sad because Vic Zhou was actually hotter in Mars, even though his hair in Mars was about a zillion times worse. There's sadly less of the partnership in later episodes, but there's plenty of cracktastic plot twists to make up for that!
Spoilers have more plot twists than I can keep track of
OMG! So now instead of Chen Zai Tian being the son of the San Lian Huei boss and his childhood love, it's YING XIONG! I actually find this much more effective, given a) Mark Chao's better acting ability, and b) Ying Xiong's previously demonstrated devotion to being a cop. I also seem to be greatly fond of Ying Xiong because I felt very bad for him, starting from his being framed and being taken off the force to the sudden revelation re: his parentage. But! He is not actually the son of the San Lian Huei boss! NO! He is the son of the presidential candidate BWAHAHAHA! That is actually probably good because I was worried how he'd keep being a cop with the San Lian Huei background. Not that it seems to matter, since Chen Zai Tian can apparently be head of the division and be dating Chen Ling, who is the current head at the end of the series.
Oh, also, Chen Zai Tian's brief turn into evil makes me dislike him more. I am sure it's supposed to parallel Ying Xiong trying to stop Chen Zai Tian and Chen Ling from springing the San Lian Huei boss, but it totally does not for me. The latter read as less malicious because Ying Xiong has fairly consistently been pro-law and he has been going after the San Lian Huei for a while, whereas Chen Zai Tian going after Ying Xiong mostly just looked like a temper tantrum on his part. I think Ying Xiong's was supposed to be a bit of a temper tantrum as well, but the way Mark Chao played it just didn't read that way to me.
I mostly just rolled my eyes at the entire Lei Mu Sha plot because it meant shirtless Mark Chao (my mom laughed at his tan line). And of course she kills herself to save him! All the women in this are either dead, evil, or saintly!
Alas, Chen Ling's romance with either of the two guys is not well developed and not very believable. I probably could have bought into Ying Xiong/Chen Ling had they given it more screen time and had they not obviously been going for Chen Ling/Chen Zai Tian, but no. Plus, Chen Ling being relegated to The Girl is particularly annoying, as I actually like the character and she got to be somewhat kickass before she was stuck as the romantic interest.
And it wasn't enough for Xiao Mei to be the Perfect Dead Girlfriend, no! She is instead a killer as well!
Even Xiao Lu is evil! And the cool cop woman who briefly showed up to help Chen Zai Tian and Lan Xi Ying is sadly shot.
Amazingly, Lan Xi Ying seems to have gotten away with getting to be cool the most, since she no longer has to serve as the love interest. Granted, a lot of her time is spent being knocked out or tied up, but at least she is actively forwarding the plot. And she gets to shoot someone! I am also hoping she will get even more to do in the movie, given that her long-missing brother seems to be a plot point. That said, I very much hope they do not make her and sister-obsessed-killer-guy a couple, as I feel the hyphenated adjectives for the guy really say it all.
I have no idea if the plot in the end makes sense or not, because I stopped paying attention to it long before. I am sure my dad will have many comments on the implausibility of it all though.
Overall, although this drama has great production values, I don't think I'd rec it unless you like labyrinthe plots that don't particularly make sense and chase scenes. The gender roles largely suck, the plot has a ton of holes, and I dislike half of the main character duo, but I still watched because hey, Taiwan!
My favorite parts are probably the slapstick between Ying Xiong and Chen Zai Tian and the gruff "I will not admit I actually like you so instead I glare at you for getting stuff wrong" thing that Ying Xiong does. I keep feeling this should be slashy like whoa, and yet, it's not for me, largely because I find Chen Zai Tian completely unattractive. This is particularly sad because Vic Zhou was actually hotter in Mars, even though his hair in Mars was about a zillion times worse. There's sadly less of the partnership in later episodes, but there's plenty of cracktastic plot twists to make up for that!
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