Sakura of DOOM

Woe! Leaving Taiwan in a few hours; so not ready for vacation to be over. On the plus side, California will have much better weather...

( Spoilers have more drama tropes! )

In conclusion: only missing amnesia!

Also, how is the director's drama White Tower compared to this and Mars? This I am mostly watching for the crack, the shiny production values, and Mark Zhao being intense and hot; Mars I really loved.

(Chinese title: 痞子英雄）

陳在天/Chen Zai Tian (周渝民/Vic Zhou) and 吳英雄/Wu Ying Xiong (趙又廷/Marc Chao) are both cops in Kaohsiung, but while Zai Tian is a bit of a goof who doesn't take anything seriously, Ying Xiong maybe is a little too intense and has the tendency to go off on his own to try to solve things without telling his supervisors. The two of them are stuck together as partners thanks to their both messing up a key crackdown. Meanwhile, someone is manufacturing Dreamer, a new hallucinogenic drug, in the city, and the case soon balloons to involve the local mob and probably corrupt city officials.

This is an extremely shiny new drama by the director of Mars and White Tower with extremely nice production values. So far, there's been an extended action sequence on the subway and a lot of fancy camerawork (for dramas, at least), and the overall impression is that a lot of money was poured into this. Also, a CGI plant attempted to molest drug dealer 高義/Gao Yi (played by 王傳一/Kingone!!).

So far, although the two female characters are not bad, I wish there were more overall. 藍西英/Lan Xi Ying is a forensic scientist who seems to have loved Ying Xiong from afar, and 陳琳/Chen Lin is the daughter of the mob boss. Xi Ying is sadly not as cool as Scully (then again, who is?), but Chen Ling kind of kicks ass. She is tiny and looks elfin and pixie-like and all those other horrible adjectives, and she kicks Zai Tian's ass in their meet cute. She also goes from deceptively cute to serious to shooting at people through doors in a blink of an eye. Alas, there has been no ass-kicking since, but I foresee a lot of angst given her status as daughter of the mob boss and Zai Tian and Ying Xiong's position on the police force.

Unsurprisingly, Zai Tian (the 痞子 of the title) has a Tragic Background, since he is being played by Vic Zhou and must eventually become the hero of the drama. However, so far, he's mostly just kind of annoying. I like Ying Xiong much better. It helps that Marc Chao is kind of hot (leather jacket!) and much, much buffer than Vic Zhou, who had more muscle in Mars and is scrawny here and really does not look like he could take anyone down in here. Plus, I have even stopped being weirded out by Ying Xiong's name—it is "hero" in Chinese! I feel this is one case in which people could translate the name instead of transliterate to get the startle effect that the Chinese-speaking audience probably has (translating Chinese names is one of my pet peeves).

It also took me a while to realize the drama was set in Kaohsiung. It's all shiny! It makes me want to visit, even though it will be EVEN HOTTER AND MORE HUMID. But I spent several episodes puzzling over the opening sequence zoom through the city skyline, thinking, "I don't recognize those buildings! Where is 101 and all the other famous Taipei buildings? I feel there is not a bridge like that in Taipei!" In my defense, the few glimpses of the subway system looked a lot like the MRT!

Then again, I've only been on the MRT a few times, as the bus is more convenient for where we are.

But just... it makes Taiwan look all sophisticated and shiny and modern! I am unaccustomed to this!

( Spoilers unintentionally make me laugh )

In conclusion: so far, interesting break from my usual trendy dramas, and finally something I can watch with my dad without his interrupting every three seconds to complain about why I like something in which the characters scream at each other all the time.

... well. They still do that here, but for reasons my dad would probably approve of more (explosions and mob chasing instead of romantic mishaps).