Tuesday, October 30, 2007

“Ai Qing Da Mo Zhou”


This urban love soap, "Magical Love" in English, is the first TV work by Taiwan’s hottest singing all female group S.H.E. in 2001 and was praised for the participation of Gao Yi Ping and Lan Zhe Long.

The story revolves around three friends--Zhu Li Ye, Hu Sha Sha and Ya Qi and how to achieve their individual dreams after graduating from high school. Zhu Li Ye or Juliet dreams of meeting her friend Romeo whom she met over the net. That certain Romeo is a senior student at Taipei University. Hence, she aspires to enter the University as a student to meet him in person. Ya Qi’s dream is to become an idol/movie star and marry an actor before reaching the age of 20. As to Hu Sha Sha, her dream changes every now and then, and she’s not even sure of what to do next.

These three girls live in a house owned by the family of An Dong Hai who works as a photographer in an entertainment magazine. An Dong Hai will then be torn between Ya Qi and Hu Sha Sha. But with Juliet, she is constant with her dream of meeting her Romeo. In preparation for the exams at Taipei University, she enrolled in a review center. There her paths crossed with Ling Tao (played by Lan Zhe Long) who works for the said center. Eventually, they became the best of friends and developed feelings for him. But Juliet soon discovered that her “Romeo” is in love with his so called “sister,” Wen Li. When this “sister-brother” relationship turned sweet, Ling Tao’s mother meddled and asked Wei Lin to back off. After Wen Li, Ling Tao is chased by Xiao Lan, a classmate during high school days. Yet in spite all her efforts, Xiao Lan was turned down by him because his love remains for Wen Li.

I just noticed that Lan Zhe Long acting here is very much amateur. It seems that he wore that poker face throughout the entire drama, I can not decipher whether he is happy or upset. But in all fairness, I realized here that he is cute as compared to “Meteor Garden” days where he was lanky and long haired. I now realized why Hsu His Yuan was smitten by him.

Similarly, with Ella Chen who portrayed as Zhu Liye, I think she is not that effective for the role, I don’t like her brand of comedy. Maybe because both of them were still newbies that time, hence they don’t know how to “emote”. But in fairness, I like Ella 'coz she gives me the impression that she is a down to earth girl in real life.

I also observed that the musical scoring is bland, or I can’t even remember if there was a scoring at all. What I also enjoyed in Chinese soaps are the songs even though I can not understand it...but music is a universal language, you just have to feel it.

“Ai Qing Da Mo Zhou” basically, is a simple story of love and friendship which has a “feel good” effect. If you are looking for some plain entertainment, this soap is for you.


* photo credit to AF

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