Leave me alone, except not really.

Characters:

• Guo Xue Fu/Puff Guo as Du Kai Qi
• Liu Yi Hao/Jasper Liu as Louis/Fu Zi Jie
• Lene Lai as Cheng Le Xuan
• Jolin Chien as Cheng Hao Wei

Details:

• Taiwanese
• 22 episodes
• Original run: May 23, 2014 – October 17, 2014

Quick Rundown:

When a girl who likes to be alone meets a guy who won’t leave her alone, what will she do? Kai Qi is faced with Zi Jie, who is determined to get her to like him back. He remembers her as a childhood friend and the shining light in his moment of darkness, but she doesn’t recognize him at all. She is not to blame though, because he has been living in France for the duration of their separation. Will he be able to heal her wounds and fears of abandonment, or will he retreat to his life abroad as the forgotten son of the Fu family?

Estelle’s Take

This drama fell easy victim to the usual traps of Taiwanese dramas with its overly cheesy love lines and unnecessarily convoluted subplots. If only this series cut out a few episodes in between (say, the super fake looking kidnap scenes/plotline) then it would be almost pretty good.

Not to be mistaken, this drama did have a lot of fun and cute scenes between the OTP and some subplot romances. Of course, it also consisted of a lot of very stereotypical drama romance moves – for example, renting out the aquarium for a date (like how does she not suspect he is super rich after that?). There are plenty of plot holes and loose strings, as well as obstacles spanning multiple episodes that are resolved at the drop of pin whenever the director felt it was convenient.

Puff Guo and Jasper Liu aren’t going to win any awards with this series probably, but their acting was on par with what I expected of a Taiwanese drama. It was also chock full of over the top acting from minor characters whose sole purpose in the series is to provide comedic relief (think Lee Hong Ki, but less natural and adorable). Overall though, it has a solid storyline, but it could have been condensed and some editing would have served it well. Though the last couple of episodes are probably the most fun, the typical move of matching up all the remaining characters was awarded some eye rolling from me.

This & That:

• The Chinese title is a play on words, meaning both “[I] like to be alone” and “[I] like a person.”
• Puff Guo cameoed in 2013 remake of Korean drama You’re Beautiful, Fabulous Boys; Park Shin Hye also cameoed in the series. Puff’s first lead role was alongside Aaron Yan in Just You.
• After 3 years of non-success, Jasper Liu shot to fame as Mei Nan in In Time with You. He will star in a web drama produced by Tudou in 2015 called My Ghost Friend.
• Lena Lai won 2nd runner up in the Miss Asia Pageant in 2007. She has since moved on to modeling, acting and hosting. Her current boyfriend is Nylon Chen, a Taiwanese singer.
• 3 of the four band members of Taiwanese group 4ever participated in this series. They are: Jolin Chien, Yorke Sun and Deyn Li, as Chen Hao Wei, Wang Da Zhi and Xiao Qiang respectively. Their fourth member, David Hsu, was in In Time with You.