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Just a quick take on this HELLO AGAIN...
It's a satisfying watch, it makes you cry, sympathise, it makes you laugh, it gives you goosebumps....
The acting was pretty good... you almost can feel them...the kisses were on point (I've developed an obssession with kissing scenes...)
Its just one of those dramas you don't regret watching...even if you think some of it is cheesy...
I loved the banter between the leads... it was funny and well somewhat irritating....but all in all great..
Communication is the key.
I just liked it..
So have a go and decide for yourselves!!!
Xoxo
Uni
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Teasing or Pleasing
Oh joy, another office romcom from Taiwan. This time with a serious undertone, Hello Again! is about the distinction between teasing that draws us closer, and teasing that pushes us apart.The plot
Year after year the nice but serious bluestocking Chang Ke Ai (played by Amber An) ends first of all students at her local school. She has friends and is generally admired. Still there’s one person, rich boy Yang Zi Hao (played by Bruce Hung) who goes out of his way to tease her whenever he can. However Ke Ai keeps her cool, completely ignoring him when she passes him at school.
One day Zi Hao intentionally disturbs her class while Ke Ai is giving training course to fellow students for college entrance examination. This time she gets very angry, commenting on his easy life style, saying his rich family will help him anyway, urging him to think of other people for once, because “not everyone is as fortunate as you”. Knowing this is true Zi Hao gets also furious. Wanting to proof himself in front of everybody he swears he’ll get the same results as Ke Ai. Laughingly she makes a bet to carry his schoolbooks all year long if he’ll ever succeed.
After that Zi Hao works his head off, and of course, he succeeds.
Full of teasing intentions Zi Hao starts at university in the business management department, eagerly awaiting Ke Ai to join him, until he discovers she isn't there. For mysterious reasons she gave up her education and decided to stay with her mother.
Ten years later, the two meet again, the gap between their worlds has become even bigger. Yang Zi Hao is now the executive vice president of his family business "Gorgeous Department Store", while Chang Ke Ai is a market vendor. Their story unfolds...Hello Again.
Cons
This show has the usual, fluffy officeromance but the first half was really depressing. I like to escape the daily struggle for life by looking at beautiful actors, but this time I felt confronted with the constant sorrows of the female lead. Of course the makers have to proof she’s completely worn out, out of luck for the past ten years, but it didn’t make her attractive. Also given the fact that actress Amber An is five years senior to actor Bruce Hung didn’t help, it just showed. It made me wonder why the male lead would fall for her, other than the urge to tease her, which made him even more immature, and younger than her.
Another thing is the unneeded love triangle with the good looking friend she met in front of college. Themes as loan sharks, team building, family business are really enough.
Pros
However, I like the theme of a rich male lead who is driven by comments of a poor girl in his youth. In return I would love to see he has a purpose for her as well, in other ways than good looks and status, but that will be another story.
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Loves the theme that the guy wanted the girl to do her best, took responsibility and Supported her in every way (sigh, the things a girl dreams of).
The FL was voted the most attractive woman in Taiwan. She is also cute and is a good fit for the role.
Love the cutest OST and the in between jingle that surprisingly did not get on your nerves. Perhaps I am being just tolerant.
A satisfying ending. I really wish more romantic dramas would follow their example.
Life is hard enough and something like this can act as a great stress reliever!!!
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Reasons why I liked it:
1) Decent plot with likable characters: People don't make stupid decisions or get into huge misunderstandings because they don't communicate, and so the plot doesn't feel draggy at all. There's no kimchi slap or water spillage scene from a chaebol mother, nor is there some "let's break up and not see each other for a loooong time (while the secret reason is I love you too much)"... best. I'd say the only *big* drama cliche is... #MaleLeadShowerScene
2) The cast! Everyone fits into their role super well (even in the high school scenes) and their chemistry is amazing. Especially in love with the girl who played Jamie Chien; can't believe she was considered a rookie.
I lowkey fell in love with Bruce after this drama... I didn't realize he was this cute in the coffee movie or More Than Blue.
3) Comedic timing is super on point: just when you think something is going to happen... nope! The director has fooled you again! If you're a huge main lead shipper though, you may get frustrated... :P
4) Music: there's really only 2 songs but they're both great. Chillaxing is such an earworm and the ending song is by one of my favorite singer-songwriters so YES.
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This show was cute enough, but...
This show was cute enough at the beginning but there was 0 plot to be found after about ep10 or so? After that, I skipped through tons of scenes. I enjoyed it but it would have been 1000x times better if the episodes were shorter or perhaps there were only 10-12 of them at this 1hr+ length.The thing I did love about this show is that there were NO over the top evil chicks/bad guys (love interests or mothers/fathers) trying to keep any of the couples apart. However, that also was a part of the problem for me. Because there was NOTHING really keeping the ML & FL apart, the storyline of them not just getting together and the lack of conflict dragged on for no apparent reason for several hour-long episodes and watching became tedious.
STILL. It was cute and the acting was really very good, so that was a plus.
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1To watch this you must first succumb to your bad taste...
This is the story of Mr Richy rich Klings a lot and the poor, poor, smart girl who never got to go to Uni not have time to think about love as her life was work, work, work and run away from debtors... Mr. Richy Rich Klings a lot has had nothing but time to think about love... and has a very clear one track mind that only lead to her... However he completely lacks both boundaries and communication skills as he believes wrist grab, prank and the good old pick up and throw over ones shoulder are decent ways to communicate.We get to watch these two figure things out and try to get the girl out of debt... on their way we get to her the same 4 songs over and over again, sometimes completely in sync with what is happening sometimes completely the opposite of what is happening... Which stod for about 70% of the comedy in this drama, the rest was some really low humour and great self aware one liners:
" I am only here to make people jealous"
We also get to meet a whole bunch of love rivals creating a whole range of geometrical figures... I was personally rooting for the lesbian couple, and though it started out so well with a great lesbian character and lovely lesbian representation it fell short towards the later episodes leaving me and I assume most of the viewers all confused.
There are bunch of interesting characters, relationships, found family at its best all lovable and actually very few truly annoying elements, or annoying characters yet oddly the drama as a whole did annoy me at times. They also take on some social issues here and there and have a bunch of unrealistic marketing and business stuff in it. But honestly who cares about accuracy when they need to try to create a plot.
The quality of the show is overall low to medium, the quality of the dimples is extremely high and the chemistry between the leads(all of the leads) is off the charts... + the male lead shows his abs a lot.
So to sum it up this is probably the perfect drama for those who are not ashamed to admit to having bad taste... and in nothing for those seeking any kind of meaningful, artistic, high end stuff... It is an easy to watch fluff piece for all who need to turn off their brain and just bom bom give them your heart... I mena watch them bom bom give each other their heart... Just for the love of whatever you believe in do not set any of these relationships up as goals...
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This review may contain spoilers
What an interesting drama. It took a while to grow on me for several reasons, and I’m not completely satisfied with the result, but by the latter half, it had me laughing out loud, tearing up, and rooting for these characters despite their decisions.I think the theme of this drama was choice. It tried to convey through various storylines and characters how only you can choose how you live, how you interact with the world, and how you love. Only you have the power to control your life, and you shouldn’t let others dictate it for you — focus on who you want in your life, and let the haters and negative Nancys fall to the wayside. This theme is most explored in our main female character, Ke Ai.
She’s had a rough go of it, our Ke Ai. A top student who couldn’t attend university despite ranking number one in the entrance exams. Having to work and work and work just to pay off the minimum balance of a loan she didn’t even take out; her life is, needless to say, difficult. She has no agency, no choice in the matter, she’s just a slave to her family’s wrong decisions. Then, in walks our male lead, Zi Hao. He picks up her loan’s remaining balance and sets her life on a new path: Now she has to prove herself in a company setting — the job she would’ve probably would have had she not had to drop out of uni. Suddenly, she has some control over her life. She can choose to stay a lowly salesperson, which her current education dictates she should be, or she can climb to the top, where her ability and Zi Hao insist she belongs. It’s her choice — become the person society says she can be, or shun society’s expectations and become something more. It has slow character growth, but it's worth experiencing, I think. It takes a while to get to the meat of her insecurity and why she acts the way she does at the beginning, but I think they did a pretty good job of portraying how hard it is to defy and ignore the people who want to bring you down and believe in yourself in spite of them. Also, to let go of your own self-doubt and let the words of the people around you drown out your own mind’s constant buzz of insecurities.
Another interesting way it had the theme of choice is in its love stories. Of course, Zi Hao and Ke Ai’s love story is pretty conventional — can the lowly girl love the hot shot general manager of a big company? (Though I gotta say, Zi Hao is, overall, an amazing love interest whose support and belief in Ke Ai never wavers. He always has her best interest at heart and does excellently with the usual obstacles of this kind of love story: parents, coworkers, shareholders, etc.) The second leads, Zhen Yi and Zi Jie are much more unconventional and interesting with their choices and outcomes. The story of Zhen Yi and Zi Jie is especially unconventional, and trying not to put spoilers here, but the idea of gender fluidity was explored a bit, and while I think they used the wrong terms to identify some of their identities, they do a pretty good job of showing it’s not about a boy loving a girl, or a girl loving a girl, boy loving a boy, etc., it’s finding someone who you can connect with no matter what their identity. It’s looking beyond all of that and just seeing that person as themself, nothing more, nothing less. There are some points in this part of the story that are too cliché and outdated that they could’ve done without, but overall I think it was done in a thoughtful way.
Then there’s poor Lee Sean’s character, Xiao Gang, who never gets the girl in the end even though he always plays the most multifaceted characters. This time, Xiao Gang is pretty cut and dry — he’s just a really, really good guy who had a troublesome past and prevents him from seeking his own happiness. He’s constrained by his choices because he believes nobody will ever love him (because he wasn’t loved as a child), but eventually shows autonomy and fights for himself. Except, he chooses to honor Ke Ai’s choices above everything else. His choice is to put everyone’s happiness above his own, and in the end even though he’s not rewarded the traditional way, he does gain the family he had been missing his whole life (in a very, very touching scene that had me tearing up). In the end, we're shown the result of the choice he made and doesn’t regret (or, at least, doesn’t go back on it and keep pining after someone he’s let go of), which I admired.
To be fair, though, everything was not well with this drama. One of the biggest qualms I had at first was its tone. It swung from slapstick comedy to serious pretty frequently and without any warning, so the effect was pretty jarring. It had all the classic tropes of a TW drama with the endless sound effects, looping background music, and cliché storyline. The male lead, Zi Hao, is in a position of power over the female lead, Ke Ai, and he isn’t afraid to flaunt it (especially in the beginning), which can lead to some pretty cringy scenarios. Things like ordering Ke Ai to do things she didn’t want to do, forcibly setting up her life (albeit with good intentions) without discussing it with her first, picking her up over his shoulder when she refuses to go places — all of those things that can kind of work in fiction, but give an unsettling feeling because of their implications for real life. Nobody should be treated like a rag-doll without autonomy, and even though Zi Hao does these things with a kind heart, it doesn’t make them okay. This drama also suffers from a lack of communication between the two leads very frequently.
Another problem I had with this drama was its set up. It took waaaaay too long for me to actually care about these characters. That’s because their motivations and ways of thinking weren’t clearly established in the beginning. It took until about halfway for me to have any sort of investment or care about any of the characters. Before that, they were kind of just caricatures, doing things just because it’s expected of a romantic comedy to do so. For example, Zi Hao helps Ke Ai with her loan shark problem and sets her up with a job with his company. That’s all well and good, but we don’t really understand why he did that until much, much later (pretty much the last episode). We can guess that it’s because he likes her, or had a crush on her before, but it’s not clearly conveyed that that’s what’s going on. That’s just one example. There are several. And the tone problem I mentioned earlier doesn’t help much in the way of clearing things up, either. It’s not until the drama begins to settle down and have more serious scenes that it can clearly show us the reasons behind the character’s actions. I’d say Ke Ai suffers from this a lot more than Zi Hao does, but that’s probably because her whole situation is just more complicated than his overall. (Though their romance is super sweet, and their interactions with each other in that regard were done super well, in my opinion).
All in all, I enjoyed this drama despite its flaws. I never considered dropping it, though there were some scenes I wish the director/writer had done differently. It had a good building up of its romances (and some pretty steamy kissing scenes, if I may so so), and some interesting themes to explore. When it dove into explorations of those themes, it was very thought-provoking, and I found myself hanging onto the characters every word. But it could also be very shallow and cliché at times, seemingly forgetting all the deep scenes it had set up just a few minutes ago. I say watch it if you’re looking for a decent TW rom-com. It doesn’t really drag, the romance is cute, and its cast is quite easy on the eyes. ^^
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This review may contain spoilers
This is actually my first Taiwanese drama in a long time. The premise of the drama is that both of them were from the same high school where the female lead is the top student and the male lead is this rich heir who bickers with the female lead and that they both gambled that he could enter this top university and if he did, the female lead would carry his bag all year. He did but unfortunately the female lead never got into the university even though she got the highest marks. This made him want to extract revenge when they meet again. And like all those romcom troupes, they do meet again and bicker a lot. Only to find out that the male lead had liked her all along. No surprise there. The story is light and something you can watch as a filler drama. It had moments too. What I liked about this is that instead of 2 male leads vying for the female lead's attention. It's the male lead and the support female lead who is a lesbian. Which was misunderstood by the female lead, it's hilarious. Was this review helpful to you?
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Worth the watch!
ITS worth the watch if you love watching a guy CEO who is playful yet able to handle things smartly, most importantly HANDSOME! And if you love to watch a female lead who have no power but hardworking and SMART and of course pretty as well. Also, if you love to watch a drama where the male and female leads actually known each other since long ago and re-found each other 10 years later where the guy's feeling for the girl never ever changed since then. Then you should watch this.Yang Zi Hao is sooo handsome, his dimples are the killers!!! ?
I was finding some nice taiwan dramas and I'm glad that I found this.
Love the storyline and I can say the acting by all actors and actresses are well-acted. The sad scenes were really sad though, I can feel the sadness through the acting. The way Yang Zi Hao protects Ke Ai through all episodes, even from episode 1, was so boyfriend material!!! +1 for him! I love love the last episode where there was a background scene where they showed Zi Hao's feelings and thoughts through his university days where Ke Ai did not register for uni, and how Zi Hao expressed his love for Ke Ai through all those little notes around the school! I also love how Zi Hao's playfulness did not change ever since 10 years ago, and he showed his matureness when he became the CEO of the company. Love love love Zi Hao❤️
Although the second male lead, Cai Xiao Gang was not able to express his love for Ke Ai, but I'm glad that it was a happy ending for him. I wonder how will the story goes if Xiao Gang actually confess his love for Ke Ai. Also, Zhen Yi and Zi Jie are so cute together, hoping that there will be more scenes of them bickering though. Season 2? Hahahaha! Maybe the ending could have included all casts, especially the employees in Hua Li.
AND I love the OST choices as well hahahaha eric chou❤️
Overall, I think it's worth the watch. Another drama that captivated me throughout all episodes! ?
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This show DRAGGED
It was a cute idea for like a 10 episode show. There was not enough intrigue for 16 episodes, and the last five were a CHORE to watch.The same three ideas got repeated through the whole show: her background versus his, rumors in the press, and his mother not liking her. So annoying.
Also, and this is petty but the FL’s hair and clothes were tragic. What is with this trend of having them dress so inappropriately for their jobs and age. Also, the wigs were atrocious.
And the FL’s acting was so wooden. There were times when I thought my TV was acting up because she would just stand there frozen on the screen.
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