★★★★
The 2015-16 Taiwanese drama, starring Megan Lai as Pi Ya-Nuo, Baron Chen as Du Zi-Feng, Bii as Wei Qing-Yang, Katie Chen as Yang Na-Na, and Sean Lee as Chu Zhe-Rui.
Brief summary: Because her parents believed a questionable fortune-teller at the time of her birth, Pi Ya-Nuo has been raised as a boy as long as she can remember. Only close family members know that she is a girl. However, at her 26th birthday the curse is supposed to be broken and she can start over as a woman. When the countdown comes to 100 days, Pi Ya-Nuo thinks that all she needs is to lay low and everything will be just fine. The problem is that then she meets Du Zi-Feng, amusement park manager and former gang leader, and saves his life. To pay her back, he gives her a job as his assistant at the park and under some pressure the two become "sworn brothers." But Du Zi-Feng and Pi Ya-Nuo grow closer and closer through their experiences, and Du Zi-Feng starts to fall for Pi Ya-Nuo as a guy. As the day of her 26th birthday grows closer, Pi Ya-Nuo is worried: will Du Zi-Feng still love her when he finds out her real identity?
"Bromance" has the typical traits of a gender-bender drama, similar to those of the Korean dramas "Coffee Prince," "You're Beautiful," and "To the Beautiful You." There's the suspense of the secret and in "Bromance" that suspense lasts the entire series. That may be seen as annoying, but it is the core of the plot instead of the relationship, which seems to be a second element. The drama also explores the development of homosexuality, kind of a paradox in itself because the dramatic irony is that they are actually a heterosexual couple.
The drama was pretty enjoyable to watch, mostly focused on the characters' developments. Most parts of the plot existed just to help the show keep going and create time for the characters. There's plenty of opportunities to laugh and to get emotionally attached to the characters and the story.
While watching Du Zi-Feng and Pi Ya-Nuo is certainly fun, I liked watching the secondary couples too. I always tend to like those because primary characters are not the only ones with a story or with a love to find. It goes for the secondary characters too, who, if given the same amount of screen time as the main characters, would be the main characters of their own story. So I particularly loved watching Na-Na and Qing-Yang, and also Du Zi-Han and Liao Guang-Chao. They definitely deserved those happy endings!
"Bromance" is all relatively steady in progression. There are a few plot events that throw in some excitement, but we can expect the ending early on. There were plenty of indicators as to what would happen, so it wasn't exactly a surprise. Well, that's not totally true, but I wouldn't exactly ant to give it away :3
I enjoyed watching this one! It was plenty interesting and entertaining! It's no surprise that it's one of the most viewed Taiwanese dramas in existence. 4/5 stars.
Comments
Post a Comment