Finally Finished Watching "KO One"

I've finally finished watching "KO One", in just three days. Even I myself find it surprising, as it actually took me over 2 years to finish "Tales From Qinhuai River" (Taiwanese opera drama serial "Qin Huai Yan Yu" by Ye Qing)! To be honest, I'm more into Chinese opera than Taiwanese drama serial, so what made me more enthusiastic in them? I believe, it's the "fun" factor. Taiwanese drama serials sometimes have rather cute and interesting storylines which makes you want to find out what they have to offer in the upcoming episodes. Chinese opera, although has more captivating charm to me, sometimes just work out the same way. I guess, one has to be really focused when watching Chinese opera!

Anyway, "KO One" is quite an interesting show, although in terms of humour and plot, it still doesn't match up to "Hana Kimi" or "It Start With A Kiss". The general storyline tells about how a bunch of problematic high school teenagers who are equipped with supernatural capabilities got drawn into the world of Dark Forces, and how they lead their entire class into subduing the Evil One. Well, my synopsis may not be accurate, because this show's quite hard to summarise; just imagine a drama with a bit of arcade and RPG gaming and slapstick comedy essence in it! There were, of course, some inperfect parts of the show, including awkward exit and entrance of various minor roles. For example, the role of Tian Xin, the form teacher of this class who was being targetted as the next potential fighter by the Evil One, did not appear on screen again after she was being kept away in a secret place, nor was it mentioned anywhere what happened to her subsequently. Also, the fate of several other key roles who were abducted by the Evil One were not mentioned either by the time the show ended. Could this be a hint that the producers might be planning a sequel to this show? It's hard to say!

Anyway, some trivias about this show:

1. What's the similarities between "KO One", "ISWAK" and "Hana Kimi"? They're all shows produced by GTV, and featured Jiro either as first or second male lead.
2. All 4 members of Fahrenheit took part in the show, but Chun only took on a non-speaking cameo role, appeared briefly in various episodes and only get to speak 4 lines in the final few minutes of the last episode.
3. There are many celebrity cameos in the show, including Jiu Kong, Xie Lijin and Xiao Gui.
4. Cai Yizhen and Chen Zhenwei's on-screen character names "Wu Xiong" and "Fu Tou" became their artiste names respectively after this show. Even Jiro's nickname "Da Dong" came from this show.
5. Other than Jiro, Tang Yuzhe (Lei Ke Si), Zhang Haoming (Jin Baosan), Chord (Sha Yu) and Gong Ji'an (Ji An) took part in "Hana Kimi" as well.

Overall, this show is nice, if all you want is entertainment and humour. Afterall, this is more of a show targetting at making audience laugh, and not think seriously about!

Jiro & Me

Back on the topic of Jiro of Fahrenheit, I may be one of those who got to know this talented actor-cum-singer at a very late stage. It was only when the Hana Kimi craze was blowing very strong that I started to notice him, in his role as Jin Xiuyi.

Actually it wasn't solely because of his talent in singing and acting that made me take notice of him; it was his personality. As I started reading articles about him and visiting his personal blog, I found that there are several aspects of his character that is similar to mine.

Jiro, a.k.a. Da Dong, appeared to be a happy-go-lucky person on camera, but deep down inside, he's a rather emotional and sentimental person who would rather bottle up all his feelings than to share it with others. In his latest entry in his blog, he lamented about having too much regrets, and even though he didn't really write much, I could feel for him, because I'm not much different than him. I seldom show my sadness in front of my friends, so everyone assumed I'm a carefree person. Before I blogged about our "Romance of the Dragon Princess", nobody would have imagined that I had been hurt on several occasions during my past 8 years, chasing after my Chinese opera dreams; I've been hurt when my already very minor role has been revoked to help out at the backstage, I've been hurt when my juniors surpassed me in getting meatier roles even though I know well I'm not a lousy actor, I've been hurt when the shows I've been looking forward to excitedly were shelved indefinitely without any valid reasons. I also have my fair share of regrets; I had spent almost all my free time in Chinese opera, thus forfeiting my rights to upgrade myself or further my studies years ago, and now I can only settle for my current lowly-paid job. But, I never told anyone about all these, not neither create a fuss, for I know it wouldn't change the situation much, and I would never want to burden people with my personal problems.

Looking at Jiro's entry upsetted me, because it's almost like a mirror reflecting my true self. Of course, his circumstances is different from mine, but then it was his character of making others happy at the expense of his own self coincides with my character. I am not unhappy about my own situation, but I don't wish to see him suffering from similar fate. I hope he could buck up and be a happier person; whatever he does, he'll always have the support of his huge pool of fans and me!

Note: Picture extracted from Jiro's personal blog.

Jiro Fahrenheit

Recently the Hanazakarino Kimitachihe (花样少年少女) wind is blowing strong and many people around me are caught in it's frenzy, including Amai, who only likes Chinese opera and Takarazuka. "Hanazakarino Kimitachihe", or "Hana Kimi" in short, featured Ella from S.H.E. as the female lead and Wu Zun (Chun) and Jiro (Wang Dongcheng) as the first and second male lead respectively. Being labelled as the "most 'manly' idol drama" in Taiwan, the show enjoyed immense popularity, and anything that features Chun and Ella will bound to create a storm once released into the market.

I supposed I'm one of the very few that actually preferred the second male lead Jiro (Wang Dongcheng) over Chun, as I feel that his role in Hana Kimi is much better. Not that Chun did not do well, just that acting directly opposite Ella just makes his role look less attractive because Ella's role is simply too striking. Jiro's acting is indeed quite good; he's not only good at comical roles, which he himself is already a rather whacky guy off-screen, but he's equally good at playing sentimental roles. Those who have watched "It Started With A Kiss" (恶作剧之吻) would have known; in the show he acted as a sentimental but dreamy guy whose goal in life is to marry his dream girl, whom he had always loved since his first year in college, although he knew well that the latter only had eyes on another guy.

When it comes to singing, I feel that Jiro is one of the better ones in Fahrenheit. Although there's still room for improvement technically, his singing is still acceptable. For Chun, though his vocal quality is not bad, his singing's slightly pitchy, probably due to his "south-east Asian Chinese accent".

I may not be a "头号Fans"(imitate Ella's signature gestures in Hana Kimi) of Hana Kimi, nor a die-hard fan of Taiwanese idol drama, but I hope to see more of Jiro is future shows. He's really talented and I feel that he shouldn't be always given the role of a pitiful secret admirer or a comical second lead. With his talent in acting, he should be able to go far if given more chance. So for now, I shall make do with "Hana Kimi" and "It Started With A Kiss". Hopefully 2007 will be a better year for him, with better on-screen exposures!

Jiro in Tank's MV, "給我你的愛" (theme song for "終極一班")


Jiro in vegetable juice commercial (guest starring other three members of Fahrenheit)


Jiro in ISWAK, dreaming of singing his love theme to his dream girl




Jiro in ISWAK, these are the two scene which really made me take a different look at Jiro as an actor


Jiro and Joe Cheng lip-sync to the theme song of ISWAK