Desire on 5th Gear! (Vroooom)
I am watching this drama 10 years after it's release and liked it. First and foremost, I liked it because it is a comfortable watch of only 14 episodes. Top actors Peter Ho, Barbie Hsu and Huang Xiao Ming gave it all in their acting.The story written got me truly frustrated and angst. One beautiful girl loved intensely by two handsome guys from high school up till adulthood. Possessiveness, jealousy, insecurity, fear of abandonment, all played out by the two guys, on full 5th gear, from 1st to 12th episodes. So it was like watching Formula 1 love race.
The role of Xia Mo was perfect for Barbie Hsu. I normally find Barbie just a beautiful actress. However, she managed to do justice with her character in this drama. She acted well with her beautiful serene facial expressions and her cool temperament. Even when her world was falling apart with the two men playing 'tug of war' for ownership of her, she still managed to hold herself together. Yes, there were many scenes that her crying was on point, which in turn made my crying on point too.
This is a good drama to watch and not a boring moment to waste. It teaches us how we should love.
Read that Peter Ho is also a producer of this drama. Good investment and loved his acting too. He held the show together well from beginning to end.
Cheers!
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The following is an Everything HONEST Review. Sarcasm up ahead. You have been warned.
Taiwanese drama. You love its comedy, predictable plot, bitchy female leads, annoying subplots, plot conviences,sexy kiss scenes, and likeable first female, Watch as this drama completely shits on this tradition with the exception of sexy kiss scenes. Mhhhhmmmm Peter. Mhmmmmm Xiao Ming.
Meet Xia Mo, the most manipulative female lead since...I can't compare her to another Taiwanese character. Damn I need to expand my list. Watch as she use guys for money, use guys for jealousy, use guys to rise to the top; things a first female lead wouldn't do. She does this in order to help her ill brother, help her friends, help her enemies, and repay for her mistakes; things a first female lead would do. Most REALISTIC female lead ever. She will be given the HARDEST choice ever. Get it because the guys have HARD abs. Chose between an OVERBEARING rich guy that gets jealous regardless of who she is with or an INSINCERE self made rich guy that does not trust her.
Fathom at how a show can jump to five years after five minutes only to play a flashback every episode. Seriously what was the point? A show where it is hard to tell who she'll end up with until you figure out who is the first male lead. A show who's message is more than a love story, but a story about a girl who will do ANYTHING for the guy she truly loves.... her brother.
Starring
I'm a Barbie girl in a barbie world (Hsu Barbie)
Liu Kang(Luo Xi)
Family Guy(Peter Ho)
Summer Desire... I figured out who she was going to end up with in episode 7... new record!
Cliche Counter
Male Lead is rich
Male Lead becomes rich
Female Lead becomes rich
Snobby rival
Dorky best friend
Ill loved one
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It`s a very powerful romantic drama,despite not having "that much" romance in it.It revolves around three people.One woman and two men who loves her.This drama is based on a novel and also has a manga adaption by Ming Xiao Xi who also have put out some quotes in the every start of every episodes of the drama.Its deepful meanings about love and relationships.It also shows that every episode resembles a greater meaning behind it.
Yin Xia Mo (played by Barbie Hsu) is the FL,a heroine who resembles like no other.She is not the supernaive and sacrificial character,nor is she a bratty snob.She has such patience for life that it shatters you,because life has given her none of that.Strength and bravery lies in her heart,and the deep need to survive in a hypocritical world where she trusts nobody.Her younger half-brother is a link that sways her away from madness,and the one soul she loves the most.For him she is ready to kill anyone who harms him ,and even accept punishment that serves her in jail.She is considered to be cold-hearted and manipulative by the people around her,but deep inside her heart she is just longing for happiness.We as viewers just have to applaud over her courage for that.
Luo Xi (played by Huang Xiaoming) is the charismatic devil-like orphan who also has manipulative and selfish characteristics like Xia Mo,especially for survival.He is cynical,sarcastic and two-faced from the start,just to not let anyone near him,and for him to not let himself care.That falls apart when he gets to know his foster-sister Xia Mo,and falls madly and unhappily in love with her.He is a tortured soul whose mother abandoned him in a amusement park,that grave betrayal has scarred him for life,until he loses his heart to Xia Mo.He can be considered as a tragic hero for many,but for me he is a tortured soul that (just like Xia Mo) earns for happiness,and he is brave enough to follow it.
The greatest reason i always re-watch this drama is because of Peter Ho`s portrayal of the eccentric,mighty alpha-male of a tycoon Ou Chen who has lived a lonely and cold life as long as he can remember.As a young teenager he befriends and falls in love with Xia Mo,but his possessive and controlling nature creates a strain in their relationship later in High-School.I love that Ou Chen never wavered in his love for Xia Mo,even when he suffered amnesia his heart still longed for Xia Mo.His love for her was his ruin...and his cure.He loved her so much that he couldn`t live without her.Nothing meant anything without her.I love him so much.He shines through every scenes,and has the brooding irresistible quality about him...and every time he looked at Xia Mo,my stomach just tickled like crazy.His love for Xia Mo was so powerful that it could easily destroy him.He is the Anti-hero you can`t help but love,and he lets nothing stand in his way in his pursuit of his beloved Xia Mo.Peter Ho should have got an Oscar for his performance,this man really fascinated me!!!
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Good drama but very heavy
I haven't seen the Chinese version of this drama, but I can tell you that this one is heavy and depressing. (The Taiwaneese version of HYD/Meteor Garden was like that too.) I never felt truly happy for any of the main characters while watching this painful love-triangle story. When you watch a love-triange story, you know that somebody will have to suffer in the end but still, the director twists the lines in a way that you can justify your happiness for the couple. I think this is missing from this drama.The acting was good, I generally like Barbie Hsu and just finished another great drama starring Huang Xiao Ming, so I had high expectations. Well, they don't disappoint, it's just the lethargic story that leaves a hole in your heart in the end.
I would rather watch another drama than feeling depressed again because of rewatching this one, but I understand that there are many fans who like this stuff.
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Lovely Story with some unique characters
I am watching this drama series in 2023 for the first time and surprisingly I found myself enjoying every bit of the story. Forgiving some of the fashion styles especially for the MLs hairstyles and some awkward acting I feel this drama was unfairly underrated. Peter Ho was a delight to watch even though I wish he gets more screen time and more intimate interactions with FL. Barbie was beautiful as XiaMo even with some critics for her acting here, I think that was how she interpreted the role, a cold and indifferent person. We do wish she would put a bit more emotions in some of the scenes. Nevertheless I still love her better as XiaMo than all the other versions of Summer’s Desire. HXM as Lo Tsi got better as the drama progresses and he put a lot of emotions into his love scenes ?. The love triangle between them was the most complicated and intense that I have watched, the ML leads didn’t give up easily and use every means and chance to get close to XiaMo.I love the all the songs too, and I don’t even understand lyrics.So to me Summer’s Desire (2010) are a very refreshing story to watch even now and it deserve better review. I have skimmed through the 2018 remake and did not find it at par with the Taiwan’s version. I would love to read the novel and now am looking for the English translated version.
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This review may contain spoilers
a classic one!
for people who just started watching this one, i would say this drama is not that impressive, but definitely a classic one which set paves for a lot of idol dramas later.the story revolves around the three main characters and their complicated relationships. both main male chars are in love with the female lead and use their own ways to gain her heart. i would say the drawback of the drama is that the male chars mostly physically and mentally tortured the female lead. she is kept in between the two men she cares for and used to care for and she is exhausted by that. all three of them have some mild to serious mental issues and twisted thinking, which causes much drama, tension, and sorrow for all of them. even though the drama can look peaceful and romantic on the surface, it is actually a melodrama which lifts your heart up and down the whole time.
i remember watching it as a kid (10 yrs old more) and was really impressed at the time with the drama and later rewatched it when i grow older. not a profound drama but absolutely holds its own value
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Super problematic but still rewatched it like 6 times
I'm pretty sure this was the first non-English language drama I ever watched – I was 12 yo when Summer's Desire came out and a friend at school was watching it. I've rewatched it a handful of times since. But I think just because it was the first ever Taiwanese drama I'd watched, not because it was particularly good. I can't deny this is my most re-watched drama, hence the generous star number there.Look, be warned, this drama has heaps of problematic elements to it. Ok, I'm understating that a lot. I've given this a low rating because this drama has nothing to do with love and everything to do with coercive control. so **big content warning** there. There's no rape scenes thankfully, but it's clear that consent is not a big priority.
Also, as other reviews have noted, this drama is brimming with clichés. Turns out, it was a great drama to begin with because it introduced me to almost all the tropes of Taiwanese and C-Dramas in one go. I also think it took at least three re-watches for me to fully understand the plotline. But, let's be real, you're not watching Summer's Desire for the plot.
The chemistry between the three lead actors is really well done (somewhat despite a sub-par performance from Barbie Hsu who doesn't match her Meteor Garden efforts). The actors do pretty darn well in spite of the cliché characters and dialogue. The support actors also do well to provide emotional depth to the storyline.
The OST is great and makes up for the fact the overall audio quality is a bit patchy (this seemed to be a common thing among Taiwanese dramas of this era, I've now noticed). Just weird audio levels around dialogue and general atmosphere.
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Loved this drama but I loved Ou Chen more than anything else in this drama.
I love Taiwanese dramas, every single one I've watched is so unique. I watched the Chinese remake (drama) of this before watching the original version and I couldn't help but compare the two at the begining but after a few episodes I stopped. Overall, this was definitely better. Another rant:Execution:
At first I didn't really like the execution of the drama, how it starts of in the present (5 years in the future) and flashes back to the past. It doesn't give you the story in chronological order so you're kept guessing what the tragedy was in the past and how it came to be. That is unless you already watched the remake which gives you everything in chronological order. But then I also grew to like this because it makes the story More from Ou Chen's POV, we see the flashbacks more often when he is regaining his memories and trying to figure out what happened between Lin Xia Mo and himself. It also allowed the drama to focus more on Ou Chen and Xia Mo's relationship even when Xia Mo was romantically involved with Luo Xi. Something that I hated about the remake was that I felt that it focused more on Luo Xi rather than Ou Chen making it difficult to figure out who the main character was. I love that we also got to see a lot of Ou Chen's past as a child and his childhood with Xia Mo, it really made you see the depth of his character, especially when you find out about his parents.
Music:
The sound quality of the drama wasn't good, couldn't find any better but the music was very dramatic and sometimes over the top. It went really well with the drama and I liked Xia Mo's singing, have no idea if it was the actress.
Acting/Script:
I loved the actors in this drama, I think all of them did a really good job of portraying their characters emotions:
Barbie Hsu:
Though her character seems cold, she really wasn't. She showed her emotions at all the right times. You could really see the hate in her eyes the night Xia Mo's parents died, the sadness of her loss as well as the constant pain of seeing her brother in bad health. She did a really good job of playing a cold character that rarely expressly showed her love for either Luo Xi or Ou Chen, but it was her actions that showed her love. I really liked this about the script, her character was the definition of "actions speak louder then words".
Peter Ho:
Peter Ho's character was the most emotionally driven as well as cold character in the entire drama. He was a mixture of Luo Xi, an emotionally driven but unreasonable (childlike) charecter, and Xia Mo, a reasonable almost 'cold' person in every aspect of her life. He also had the most depth. Peter Ho did an amazing job portraying all the layers of his character and his emotions, I cried at how lonely Ou Chen was, it was hard not to sympathise with his character and I was rooting for him from begining to end. He was the one charecter that needed a happy ending more than anyone.
Hang Xiao Ming:
Luo Xia Ming was a very arrogant and childish character. My first impression, when I saw Luo Xi was that Huang Xiao Ming could play a good villain, it was his smile. I didn't really like his character, but he played it well, but I never sympathised with his character.
Ou Chen v Luo Xi:
I also read a lot of reviews and comments about how Ou Chen was really toxic and how Xia Mo should have ended up with Luo Xi and I couldn't disagree more.
I felt like Luo Xi was a lot more toxic than Ou Chen ever was. It's the subtle action and reactions that show it:
- Ou Chen was always possessive, but not toxicly so. He was all bark and no bite and Xia Mo was always able to cool him off and he always listened to her no matter what, even when he doesn't say or show so. He got jealous easily, yes, in the past it was sometimes unreasonably so, but he never stopped her from doing anything or meeting anyone because of this, something Luo Xi clearly didn't do. When they get back together he trusted her no matter what and trusted their relationship no matter what anyone said because he knew Xia Mo would never cheat on the person she is with and that she keeps her word. When Luo Xi and Xia Mo were together, Luo Xi will physically hold her back from talking to Ou Chen and be unreasonable about any contact Xia Mo and Ou Chen have despite the fact that Ou Chen is Xia Mo's boss and they have to meet and talk, Luo Xi never trusted Xia Mo.
- Ou Chen was also very respectful of Xia Mo. Even though Ou Chen and Xia Mo were romantically involved for a long time and known each other for years, he was always gentle with her and kissed her on the forehead. In comparison, Luo Xi first kissed Xia Mo without her consent and when she was drunk, knowing that she was with Ou Chen. Their second kiss was also forced by Lou Xi.
- Ou Chen always supported her even when they weren't romantically together and even when he was meant to hate her, but he never took credit for it. Ou Chen may have lost his memories, but he was always there for Xia Mo, and ONLY because of his memory loss he couldn't be with her before. But Luo Xi left Xia Mo and willingly and never looked back in those 5 years. He didn't bother to hear any news about her whilst the last thing Ou Chen did when he had his memories was try and be there for Xia Mo after she lost her parents in an accident.
Xia Mo, Ou Chen and Luo X:
Xia Mo, Ou Chen and Luo Xi are technically orphans, they share this one similarity. They were all abandoned by their mothers. Xia Mo and Luo Xi are very alike, they are both in show biz and both good at acting due to their past as a orphans, having to pretend to be someone they're not in order to be loved. All three hide their emotions really well but Ou Chen was definitely the most emotional but also the coldest same with Xia Mo, but they would both do anything, sacrifice everything, for the ones they love, which is why they were so perfect for together.
I found Luo Xi for the majority of this drama to be annoyingly arrogant and arrogant for all the wrong things. Later, he seemed immature and arrogant, a terrible combination. Though Xia Mo is cold, she is the kind of person that will take care of you when you're sick, be there for you when you're at your lowest and stand up for you. And she has done this. But Luo Xi is the complete opposite, he became arrogant and immature, thinking the world revolved around him when Xia Mo was suffering. Only in tough times can you tell who is best for you and Ou Chen was that person for Xia Mo and vice-versa.
Xia Mo:
I liked Xia Mo a lot more in this version (original version) than I did in the remake. She was a lot more rational and reasonable but also more emotional. I didn't like how she broke up with Ou Chen but I could justify her behaviour. She didn't mean anything she said to Ou Chen on that day, it was all said in anger and sadness from the loss of her family. She directed all her emotions to Ou Chen as hate but didn't mean them, words that Ou Chen took to heart in a scene that made me cry. It showed how much Ou Chen truly loved her, but if he was thinking rationally he would have realised that she didn't mean those words, she had just lost her family that day and had no one else to take it out on. It also made me understand Xia Mo more, she cares about people she considers family a lot, she doesn't care if anyone harms her, but she won't allow it on her family because they are all she has and she would die along with them if it meant living without them. She deals with loss through directing her emotions at someone else and if it has to do with her family, she'll do it through anger.
I smacked my head because of this girl so many times for the shit she unintentionally put Ou Chen through. I can't hate her because she's never bad to Ou Chen other then that one time, and I don't want to hate her. But I kinda do hate her because I just wanted her to be by his side, say yes to him and be honest to both herself and Ou Chen for the feelings she clearly had for him in the past and started to have in the present. I HATED how she lied to herself and Ou Chen about having never loved him when she clearly did.
SPOILERS:
I LOVED the twist towrds the end. It in some way justified Ou Chen's sacrifice for Xia Mo's brother and it also made it make sense why Ou Chen was the only person who could sacrifice this for Xia Mo's brother. Ou Chen and Yin Cheng being brothers was the best plot twist that could have happened and I felt that it was a fact that would make Xia Mo love Ou Chen even more because her brother meant everthing to her and Ou Chen is another connection to him. I think Ou Chen also figured out that he and Yin Cheng share a father, I don't know when, but I was just happy that by the end of the drama he got a family. A family and reciprocated love, which was all he wanted and he got it, a family was also everything that meant anything to Xia Mo so Xia Mo and Ou Chen being married and having a family was the best ending for the both of them. Luo Xi didn't need anyone, ever, so he too got his best ending.
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This is a classic. Full of complications that only old dramas can provide
Watched this 2010 drama in 2022 and I just ask 'Why haven't I watched you before?'. In the first 3 minutes, you already know that this will be angsty love triangle.Barbie Hsu was great as Xiamo who I felt was one of the hardest heroine to portray. You can't read her. Sometimes she will say she's uninterested but her eyes are saying otherwise. She tries not to harm others but will fight those who try to harm her. She enthralled her two leading men. Both men have insecurities that makes them possessive of Xiamo but both of them would also do anything for her. You can't be sure who she'll end up with because she seems to have feelings for both.
This 24 episode drama had some of the cheesiest monologues near the end but it still made me cry and root for the ML.
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