A Stalker's Guide to Mark Chao
Currently Watching
My Best Ex-Boyfriend
As a relatively new fan of the Chinese entertainment industry, and dramas in general, it's actually my first time watching a drama while it's still airing. As a Jerry Yan fan, I just couldn't let this drama pass! Leaving my intense bias for him aside, I never thought that I would end up loving the drama as a whole. I have watched a lot of not-so-good Chinese dramas because they were just not interesting enough. Surprisingly, My Best Ex-Boyfriend isn't one of them and it's like a pill that I just can't stop popping! This is just me starting to promote this drama but read more if you're still not convinced or if you just have nothing else to read (lol!):
SYNOPSIS: Fu Fang Si and Li Tang, Cheng Xiang Nan and Yin Hao Ran, had beautiful and romantic memories, personality conflicts, and eventually loss due to real differences. After many years on a gorgeous fashion show, fate let them meet again. When Fang Si is already very close to reaching her dreams in the fashion industry, Li Tang has once again entered her life; The problem became even more complicated when her current boyfriend's famous supermodel ex-girlfriend enters the scene. Fang Si's studio suffered more misfortune, with her ex-boyfriend Li Tang coming to the rescue. Will they have a better future this time?
In short, all of them had some juicy relationships in the past that didn't work out. They have been trying to move on from it because, why not? It's been so many years already, right? Well, it can never be that simple in the world of Chinese dramaland and added bonus is that it is set in the world of fashion which makes it even more exciting!
CHARACTERS:
Jerry Yan as Li Tang
We have here your typical rich, arrogant, and overbearing kind of male lead in a drama. This is why Jerry gets criticized by people because he basically plays the same roles. No need to ask my opinion about this, because he's my ultimate love which would just result to a pro-Jerry opinion from me... haha! However, what makes Jerry's portrayal of Tang so special is his immaturity or childishness in dealing with everything. When I say everything, it's his attitude towards the challenges he faces in life may it be about his relationships or in his business dealings. Moreover, he also has an estranged relationship with his father and he's willing to do anything just to be able to fight against him.
The reason why this drama has an element of comedy is because of his character's childishness actually and it's really just beyond enjoyable to watch!
Maggie Jiang as Fu Fangsi
This female lead is a rare species in dramaland. She's the kind of unbreakable heroine that you would love to become. She's not going to let anything or anyone stop her from pursuing her dreams to become an international top fashion designer. Although she's your typical independent career woman/workaholic, Fangsi dedicates everything to her mother. She also has her ever-loyal assistant and best friend Xiao Nai by her side even when all else fails.
Fangsi's character is just so inspiring that I can't help but wish to become someone like her.
Ron Ng as Yin Haoran
A second male lead in dramas is usually the one who acts like a martyr and gives up the one he loves so that she'd be happy. Haoran is not that kind of character and I'm actually still not sure what kind of character he is. He can be very unpredictable because of his seemingly unclear motives but you'll realize at some point that his decisions make sense actually.
Just like any other drama character, someone as smart or as wise like Haoran can meet his own weakness, which is in the love department. He can become unreasonable or ridiculous when it comes to love but that's why a perfect character can be very boring to watch so yay for character flaws!
Viola Mi as Cheng Xiangnan
Xiangnan is your average second female lead or female villain who acts like the world owes her everything. She has a princess complex which is funny because this actress in a different character said this about someone in another drama which is My Sunshine (sorry I just had to share haha!)
Her tongue can be sharp and deadly but can be easily defeated by our hard-hitting heroine Fangsi (CATFIGHT!). Despite her character being irritating according to others, I don't find her irritating and I pity her most of the time actually. She has a mother that you would never wish to have in your life because she pretty much makes her life miserable by forcing her to do things that she never wanted to do in the first place.
FIVE Reasons to watch
- 1.) The cast. Enough said. Okay, maybe not, because I have to elaborate my point. Let me start with the actresses first:
Maggie Jiang as Fu Fangsi is such a treat to watch. I feel like SHE IS Fu Fangsi which shows how she's into her character so deep already. I feel like this is one of the biggest breaks of her career in dramaland and I won't be surprised to see her in lots of good projects again soon.
I believe Viola Mi is acing it as Cheng Xiangnan as well. It may seem easy to act like a princess or someone who has a bratty/diva complex but it's her emotional scenes that made me realize that she really is a good actress. She's pretty new in the industry as well so I believe that she and Maggie would have great opportunities in the circle soon because they deserve it being the talented/skillful people that they are.
For the actors,
Jerry Yan’s Li Tang is a combination of his Meteor Garden’s Dao Ming Si and My Splendid Life’s (his first C-drama back in 2011) Liu Yuhao. Cool, confident, and overbearing but actually has a soft side when it comes to matters of the heart. There were some scenes with him that I just couldn’t help but laugh and I’m not sure if it’s about the drama trying to be funny or maybe him in those ridiculous high-fashion outfits is enough to make me chuckle. Either way, seeing him on the screen just makes me happy since he became my ultimate Taiwanese love because of his amazing acting (I’m quite aware that he has a lot of haters in terms of his acting though).
Ron Ng is the only actor here who I have never watched before but I'm glad that I have the opportunity to watch him here. He plays the perfect man so well that you wouldn't blame the girls in the drama to develop a crush on him. So perfect that he's such a loving boyfriend as well that you would also understand why his ex-girlfriend still hasn't moved on from him.
- 2.) Production/cinematography
- My friend asked about my opinions on the drama and the first thing I said was, “I love the visuals and the fashion theme!”. The cinematography of the drama is really well done and everything was just a feast to my eyes.
- I think I have watched enough C-dramas to say that the way My Best Ex-Boyfriend was filmed and edited is definitely of high quality. This should have been expected too given that three channels (2 TV, 1 web) are broadcasting it.
- Another major factor that shows that a large amount of money was spent on its quality is the fact that the actors were not dubbed. I’m not saying that a C-drama has a low quality when the actors are dubbed but one factor why the production team decides to dub is because getting a sound/microphone system that blocks out the outdoor noise can be pretty expensive. Most of the scenes in the drama were actually outside and the fact that they were not dubbed is already saying a lot about the quality of the production.
- I love it even more for that because they did not just spend their money on getting good actors (Jerry Yan's talent fee is reportedly RMB 100,000+ per episode) but they spent it well on the production itself!
- 3.) Story & 4.) Fashion
- As a fan of Western fashion-themed shows like Gossip Girl, Jane by Design, and Carrie Diaries, I just love how this drama does not disappoint in showcasing the fashion industry. There are hardly any dramas in the Chinese entertainment that revolves around the world of fashion so this one can be refreshing to watch.
- It has everything that you can find in a fashion-themed drama, catwalks, sabotages by traitors, bankruptcy, and more but the romance is definitely my favorite style! The story has also been producing such OTP-worthy couples (aka please see above for reference) and their moments just make me squeal literally!
- If you also want to see good-looking guys in ridiculous high-fashion outfits aka Jerry's Li Tang and Ron's Yin Haoran, then this show is for you haha! It makes me awe out of amazement that such men could pull off serious dramatic scenes despite their funny wardrobe choices (this is for Jerry/Tang to be specific).
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5.) OST
I have listened to the drama’s opening song even before its premiere but I couldn’t say much about it yet. Eventually, I find myself falling in love with it as each start of the episode passes by and now I have it in my drama OSTs playlist! Some slow songs are also just so good because they were really playing according to the situation. They also play some naughty/quirky music in the background from time to time which just indicates that Jerry's Li Tang is up to his childish shenanigans haha! As a Jerry Yan fan, I was honestly expecting him to contribute to the OST because he actually did for 95% of his projects. So it’s really surprising that this drama is part of the 5%. Nevertheless, music is an integral part of the drama and some dramas can actually be really bad but at least they have the OST to save it, For My Best Ex-Boyfriend, I just love both the music and the drama itself!
So have you decided if you're going to watch it or not? If yes, then head over to Viki where English subtitles for this drama have been releasing as fast as lightning. I honestly can't keep up anymore but this is just really great news!
Since this is just a Currently Watching article, I can't say much anymore but I have been writing recaps and my other thoughts about this drama. You may read it here! I hope you can watch it with me until the end and so that we can also find out who this Best Ex-Boyfriend that they're referring to... ;) Hope I can know your thoughts/opinions through the comments section below :D
