Moon River - Taiwanese Drama

Title: 明若曉溪 (明若晓溪) / Ming Ruo Xiao Xi

English Title: Moon River

Also known as: 愛情迴旋踢 (爱情回旋踢) / Ai Qing Hui Xuan Ti

Genre: Romance, martial arts

Episodes: 29

Cast

• Pets Tseng  as Ming Xiao Xi 明曉溪
• Lin Zi Hong  as Mu Liu Bing 牧流冰
• Luo Xuan Ming  as childhood Mu Liu Bing
• Evan Ma   as Feng Jian Che 風澗澈
• Xu Kai Pin  (徐开聘) as Dong Hao Nan 東浩男
• Bernice Tsai  as Dong Hao Xue 東浩雪
• Cao Xi Yue  as Tie Sha Xing 铁纱杏
• Hu Huan Wei  (胡桓瑋) as Rui Xi 瑞喜
• Wang Wei  (王薇) as Min Rong 敏容
• Hannah Quinlivan  (昆凌) as Lucy 露西
• Yang Yong Chun  (陽詠存) as Fei Fei 菲菲
• Ge Lei  as Dong Shui Yue 東水月
• Shara Lin  as Coco

Moon River is a Taiwanese Drama from 2015. I just finished watching it this week and I gotta say it reminds me of Boys Over Flower. There are some differences between them, like the main girl know kungfu and the F4 is now F3. But the story similarities are hard to miss. The story is about a girl going to a university for rich people and find herself in love with the rich hot shot guy named Mu Liu Bing. The girl comes from a poor martial art family from a little village. She was offered a scholarship to go to the university in the big city, so she went. She isn't really pretty. She wear that lame skirt and jogging jumping suit everywhere. And also wear the famous toes sock. Her face is okay. It's just that hairdo and clothes that make her look lame and ugly. Her name is Ming Xiao Xi.

These are the F3....

This guy here is the main character played by Sam Lin. Liu Bing comes from one of the rich family. He is cold and arrogant. His mother commit suicide when he was little. He promises to get revenge when he gets older. To be honest, I think his plan for vengeance is stupid. His father's plan too. I could come up with a better plan than lose all the money or the girl and couldn't even make a scratch to the evil guy. =/

This guy remind me of Hanazawa Rui in Boys over Flowers, doesn't he? Maybe it's the playing violin and he also fall for the main girl. And sadly his love get rejected. :/  

This guy is also one of the F3.  He love the rich girl who think she is all that because she is rich and pretty. In this shows, I really want to slap her so many times. I hate spoil kid. 

The rich spoil girl, the main antagonist of the story. She of course love Liu Bing and will do anything to get him. But because Liu Bing hate her father, so there is no future for them. Shoo shoo go away. Let the couple below be together already..

This is the main char, Ming Xiao Xi, friends/roommates. The guy is a chicken (I also want to slap). The girl is okay.

These 2 girls are the evil girl minions and listen to her every command.

--------------

Overall this TV series is also a must watch in my book. I like Boys over Flowers and so I like this one too.  I guess I do love romantic comedy after all. hehe. Liu Bing is also hot as long as his hair is not blond. hehe.



Read more

The Disguiser

SUMMARY:

The story follows the Ming family through the period when Japan invaded China during the late 1930s to 1940s. The movie was based on a book, Spy War on Shanghai Bond, written by Zhang Yong. It was produced by Hou Hongliang and directed by Li Xue, and stars Hu Ge, Jin Dong, Liu Mintao and Wang Kai as the members of the Ming family. It has 48 episodes, produced in 2015.

Ming King is the oldest member of the family, the big sister. Her parents died early and she has to take care of the whole family. She works very hard and never gets married. She was loved and respected by her 3 younger brothers. She is also an undercover for the Communist party.

Ming Tai , played by Hu Ge, is the youngest member of the Ming family. He was adopted into the Ming family when he was little. His mom died in an auto accident trying to save him and Ming Kin. Ming Kin is very grateful and adopted Ming Tai. She treated him like a precious jewel, wanting him to have a good education and to stay away from government and politics. Unfortunately, as fate have it, Ming Tai was kidnapped and forced to join the army under Wang Tianfeng. He is trained how to fight, how to shoot, and how to be a good spy. With his 2 comrades, he took on many missions including (bomb the train, murder Japanese officer) and eventually become a very good spy in the KMT. He has a nickname the Scorpion.

Ming Lou, the oldest brother, work for the Japanese government. Most people don’t know where his legion lies. The Chinese think he is a traitor. The Japanese don’t trust him enough, after all he is Chinese. He appears cold and strict. He is very smart and calculated. Code name, "Viper".

Ming Ah Cheng, was also adopted to the Ming family when he was young. His mother worked for the Ming family as a maid. Once she found out that Ah Cheng wasn’t her real son, she started to treat him badly. Ming Kin saw this one day and fire Ah Cheng’s mother and took in Ah Cheng. Ah Cheng work for Ming Lou as his secretary/butler. He is very loyal to Ming Lou.


PERSONAL REVIEW:

At first I watched this series because Hu Ge is in it, in time I grow to like it. It has suspense, mystery and betrayal . You are always on edge as to when the Japanese will find out that Ming Tai is a spy or about Ming Lou. I do not know why they have to do the mission where Ming Tai comrade all get kill. What is the point in killing everyone? Isn’t there another way to gain the Japanese trust? That’s just very odd to me. Ming Lou’s plan could work if they would just tell Ming Tai about it, instead of letting him do what he wants. He always seems to be the one that mess the plan up.

My favorite character in this series would have to be Ming Lou. He is very smart and manly. =D To be where he is , he must have to endure a lot. He cannot say anything about his identity to anyone and always get blame for being a Chinese traitor.

Is it just me or Hu Ge gun fight scene seems to be flashy and unreal? One scene he was shooting at Yamaha. He just walk closer to her and start shooting. All his shot hits her. But her shots never hit him once. She command an army. I would think she is not that suck at shooting. They keep making Hu Ge look cool and godly at gun fight scene. >.>

The ending is very sad. ‘Big sis’ got capture by the Japanese general and the 3 Ming brothers went to rescue her. Unfortunately she ended up dying right in front of them. The ending leave you hanging. I want to know further especially if they succeed in driving the Japanese away. Of course if you know history, the Japanese did go away, but still it seems like an incomplete story.

Overall this series is a must watch. It has same cast as Nirvana in Fire. Hu Ge is in it so must watch him. :D

Read more