If there’s one thing I love it’s definitely my gender-bending story lines. Whether it be anime, manga or drama, whatever form it takes its always a treat to jump into a story that takes the approach of some female heroine put into a situation where she has to hide her gender for some or other reason that is completely justifiable in the world of make-believe and off we go as we observe the repercussions of such a wondrous disaster waiting to happen.
The most recent such drama that has taken this approach has delivered quite well, if not a bit too well, in this regard as it throws not only the tasty gender-bending drama in the mix but every cliché drama any Asian drama could have to offer. From the accidental meetings and over the top situations right to the predictable heart stopping scenes, this drama goes to every length to show that it can squeeze every cliché in the book in its hap hazardously written storyline that seems barely coherent in the beginning as it follows our leads. But somehow it still maintains some semblance of a storyline as it makes its way to an end you can’t really predict.
Bromance, a Taiwanese drama, introduces us to our female lead, Pi Ya Nuo, who has lived for twenty five years as a man due to some fortune told by a seer that warned her parents of her bad luck and an ominous death if she lived otherwise. However, the requirement was only that she lives like this until her twenty six birthday, and as we know in true drama fashion this is when the fun really happens.
A hundred days before her birthday we watch as Pi Yan Nuo meets, in a rather dramatic way, our male lead, Du Zi Feng. Things move fast and in many ways Pi Ya Nuo and Du Zi Feng become sworn ‘brothers’ within a matter of days (though it seems minutes to be honest). The drama moves quickly in the beginning as it shows the two get closer and fonder of each other.
Eventually things become interesting as they become too close and we see Du Zi Feng seeing his sworn brother in a rather romantic light, while Pi Ya Nuo also struggles to hide her gender even though she begins falling in love with the head of three mafia-like families. It’s definitely interesting to see how these two will finally end up once the proverbial cat is out the bag.
The drama is surprisingly very easy going with the whole ‘gay’ romance thing and that was a very pleasant surprise and allowed for many scenes that would make any fan of the yaoi and boy’s love genre very happy indeed. I, for one, am very pleased by some scenes that were shot with care though I admit the overall drama could have used a better script. The actors were brilliant, or at least the main ones and a few of the side ones were. I imagine with a bit of polishing there would be a good remake in this somewhere (I’m looking at you Korea <<.<<).
Overall I like the drama and would recommend it to anyone who could stomach a high level of cheese and cliché along with a screen writer(s?) with a slight case of ADHD. Oh, I should mention the side story… yeah, the sad story that probably just needed to be included for soundtrack purposes… I guess we can’t have perfection in everything can we?
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