Series Review: Wish to See You Again


"Wish to See You Again" is another of Vic Zhou's more serious dramas but not really serious compared to the nearly Qiong Yao type of drama in "Silence".  So the story is pretty much moderate- not too light nor too heavy with Vic Zhou as Xu Le a writer on a block working as a taxi driver to get some inspiration.  He meets his old friends again namely Ah Hao (Ken Zhu), Xiao Ma (Kingone Wang) and Lu Yi (Terri Kwan).  He unexpectedly falls in love with a fan namely Neng Xian who was a friend of Leo (Vanness Wu) who is just a come and go.

So I pretty much find this drama to be more on friendship than the love that eventually develops between Xu Le and Neng Xian whose parents work in a traditional Chinese clinic.  So Neng Xian works in a hotel and has initially fallen for Xiao Ma who has a vindictive older brother Yong Jie (acted by Bao Xiao Bo) that I absolutely despise for being a braggart.  Also for the character of Xu Le, I do find his character to be very eccentric and trying the weirdest stuff to the point he nearly killed himself.  Hmmm I do have a minor complaint to why a script that's intended not to be super funny but Xu Le has to have those wordings on his head whenever an idea comes.  So I do find the scene where Neng Xian thought that Xu Le committed suicide to be pretty scary!  Neg Xian's family can be funny with the presence of her parents who are acted by long outstanding comedians Gu Bao Xing and Li Xei Xia.  Her older sister Neng Zhen (Ji Qin) is pretty much a failure with matchmaking and is in love with Ah Hao which I find to be a weak point.

Moving on, the test of friendship between Xu Le, Ah Hao and Xiao Ma is always put to the test.  While Xiao Ma is now an heir to a five star hotel, Ah Hao's business in America fell down probably due to him overspending or mishandling to where he is forced to be a taxi driver and he treats the other two coldly.  So in the test of friendship, Xiao Ma wants to help an old buddy but his arrogant older brother ticks me off with his words.  I do think that sometimes the lesson was that you have to move on and not live in the past.  Along the way, we also discover that Ah Hao was also Lu Yi's ex-boyfriend.  For Xu Le and Neng Xian, it wasn't a love at first sight since she was initially in love with Xiao Ma who later dates Lu Yi.  I also like the idea of Eric Tsang showing up in this production as the boss of Ah Hao.

Moving on, I pretty found the interactions between Xu Le and Neng Xian to have brought some chemistry with each other.  While not being a writer, Xu Le actually does good as a researcher like helping Neng Xian suggest better ideas at the hotel where she works on.  I did like the deviled steak scenes as well as the children's day.  Of course there was that unforgettable incident of a young child who was the son of a rich man.  Though he's pretty much a troublemaker at first, however the kindness of Xu Le and Neng Xian managed to soften up the little boy as if they were a family.  I liked the traveling around in Taiwan here especially when entering into Mt. Alisan, a famous tourist site in Taiwan.  The sites of Mt. Alisan were so well pictured I really want to go there myself one of these days.

And of course along the way there are the issues with Lu Yi moving forward with Xiao Ma while it was discovered by the audience then later by the people int the script that she was once dating Ah Hao.  Ah Hao however refuses to return Neng Zhen's feelings for him not only because he doesn't like her that way but also because he depreciated himself for the overspending he did in America.  The story of Neng Xian with Xu Le eventually blossoms into a relationship when she finds out she can't have Xiao Ma who was her first crush.  And this also creates some minor comedy which doesn't ruin the overall feel of the script.  And there's those parts where Xu Le's story is being revealed slowly and surely since there was no backstory revealed to him.

So pretty much, Leo reveals to Neng Xian much of the past to which Xu Le was an orphan whose mom had to leave him to an orphanage due to their extreme poverty and he wasn't really normal due to that.  So it does turn out that Leo once had a crush on Neng Xian which could by all means create an interesting love triangle of two handsome guys after a plain-looking girl but it wasn't pushed through.  The scene where Xu Le lands in the hospital and is cared by Neng Xian were pretty sweet or the tennis scenes.  And there's that scene where Xiao Ma's romance with Xu Le despite some bumps in the way, ended up creating them as a couple.  For Xu Le, there was this conflict with him since he cannot fully confess the feelings he had for Neng Xian.  So it becomes a sad Christmas for him of sorts but then he finally has a reunion with his birth mother while it's never made clear who his foster parents are.  Neng Xian continues her job and there's much of the chase after her scene.  In the end, they met each other again at Mt. Alisan at the first sunrise of the new year, a typical romantic ending.

My rating?  9/10.  A must see.

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