Back in 2001(that would be 20 years ago) - the Taiwanese adaptation of Hana Yori Dango or Meteor Garden was made. I was thinking about the comments on the chemistry of Jerry Yan and Barbie Xu-Wang as Doumyoji Tsukasa (Daoming Si) and Makino Tsukushi (Dong Shan Tsai) in the said TV series. I still feel Barbie has been the best Tsukushi ever and Jerry portrays every side of Doumyoji (an insecure bully who changes for the better) oh-so-well. Meteor Garden's first season aired in the same year as the remake of Romance in the Rain which the 1986 version starred Chin Han and Leanne Liu. I decided to try watching the 1986 version (even without understand almost all of it) and decided to only see the similar scenes between the 2001 and 1986 versions. So, I wonder was Chiung Yao trying to make her 2001 remake a high budget or what? I even wonder what if Jerry and Barbie were Shuhuan and Yiping instead of Daoming Si and Shan Cai back in 2001.
Meteor Garden got so popular that a second season was made. Taiwanese actress Zhen Xiu Zhen (Doumyoji Kaede or Dao Ming Feng) managed to get more episodes into the second season presumably due to better negotiation. I felt the second season left us hanging just a year after the first season. The intensity was really there. Though, I ended up DISLIKING the second season no matter how many times people say that Daoming Si became better in the end. It was dragging! Though it did show the potential that the two had again. Both Jerry and Barbie had only one coupling - stuck in the role of Dao Ming Si and Shan Tsai. Though, it seems love teams don't work as well anymore, right? Though other on-screen couples hand a reunion on-screen such as Ambrose Xu and Tammy Chen-Xue in The Mouse Loves the Rice. However, loveteams somehow don't work that well anymore like they did in the past with Chin Han who frequently got paired with Brigitte Lin (which ended in an ugly affair) and later with Leanne (who was 13 years, Han's junior). Jerry though was a year younger than Barbie in real life making the chemistry potentially better than the Chin Han x Leanne Liu on-screen couple.
Qiong Yao managed to score with Romance in the Rain with Vicki Zhao-Huang and Leo Ku. Though, I felt I wish she tried to negotiate with Angie Cai. I decided to try watching some episodes of the Taiwanese drama The Unforgettable Character which I believe could've been (and should've been) remade with the Meteor Garden cast. Jerry already proved he could still play a college student below his age. The opening of The Unforgettable Character had some scenes in college which then forward themselves to the married life. For one, I think Leanne and Chin Han could've made a return as Jerry's parents, Rosanna Gu as Barbie's mother, and I'd like to see Angie Tang resume her role as the grandmother but this time to Jerry. I think it would've been interesting to have a part where Jerry is married to another woman (I'd pick Ke Huan Ru for that part) while Barbie is married to a useless man. I felt that the plot could've been with some cast members of Meteor Garden. Too bad that it never happened.
Though, I was thinking that any possible reunion series (wishful thinking) might be trying to make an age-accurate (if ever) version of After Many Red Sunsets where Chin Han and Leanne had aging make-up on. Both Jerry and Barbie are in their 40s which would make it a bit more accurate. Barbie also has a daughter and a son too who might do well to play the part of the children. Though, another one that Jerry and Barbie could get a reunion series would be Love in the Red Dust where a love story between a businessman and a dancer end in tragedy. Love of the Red Dust also had the late Mary Hsu (who died last 2011) as the wife of the doctor who was once in love with the suffering heroine and still had lingering feelings for her.
For me, this is a missed opportunity for Qiong Yao. But what's done is done, right?
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