BLISS RATING: ★★★★+
“I don’t need to be number one, but I need to be your number one.” – Quote from We Best Love: Love Number 1 For You
This series hit all the right notes, yet it made me still feel empty. And I am not sure exactly why. It is a simple story of unrequited love that spills over into bromance and then into love. I would have been fine with all of that but then the ending (after the credits) and the 6.5 episode just threw me into a tailspin of confusion and the story seems to have gone off the rails. What I dislike about these series is the overly acceding to ‘soap opera’ tactics. It is really a good story but then it seems to doubt itself and goes into a direction of contrivances. I realize that they wanted to segue into Season 2, but the explanation of that was so confusing and almost seemed like a different story.
The story is a simple one. It is between two archrivals. One is named Zhou Shu Yi (Yu). He has been a childhood acquaintance with Gao Shi De (Sam Lin). They have also been rivals, competitors and to some degree friends since very young. But Shu Yi is fiercely competitive and has been trying to beat Shi De in anything but never with any success.
So, he goes off to another college and is finding his own when Gao Shi De transfers to his school and so the rival begins anew. What Shu Yi does not realize is that underneath all the competitiveness and bluster, Gao Shi De is really in love with him and has been since childhood. We find out a lot about these two in the very first episode. Shu Yi is a troubled individual who has allowed himself to be swallowed up with frustration and anger towards Gao Shi De that it affects how he functions in the world. Shu Yi finds out that his best friends have fallen in love with each other, and he is distraught over loosing Jiang Yu Xin (Xin Le Er). He is in ‘love’ with her. He is saddened to the point, and here is where it gets confusing, he goes to the pool to be alone and cry. For some explicable reason, he jumps into the pool and appears to be trying to drown himself (or is he?) This is a bit of a confusing scene because I was not sure what he was doing. Gao Shi De jumps in to ‘rescue’ him who appears to not want to be rescued. To get him to go up, Gao Shi De kisses Shu Yi which does get him to go up. (Now THAT is a rescue plan)!
But in the tender moment, we see a spark between them and an opportunity for Gao Shi De to finally do what he has been wanting to do for a long time. He was at the pool following him and took pictures of Shu Yi crying and if he does not want to have those sent out to his friends, he will need to act as his servant. And so, the beginnings of a bromance occur. Gao Shi De is hoping and wanting to develop a friendship with him and perhaps more as he is secretly in love with him. They begin to spend more time together and their individual walls break down and both begin to see each other with a renewed vigor towards civility and a sense of friendship.
In a beautiful scene when they are stuck in the doctor’s office at school Gao Shi De explains in a whisper why he is so in love with Shu Yi. Shu Yi who is pretending to be sleeping, overhears all of it. Shu Yi becomes frightened and confused by all of that because he now knows the real reason for Gao Shi De’s pursuit of him.
Through a series of incidents involving his friends and a greater sense of reflection, he realizes that he too is in love with Gao Shi De. He finds him on a bridge and confesses his love to him in a bit of an unusual manner and is quite romantic (although production wise, it could have been tighter). What this series was NOT afraid to do was show a deep physical attraction to each other. The kissing scene on the bridge was intense, passionate, sensual, and down-right erotic. They were not afraid to go there, and neither were the actors. Kudos! This is rare to show such a deep physical attraction to each other and not be afraid to show it.
The last episode had a sense of foreboding about it even though I did now know that it really would. It starts out with Shu Yi meeting the mother of Gao Shi De at his place. She of course knew about her son and was glad to meet the person for whom he has devoted so much time and effort into being close to all these years. Everything seems to be going swimmingly until Gao Shi De tells Shu Yi that he is going to America for a few months as his mother is remarrying and he wants/needs to be there. Of course, he is devastated, but Gao Shi says he will only be gone a few months.
But as Gao Shi De’s cousin, the school doctor, Pei Shou Yi (Ray Chang), knows and feels something dark in this whole relationship. He is such an enigma to me. I cannot figure him out. He is so cynical and sarcastic and a deeply dark person but one that seems to be in love with Geo Shi De in his own unrequited way, in a twist of irony. Never revealing it but seems to be painfully aware of what the effects of this kind of one-sided love.
As fate would have it, the few months turn into 2 years. The reason is not made clear to us but when he returns, as seen in a special episode 6.5, he seems to have a family now – wife and child. Or that is the perception that Shu Yi is left with as he spies them in the park. Even though Geo Shi De makes numerous attempts via email to talk with Shu Yi, all is to no avail.
Heartbroken, Shu Yi is determined to never see or talk with him again and he rips off an throws away the bracelet that Geo Shi De gave him before he departed and asks him to never take it off. Here is where the story ends, awaiting Season 2.
And here is where it goes a bit off the rails for me. While I realize this is a ‘gay soap opera’, does it have to be this obviously obtuse? This plot has so many holes in it you could drive a cement truck through it. Did they not talk for 2 years? Why is Gao Shi De being so secretive about telling him what is happening? Why would he not think of Shu Yi’s feeling if he knows he will see him or suspect he might see him at the park? Why would you not have made every effort possible to see him the FIRST thing you would do? Why did you not go to his house? Could he not have had his cousin, the doctor, intervene? Look after Shu Yi? Gao Shi De keeps telling him that he needs to explain to him in person but why? Shu Yi has cut you off – permanently. If this was supposed to give some direction to Season 2, it just left me angry and upset because it is simply not logical. It is artificial drama and made the whole series become a caricature.
Overall, this is an excellent series with great screenwriting and a superb acting ensemble. The two main actors are spectacular in their roles and deserve all the accolades they can. Not only are they stunningly handsome, but they are also breathtakingly striking as well. Their screen chemistry together is one of the finest and certainly one of the best for a Taiwanese series. They brought these roles to life and gave them character that is real, believable, and human. I am pleased also that the actors were willing and did not hold back in showing that intense kissing between two men can be shown with authenticity and rawness and a genuine sense of reality. Obviously, the actors were not the problem.
If this series ended just the way it was at the end (minus the episode 6.5), I would have been happy and would have thought this series was a mini masterpiece. But they had to add the contravenes at the end that just made no sense and had more questions than answers. Sometimes, relationships simply fail because of a long-term abstinence or long distance. That is real. It is all right to show that.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. the series? I fancied naming the school doctor as he simply intrigues me, and my gut feeling is he will play a bigger part in Season 2. I do not know but if he does not, he will remain an enigma in my mind. But I must give the nod (although only slightly) to YU who played Zhou Shu Yi. Without a doubt, he had to show the greatest emotional ranges. He had to go from hating Geo Shi De to loving him. He had to deal with what he thought was his potential girlfriend fall in love with his best friend. Feign acceptance yet be desolate. He had baggage to carry all his life in the shadows of Gao Shi De always winning but when he finally realized his love for him was able to toss it aside and move on into the world of vulnerability. Only to be devasted by him yet again when he saw him with his new family. His heartbreak is so tangible that you felt it with him through the screen. I understood his bitterness and anger towards others as his perception of persons who he gets close to will eventually betray you. The subtlety in all of those emotions is clear on his face and he is a fantastic actor. Kudos to him.
This series also had some production issues revolving around editing. Some scenes did not make sense and seemed out of sequence. The bridge scene was one of my favorite scenes but at one point, there was no traffic under it although just before there were plenty. Small issues to be sure but they became distractive. None of this detracts from or should stop you from viewing this beautiful series. It is hard-hitting, shows some strong physical attraction (intense kissing) between these guys and real genuine and raw human emotions. I just wish it were clearer as to what the final message they wanted the audience to be left with rather than conjecture or a sense of artificial manipulation.
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