BLISS RATING: ★★★★
“Thanks for letting me hear your voice.” – Quote from Stay By My Side
To someone unfamiliar with the customs and culture of Taiwan, this type of a story can be intriguing. And it was indeed. While in the West (specifically the USA) while we do have ‘ghost stories’, none really match this caliber of intrigue or involvement, unless you are ‘possessed’. So, this was a fun, entertaining romp, a bit hard to discern logically at times, but I choked that up to my Western upbringing.
Gu Bu Xia (Hong Wei Zhe) has an effervescent, lively personality and is good at basketball. Although he has an innate ability to be a natural leader, he is a bit immature at times in both expressing himself and being around others. He has mostly been able to get away with things because of his rather outgoing personality. Gu Bu Xia had been raised by his recently deceased grandfather, who was a spiritual medium. Gu Bu Xia’s older sister, Gu Bu Tao (Jin Cheng) has taken up the mantle of being a spiritual medium now and is good at knowing the incantations and rituals taught to her by the grandfather. However, in an incantation she was performing for her brother, accidently burned a part of one of Gu Bu Xia’s “Eight Characters” which now causes him to hear the voices of the spirits constantly around him, all whispering to him.
At around the same time, a brooding transferred student is assigned to room with Gu Bu Xia, since his room at the dormitory is the only one with a vacancy. His name is Jiang Chi (Yang I Hsuan). Jiang Chi is a very handsome young man, soft-spoken, keeping mostly to himself, appearing at times to be a bit aloof. A very good student who also excels in sports and works part time to support himself, even though his family is independently wealthy. Unfortunately, he is estranged from them as he does not want to follow the path, they have chosen for him.
With Gu Bu Xia always having the room to himself, he is initially upset and tries to get him to leave but by accident when Jiang Chi touches him, the voices of the spirits that Gu Bu Xia have recently begun to hear, disappear. So, a strange yet interesting bond between them develops.
On the one hand, Gu Bu Xia wants to be near him because somehow Jian Chi is spiritually connected to him and shields him from the voices. However, Jian Chi despite Gu Bu Xia quixotic behaviors and personalities, begins to fall in love with him. And their love story ebbs and flows rather interestingly and amusingly.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? However, the heart and soul of this story is Jin Cheng as Gu Bu Tao. Not only did she pick up the mantle of being a spiritualist from her grandfather, but she is also a fierce protector of her little brother. While she does not want him to get seriously hurt by her carelessness, she is also a ‘sister’ and cannot help herself from bantering about, teasing, and irritating him as only a sister could do. They indeed have a close bond and she hawishly watches over her brother in all aspects of his life. Though her interference might seem irritating, it is never meddlesome and is only meant to provide direction and a sense of comfort. Her performance commands the scenes she is in by sheer force even those with Jiang Chi. She is fervently protective of her brother and no one, and that means Jiang Chi as well, will hurt him deliberately. His feelings for her brother must be real, which he assures her they are. While she might be new at putting all the pieces of the spirituality puzzle together, she is self-assured that her methods will work if they are both committed to each other. It was such a creative and interesting way to solidify a relationship using ancient methods into modern thinking. Her performance allows this story to move along as a love story, frankly, in a more realistic way, ironically.
The story development is hit and miss in the beginning, but in the latter half of the series, once the relationship is established, it becomes enjoyable. There is nice screen chemistry between these two leads and some of their kissing scenes are rather erogenous. But for any real sense of intimacy here, it is woefully lacking. The series is just not going to go there, which was too bad. They kissed, they held each other, and there was a lot of intimate talk about being a life-long couple, but that is where it ended. Any physicality or sense of intimacy to that relationship was not going to happen. And that is too bad, as they really did have good screen chemistry in the second half. Or at least they were not afraid to kiss.
The other thing that struck me about this coupling was the unorthodoxy of who they were as characters. On the surface, it did not seem that they would be a couple. Jiang Cha, with his natural good looks and gravitational pull-on people and serious overtones, would seem to not be attracted to Gu Bia Xia, a gangly, in-your-face kind of guy, who seems shallow and superficial at times. Yet, despite all Gu Bia Xia’s foibles, Jiang Cha becomes even further attracted to him and volunteers to help him with his issue with hearing ‘ghosts’. It is almost a ‘Mutt and Jeff’ pairing.
Overall, this is an entertaining BL series that honestly does not take itself too seriously and as such provides for some amusing anecdotal interactions. In a strange way and one I cannot fully explain, they make a cute couple and I want to see more of them, with a bit less of the immaturity and child-like mannerisms of Gu Bia Xia that seems to plague a lot of BLs as of late.
It has been set up for an obvious Season 2 and I do hope there is one as I am oddly compelled to watch them. I find them intriguing and enjoyable.
Leave a Reply