Love Contract

Taiwanese title: 愛情合約 (爱情合约)

Aired on TVBS-G
Summer 2004
20 episodes

Main cast:

Ariel Lin as Cheng Xiao Feng

Mike He as Ah Ken aka Liu Jian Dong

Bryant Chang as Ah Kai aka Lin Kai

Sa Sa as Li Xin Lei

Lai Zhi Wei as Xiao Bai aka Zhang Yuan Bao

Lin Yi Hong as Mu Tou aka Lin Song Bo

Phyllis Quek as Cheng Xiao Yun

Review (from memory): -

Title: "Love contract" makes sense, there is a love contract in this drama. I don't know about the Chinese title.

Girl: Xiao Feng is definitely strong. She's also very complex and sometimes, it's hard to understand her. She's hard on people and though deep down she cares about them, she is so bossy that I wondered how she still has friends.

Boy: I think Mike He is one of the most handsome drama actors. His character Ah Ken is the dreamy silent, taciturn type.

Relationship: Believable and interesting. They both are people that are hurt and don't open much to others and it's beautiful to see their love blossom despite her efforts.

Friends: He doesn't have many friends but she has. I liked all of them except the one who pined for her. I wish he didn't. It made him pathetic.

Family: Her family is a mess and that's one of the explanations for how she is. His family, well, is a tragic story.

Music: I forgot about it. It doesn't mean it was bad since I watched it a long time ago.
Funny factor: Some of her friends are an occasional comical relief but it's not a comedy.

Bottom line: Most of the things I said are positive because it's mostly a GOOD drama. But it's a drama that is permeated by sadness and melancholia. You have a sense that most of the characters are unhappy. They live because that's how it is.

After the jump, I explain more what I disliked. Don't look if you don't want to be spoiled.





The main reason it is a MINUS is the ending. I think I wouldn't have watched it if I had known the ending. And I don't want to watch it again. I kind of regret it because as I said, it's a good drama.

Now I'm going to TELL THE ENDING. So stop reading right now if you don't want to know.




I was traumatised by this ending. I'm serious. It was one of the most upsetting reactions to something fictional I've ever had. It was the second Taiwanese drama I watched and it actually heightened the stakes of every drama I watched after that because I believed that something awful could happen.

And when I say awful, it is AWFUL. If you read this, it means that you have watched it or that you don't intend to watch it and are just curious. So, here is what happens:

The male lead is going to confess his love. The female lead's friend has to drive her to a place so she can see the love confession on a big screen. Until now, it's a fairly effective cliché.

And then, the show pulls the rug from under.

The female lead and her friend (one of the most prominent) get into an accident. He dies. Yes, dies. And it gets worse. She survived but she's in a vegetative state: she barely moves and she doesn't speak or anything. At the end (I still remember after many years), Male lead goes to see her, takes her to the beach and goes into the water carrying her, seemingly drowning both of them.

WHAT? Wait, it's not finished.

Then, they both come out of the sea and she's normal again. Their friends all arrive on the beach (including the one who died- I think). They laugh and are happy. The end.

So this was some kind of heaven? Did he really commit suicide and euthanise her??
Was it supposed to be a happy ending in the end? I don't know, I just couldn't process how depressing it was. I mean, as I said, the whole drama was sad and there were flashes of tragedy but ending that way? That was too much for me, I'm sorry. I know this happen in real life and that accidents, deaths, close ones in vegetative state are a reality but I like some escapism in my dramas. Not to say that they can't tackle hard topics and tragedies but ENDING on such traumatic events was too depressing and made all that happened before a waste. Yeah, as you could tell, I don't like melodramas and love stories in which the girl (it's usually the girl) has a fatal disease but in these movies, at least, you know about it, you have time to mentally prepare but in this drama, unless I missed some foreshadowing, it was sudden. I wasn't expecting that.

In conclusion, if you are the curious kind that read the spoilers, I would say that if you can handle the ending and don't mind sad dramas, watch it. It has atmosphere.

There are other issues (the pining guy and the messaging subplot) but they pale compared to the trauma the ending caused me.