Skip-beat!

Other title: Extravagant Challenge
Taiwanese title: 華麗的挑戰

Aired on FTV, GTV
December 2011 - April 2012
15 episodes


Main cast:

• Ivy Chen as Gong Xi 宮囍
• Choi Si Won as Dun He Lian 敦賀蓮 (dubbed by Xie Kun Da ep.1-2, Nylon Chen ep.3-)
• Lee Dong Hae as Bu Puo Shang 不破尚 (dubbed by Darren from 浪花兄弟The Drifters)
• Bianca Bai as Jiang Nan Qin 江南琴
• Jin Qin as Du Jin 杜金
• Ada Pan (潘慧如) as Yuan Yang 鴦鴦
• Allen Chao as Luo Li 羅

Notes:
1) I haven't read the manga this drama is based on and I haven't seen its anime adaptation.
2) Both male leads are from the boy band Super Junior.

Review: +

Title: I'm not sure what Skip-beat! is about. I can get Extravagant challenge since the Girl sets out to succeed in the entertainment.

Girl: Kick-a. She's kind and selfless. She's also really determined in achieving her goal. She's a naturally gifted actress and we can see it instead of only being told she is. Kudos to Ivy Chen because she nailed the bubliness of Gong Xi and her seriousness when she's acting. (+) At first, I was annoyed but then I got used to and she was developed so I ended up not caring that she is the kind of character that is totally unrealistic. She acts crazy. Mini CGI Gong Xi ghosts actually materialise when she gets in angry/want something mode!

Boy: We don't know much about him. We just know he's a great actor, he's very serious about his work and slams whoever he thinks is not. He's cool and keeps things for himself. However, when he opens up, he's quite cute. (+)

Relationship: Believable and cute. You know when in the review of Heartstrings, I said that the falling in love was too sudden and unearned? Here, it's really gradual, progressing touch by touch. (+)

Plot: The relationship isn't the main story: Gong Xi's journey is. I must say that you can see that it was adapted from a manga because you notice the big arcs and the transitions in between. As such, the journey consists mainly but not exclusively of challenges that Gong Xi takes up one after another. Likewise, secondary characters appear for an arc and then either are never heard of again or just randomly pop up at one point. This is more a remark than a criticism. Besides, the arcs are really interesting. I'm not sure it depicts accurately the way it is in real life but it makes acting as suspenseful as a life or death situation. It even makes want to see the imaginary final product (movie or music video). Finally, each acting challenge feels different form the one before. (+)

But a real problem stems in part from the fact that it is adapted from an ongoing manga and doesn't cover all of it. Though the end is okay as for the state of the relationship between the leads, there is a revelation near the end of the drama that is quite important but hasn't been developed or resolved by the end. I wonder if they could have avoided introducing it because it was frustrating.

I have another beef with the drama, it may be the one that made me give it a + and not a Fav: a great deal is made about characters not being able to LOVE. I could bear it but it was a bit annoying because it didn't make much sense to me. Actually, I can understand it in Gong Xi's case, because it was given a reason (though she's capable of love but not of the romantic kind, which is kind of weird). But other characters are also deemed unable to love which comes out of nowhere and is not properly explained. It could have interesting to explore why they didn't want to love but being unable to love? And for these other characters, it seem that it's not only romantic love... Confused? Well, it was confusing. (-)

Other characters: Most of them were great. I will only talk about the main ones.
1) The other boy. Gong Xi's ex-boyfriend who exploited her. He's the one who is the origin of the whole premise. His main characteristic is that he is self-absorbed and so is a douche. But in the end, they managed making him a little likeable. (+)
2) (Slight spoiler. Underline to see) The rival who slowly becomes the best friend. Her transformation from confident, no-nonsense, every-actress-for-herself to reluctant companion then BFF is well handled. She just has one pointless storyline. (+)
3) Boy's MANAGER!!! Sorry for the all-caps but he stole the scenes he was in. He was cute, funny, kind. (+)
4) The President of the entertainment company. He can afford every excentricity and believe me, he doesn't hold back! He doesn't know what too much means. It's amazing, you have to see it. However, I didn't like this character at all. I don't know if it is bad translation but I didn't get the meaning of most of what he says, maybe it's linked to the fact that he has to do with the whole "unable to love" thing. (-)

Funny factor: Pretty good. I will need to watch it again to be more precise.

Music: Two words. Love. Want.

Bottom line: Writing this review, I realise that I may want to watch it again. Perhaps, I will then bump the mark up to Fav. I would recommend it. The actors are all great (though the dubbing is annoying), the plot is exciting and suspenseful and it's cute.
If there is a second season, I will update this post and I could change the mark too.


Spoilers after the jump! I actually don't have much to add.



The pointless storyline with her friend is the one when Gong Xi thinks she has a boyfriend. This was creepy (when she's paid to pretend to be someone's daughter), misleading and plain unnecessary.

I also didn't like the revelation at the end that Dun He Lian's father is a famous actor. I hope it's a cliffanger and that there will be a second season (I will watch it!!) because as it is, we don't know exactly what that means while it's the biggest piece of backstory we learn about him.

Ooops! I just remembered the "Corn" thing. I was not very convinced by it. Part of it is that it's such a common device to make your characters have some past together and be oblivious of it. It can work and it's not all that bad here (the rock piece is cute) but at this point in the story, it's still unnecessary.

Actually, these two weaknesses come from the fact that the source is an ongoing manga. We don't have yet the payoff.