Devil Beside You

 

 

 

Cast:

Ranie Yang – as Qi Yue: Qi Yue is a sweet and innocent sophomore in college who lives with her widowed mother. She is very shy and sometimes clueless, but she has a loyal and kind heart that shines even through the toughest of times. She harbors a crush on the captain of the basketball team, Yuan Yi, but her life was turned upside-down by Ahmon. Eventually, she falls out of love with Yuan Yi and starts developing feelings for Ahmon. Qi Yue is also one of the managers of the basketball team.

 

 

Mike He – as Jiang Meng: Nicknamed Ah Meng and Ahmon by his fellow peers, he is the son of the president of the school. He is a freshman at the college, yet he has power of his teachers due to his father's position. Ahmon is also frightening to a lot of people and is known to bully girls, yet he is also known as the "prince of seduction." Despite his cool composure and "bad" attitude, Ahmon has a gentle side and often sticks up for what is right. Li Xiang has a crush on him, which he does not reciprocate, but Ahmon has feelings for Qi Yue. Although she is his future stepsister, he does love her and enjoys teasing her. Ahmon also joins the basketball team and has faster reflexes that rival Yuan Yi's. Ah Meng also has a little brother.

 

 

Kingone Wang – as Shang Yuan Yi: Yuan Yi is a boy in Qi Yue's class (teasingly nicknamed "Ah Yi (Auntie in Chinese)", and is the captain of the basketball team. Qi Yue is initially in love with Yuan Yi for his gentle personality. Yuan Yi reciprocates her feelings and they become a couple. When Qi Yue falls in love with Ahmon, she breaks up with Yuan Yi, wishing not to lead him on. Yuan Yi is angry and hostile towards Ahmon at first, but gets over it and realizes his feelings for Qing Zi after she kisses him.

 

Tsai Pei Lin – as Qing Zi: Qing Zi is Qi Yue's outspoken best friend. She and Xiao Cai are the ones who encourages Qi Yue to confess her love to Yuan Yi, even though Qing Zi herself had a crush on him. Qing Zi cares for Qi Yue a lot and spends a lot of effort in helping her. After Qi Yue and Yuan Yi break up, Qing Zi starts dating Yuan Yi. Qing Zi and Yuan Yi's relationship is tested when Qing Zi feels that Yuan Yi is spending more time playing basketball than being with her. Feeling dejected, she meets with a stranger she chatted with online. She later gets into a tussle with him and Yuan Yi comes to her rescue.

 

 

Figaro Cheng – as Yuan Chuan Rang: He is nicknamed Ah Rang and the little brother of Ah Meng. Their father tried desperately to forget about him, and naming Ah Meng as the successor of the company. Ah Rang follows and stalks Qi Yue everywhere, trying to force her and blackmail her to like him, who in turn, does everything she can to stop him. He tries to ruin Ah Meng's name, and puts Ah Meng and Qi Yue in lots of danger. He is later softened by Qi Yue, who later feels sorry for him and reaches out to him, and becomes more open. Ah Rang actually really looks up to Ah Meng and sees him as a hero, and actually cares deeply about him, but his mother chose him instead of Ah Meng. This causes Ah Meng to envy his younger brother. Ah Meng would often ignore him and never look at him, and act coldly toward him. Ah Rang is also being helped by the school president's assistant who is in love with Ah Rang's mother, who does not reciprocate that love. Plus, Ah Meng had accidentally shoved Ah Rang into a vase that had severely injured and cut his neck, which was the reason for his hate. Because of this injury, he usually is weak and can collapse due to breath failure. [He has asthma] After a "fake" attack, he and Ah Meng rekindle their relationship and become brothers once more.

 

 

SPOILER WARNING…PLOT AND STORYLINES FOLLOW HERE

 

Synopsis:

Qi Yue (Rainie Yang) is a college student in her second year. Having a crush on the captain of the school's basketball team, Shang Yuan Yi (Wang Chuan Yi), she writes a love letter to him and prepares to pass it to him. Qi Yue, being clumsy, accidentally hands the love letter to Jiang Meng (Mike He). Jiang Meng, called Ahmon or Ah Meng by his friends is a freshman and the school's bully, smiles devilishly at Qi Yue as she gapes in shock, dropping the love letter carelessly and running away. Qi Yue soon hears from her best friends that Ahmon is the school president's son. Being rich and powerful, Ahmon and his gang go around bullying other people to amuse themselves. While walking around school, Yue runs into Ahmon. He shows her the letter and reads the front of the envelope out to her. Qi Yue then realizes that Ahmon picked up the letter that she dropped. Ahmon blackmails Qi Yue and threatens to print 1000 copies of the love letter and scatter it around the whole school if she doesn't become his slave. Unwillingly, Qi Yue is forced to cater to Ahmon's every desire.

 

Qi Yue hates Ahmon at first but as she gets to know him, Qi Yue realizes that he is simply "hard on the outside, soft on the inside" and is actually a nice person and just does things differently. In turn, Ahmon finds that Qi Yue is a unreasonably cute and innocent girl who is compassionate towards everyone and melts his heart. Very soon, Qi Yue finds herself flirting with her favorite devil and vice versa. As they start to fall for each other, Qi Yue is shocked to know that her widowed mother is about to marry Ahmon's father, which links them (Ahmon & Qi Yue) into a stepbrother-stepsister relationship. Things get really complicated. Ahmon and Qi Yue face many obstacles like Qi Yue's ex-crush and Ahmon's arranged date appearing at the same time, the disapproval of Ahmon's grandmother, the consequences of their love — the downfall of their parents' upcoming marriage, Ahmon's younger brother [more in biography] — Ahrang blackmailing them out of hate for his brother who wouldn't even notice him and so on.

 

Love conquers all for this these lovers as they face these obstacles together. Qi Yue and Ahmon gain the acceptance of their parents and Ahmon's grandmother, get through the pain of being separated for a year because Ahmon was in Italy getting to know his long lost mother, come to terms with Ahmon's younger asthmatic brother, reject the advances of Ahmon's date, and realize that reliving past crushes isn't the way to go and that people change.

 

 

 

What I Think:

Here goes my unorganized thoughts on this one.

The 3 leads actors.

Rainie Yang – as usual I love her to pieces. Her hairstyle is good, clothes are okay and she has great chemistry with Mike He and Kingone! I just love the way she pouts her mouth, and her range of acting has gone really big considering that she has done a bed scene with Mike He on this one. J

 

Mike He - I hate Mike He’s hairstyle; it reminds me of Dao Ming Zi’s pineapple-all-over-the-place hair! Waaaah! I think Kingone is cuter! Haha! This is the first time I have seen Mike act and he does fairly okay. He just seems to over –exaggerate a lot of things here…the way he smirks, smiles or whatever it is. He seems to like Rainie for real, coz you can feel their chemistry as if they are not acting. Is it true they are really dating for real?

 

Kingone Wang – Holy crap! He is like the Jiro Wang of ISWAK… Omg in the first episode, the bomb was already dropped on me!! Holy smokes, I think Yuan Yi (Kingone) is absolutely handsome!! Holy crap, I might as well day dream with Ranie on this boy! He looks a lot like Kwon Sang Woo, coz of the angular face, the smile. Holy Buddha I am really loving him, why the heck have I only seen this series now when this was aired in 2005? By episode 3, I already like Jiang Meng and Yuan Yi both…but Jiang Meng is going up my cuteness scale. Yuan Yi looks absolutely cute still in every jacket he wears, he makes it look good.

 

The downfall of this series: too many side stories happening around the main plot. Almost the whole ep 4 is devoted to YuanYi and Qi Yue’s best friend—imagine that!

All the complicated relationships: Jiang Meng & Qi Yue, Yuan Yi & Qi Yue, Yuan Yi & Qi Yue’s best friend, Jiang Meng’s dad & Qi Yue’s mom… so many complications arise that the focus was veered away from the main love triangle.

 

 

Must watch scenes:

@ The first scene where Ranie was holding her love letter for Kingone, omg that is the same scene as in ISWAK! At least Ariel Lin’s letter went to her beloved, hers made a detour! Haha!

@ Jiang Meng kissed Qi yue and Yuan Yi saw it.

@ Qi Yue sleeping in Jiang Meng’s bed the first time. Just because…

@Ahmon and Qi Yue in a bicycle, so cute together, and she held onto him tightly too. Them kissing in the middle of the road, stopping traffic.

@ Yuan Yi and Qiang Zi ran in the rain.. “The Classic” movie scene!

 

 

Rating:

8 Taiwanese Taicha out of 10

 

One of my fave scenes:

 

 

Credits: wikipedia, asianfanatics