Before reviewing the Korean version, I thought it would be nice to write about the original Taiwanese series first.
Watched In Time with You because of a friend’s recommendation. She fussed all over about how great this series is and how it will ever be her all-time favorite.
The drama stars Ariel Lin who is familiar to me given her quite popular projects such as It Started with a Kiss and its sequel and Love Contract. It’s my first time to encounter the lead actor though. Well, aside from Ariel Lin and the actress who got the role of her character’s mom (who also played the role of Cindy’s mom in Fated to Love You), I’m not familiar with the whole cast. I’m not really into Taiwanese series anyway but still I somehow expected to see one or more popular faces. Hehe. It’s not that it matters. Lol.
The story is about two best friends, Chen You Qing, a successful and confident career woman who works in a shoe company and Li Da Ren, a senior flight attendant. They know each other since high school. They were then class rivals but were really in good terms. They also live around the same neighborhood, the reason they managed to keep in touch with each other and remained good friends after all these years.
Now with You Qing turning 30, the two have come up to a bet. The one who’s going to marry first in the next five years wins and will receive a great sum from the other party as his/her wedding gift.
To put it simply, it’s two best friends’ journey to being lovers. Haha. So why is it my friend’s favorite and is also a notable Taiwanese series? I think it’s because the drama was able to tell the story with a heart even though the episodes were just about the leads’ daily accounts which aren’t highly unlikely to happen to anyone.
It has a similar tone with Jdramas, every day life presented in a warming way. You’ve got the love (as well as the conflicts) from their ever supporting family, deep friendship, not just with the leads but also within their entire high school gang and the lessons they had to learn, often in the hard way, as they go in life, pursuing both love and career.
I’m not saying that it’s really good but I quite understand if this series makes it to the top of one’s list. Only a few dramas successfully managed to run sixteen episodes or more given that not-so-grand plot (one without any makjang stuff), so yeah, I think it’s worth a shot.
