With the Korea version of Fated to Love You currently being produced, I decided to check out the 2008 Taiwanese production.
Episode 1 “Go Chen Xin Yi!”…
This episode starts with the introduction of Chen Xin Yi (played by Joe Chen) the office worker everyone turns to (and some take advantage of). Xin Yi is a girl after my own heart and uses sticky notes to jot down tasks. Xin Yi describes herself like a sticky note, convenient but easily ignored and tossed when you are done. She also describes herself as ordinary and afraid to say no (hence others can and do take advantage of ). Flashback to her childhood where her mother didn’t want her and favored her two older sisters, but her Dad loved her and often read Cinderella, her favorite story.
Her boyfriend, Gu Chi, quits the company and tells her they should do coffee sometime. A fairy godmother recommends a cruise to seal the deal with Gu Chi. Xin Yi hestitates wondering if she’ll have to sleep with Gu Chi, because nice girls do not do that outside of marriage. The fairy godmother rejects that and tell her to go for it and seal the deal. So Xin Yi books the 2 day, 1 night cruise.
Next we meet our male lead Ji Cun Xi (played by Ethan Juan), the wealthy sole heir of a soap and cleaning products company. He plans to propose to long-time girlfriend Anna (played by Bianca Bai) on the cruise thanks to the planning of his trusty secretary. Anna is a professional ballet dancer and has put her career before Cun Xi.
Xin Yi and Cun Xi run into each other (literally) as they board the ship. Cun Xi’s room is 1009 and decorated for a proposal and evening of romance. Xin Yi’s room is 1006 and she puts rose petals on the bed and checks out a sexy nightgown she’s ready to wear for her first time making love. Unfortunately she has a bit of a cold and decides she can not let the cold ruin this vacation so she takes cold medicine even after reading it may make her drowsy.
Anna is speeding toward the boat in a taxi ready to join Cun Xi for a vacation. She flashes back to the offer from an American ballet company for a supporting role. Anna declined the offer stating it was the starring role or nothing. She tells herself to stay by Cun Xi ‘s side and forget about the dancing offer. She calls Cun Xi when she gets to the dock. He tells her to wait for him in room 1009.
Xin Yi goes on deck and sees Gu Chi flirting with another woman. She questions this and he manages to allay her fears and sweet talk her out of her credit card. Xin Yi is feeling woozy and Gu Chi presses her to return to the room and rest so they can have a wonderful evening. With that, Xin Yi slowly makes her way to room 1006.
Cun Xi has bought a business and now threatens to fire all the workers. The former owners plan to get incriminating photos of Cun Xi with a woman (someone they’ve hired) and blackmail him with the photos to save the workers. To that end, they have a cruise worker unlock Cun Xi’s room 1009 so the lady can enter the room to wait for him. The cruise worker’s force on the door causes the room number to rotate so it reads 1006. To ratchet up Cun Xi, they spike his drink with a drug that will make him woozy and want to make love.
Xin Yi makes her way into room 1006 (it is really Cun Xi’s room) and she immediately falls asleep woozy from the cold medicine. Cun Xi, woozy and ready for action, makes his way into the darkened room and thinks the woman in the bed is Anna. He asks to make love. Xin Yi hesitates but decides she’s ready to make love with Gu Chi. So Xin Yi and Cun Xi seal the deal (complete with visuals of rockets and tunnels to guide the viewer as to what is happening). In the afterglow Cun Xi slips a ring on Xin Yi’s finger and asks her if she’ll marry him. Thrilled, she says yes and says “I love you Gu Chi”. Cun Xi returns “I love you Anna”. Huh? Cun Xi flips on the light and is stunned the woman in his bed it NOT Anna. Xin Yi is equally stunned the man in her bed is NOT Gu Chi.
Just then the owners burst in to the room taking pictures only to find that Xin Yi is the woman and the sister-in-law to one of them. Security chases the men and the camera goes overboard. Cun Xi thinks that Xin Yi was part of the plan to exort him. Xin Yi says room 1006 is her room, look at the room number. Cun Xi sees the 9 has rotated to a 6. He kicks Xin Yi out.
When Xin Yi enters the correct room she finds Gu Chi massaging another woman. Gu Chi is on the defensive until Cun Xi enters to return Xin Ji’s clothes. Gu Chi attacks Xin Ji for her behavior, devastating her. Cun Xi is disgusted at how Gu Chi talks to her. Unfortunately for him, he gets a text from Anna telling him she’s got the lead role in Swan Lake and is heading to New York. She tells him she’ll be back in two years and to wait for her.
Xin Yi and Ji Cun brood on deck. When they talk Cun Xi tells her bluntly that Gu Chi is no good. Xi Yi astutely picks up the anger in Cun Xi’s voice and asks if Anna found out about them. She offers to explain the situation to Anna. Cun Xi yells that Anna dumped him and he is mad about it. He doesn’t understand how they both got dumped and are now miserable. She tells him she’s used to the world not being kind. He proposes they let the heartless people in her life know they can’t just bully her.
Time for a make over and I must say they do a terrific job. Xin Yi is lovely and Cun Xi is suitably impressed. They enter the casino and end up playing poker with Gu Chi and his woman. It looks bad for a while but Ji Cun prevails and bankrupts Gu Chi. Cun Xi tells Gu Chi he’ll forgive the debt IF he apologizes to Xin Yi sincerely. Gu Chi gets on his knees and apologizes. Xin Yi confidently tells him she hopes she never sees him again and leaves.
Cun Xi finds her on deck. She tells him when she saw Gu Chi beg on his knees because of a debt to Cun Xi she realized he was not worth her time. Cun Xi stares at her and thinks “for the first time I reliaze how attractive sticky girl is”. The crew comes and wants to celebrate their engagement. To save Cun Xi embarrassment Xin Yi pretends to be Anna. Flowers, stuffed animals, and fireworks go off. When the crew calls for a kiss, Ji Cun gently kisses her forhead. They dance and Xin Yi feels like she’s Cinderella dancing with Prince Charming.
The episode ends with Cun Xi putting Xin Yi to bed in his cabin and he watches her sleep from the couch.
Comments:
* Terrific first episode. Xin Yi is darling. Cun Xi is controlled but you see he has a heart.
* I thought I’d find it ridiculous, both of them under the influence of drugs before their first encounter, but it worked. The Taiwanese are more open about physical affection.
* Let’s see what happens next.
Fated to Love You
Episode 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | Series
Asian drama fan. I watch and blog dramas on https://kjtamusings.wordpress.com/.
amusings 
I fell on the temptation and read this one but I think I’ll be avoiding the next posts since I’d like to enjoy the korean version without comparing 😉 This gives me hope though.
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Well, I decided to see the original version of the drama. It will be pretty much impossible for me to not compare to the K version. This version is a bit cheesier than the Korean version.
It seemed the intimacy was steamier than the K version. I thought the images of rockets and trains detracted from the steamy scene and gave it a kitschy feeling.
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@JT – I don’t remember the scene you’re describing but, while I prefer the Kdrama version, the Taiwan version was more realistic. Although I totally understand why Kdrama didn’t go there with their storyline. (I’m not sure where you are in the series so I won’t elaborate on what “there” is.
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The scene was the chemically impaired one-night stand. The K version had a cartoon of a couple making rice cakes the traditional way.
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