Thoughts On: Black & White

                                  See, it really was black and white. Subtle… not. 😛

What with the Beach Blossom Madness, talking about the charms of Mark Chao with kfangurl @ The Fangirl Verdict, I suddenly got the urge to make a little trip along the memory lane. 🙂 Which lead me to my old Black & White post @ LJ. And that sent me down the rabbit hole of B&W OST songs and clips of promo footage at YT and finally skip-watching bits and pieces of B&W episodes. I have such fond memories of group watching the drama and all the flailing. For some reason I never managed a proper post for B&W but here is collection of my fangirly reaction posts at the time I was actually watching the drama, back in the day. No major spoilers there and I’ve blacked out the bits that reveal a bit too much of the plot.^^

14th Jun, 2009
So, Black & White. Not your average TW drama. Nothing cutsey there, it’s an action drama with a twisty plot. Not as well executed as Slingshot, mind you but good enough for me to contemplate of buying it. It does have some of the annoying plot devices that quite a few cop/suspence/action/horror stories suffer from. One that really bugs me is the way they make characters act stupider than they are. They ignore clues, suddenly get oblivious about what’s going on or do things that no sane person in the same situation would do. Just to get the plot moving to a certain direction. It’s just sloppy writing to me. The same results could have been achieved by other methods with a little more thought put on the writing. Other than those annoyances B&W has been very enjoyable. Hot guys abound. Vic Zhou does nothing to me but Mark Chao on the other hand I would not kick out of the bed for eating crackers… XD I also like the soundtrack very much and I’m certainly going to get that. Found out that Jason Zou who plays the male twin assassin sings ‘Perfect Stranger’, the ending song. I already knew that the opening theme is sung by CoLor and Mark. Hey, ep 20 is at least partially subbed at Viikii. I think I’m heading that way now…

EDIT / Well, well, well… that was certainly a turnaround. Can’t say I expected that one either. I wonder, is Chief the mole? I have been wondering about him a while now… With only four episodes left, they’ve got some fancy footwork ahead to sort that mess properly. Hopefully without dodgy plot devices this time.

21st Jun, 2009
Two episodes to go and I have no idea how they are going to end this thing! The good guys have been outwitted at every turn. They have no back up anymore. And if it’s going to be a win for them, how’s it going to happen without the end becoming really stupid? At least one of them is going to end up dead, it’s not possible to leave all of the Good Guys alive, storywise. Not in this type of story. Gah, this is even more twisted than Slingshot. But then in Slingshot it was just one bad guy here it’s a world spanning net of bad guys. Where’s 007 when you need him….

28th Jun, 2009
Finished Black & White… It’s not a perfect drama but stayed highly enjoyable till the end and now holds the nbr 1 TW-drama spot with ToGetHer. 🙂 I loved the cast! Even the bit parts were manned to a T. It’s always lovely when that happens. Mark Chao… what can I say. He’s hot! XD Boy really shot to fame through this one, he’s very much on demand now. Not that I’m complaning, we’ll probably see more of him in the future. Here’s a nice little article I found. (It still makes me sad to read about all the grand plans for the sequel. Pox on that pesky award show that soured things for everyone involved!)

The ending was…… well, not exactly what I expcted. It was such a ‘hollywood ending’ – Team GoodGuys saves the day and no-one dies. Bit of a letdown that. Oh well, I’m ok with it as in some level I was hoping for them to pull through, no matter how unrealistic that may be. Yay! for the baddie turned goodie – I was happy my guess about The Assassin Twin coming to the rescue of Lan Xi Ying came true. The Burger Girl turning out to be one of Zarkozy wasn’t all that big a surprise either. LOL! I guess I’ve watched too many cop/action things in my life to be easily fooled. Quite a few loose ends left hanging but that was done purposefully. There’s going to be a film that’ll finish this thing off. Filming is supposed to start in the autumn with the same cast. (sadly, that never happened) I wonder if they are going to bring Xiao Ma back. I hope so, he’s lovely. ;P And worth a spinoff of his own.

8th Jul, 2009
I think I may have a slight girly crush… ok, I’ll admit I do have a slight girly crush on Mark Chao. XD I know that Vic Zhou is the big star who has everyone swooing over him and all but for me it was Mark from the beginning. ;P I’m also having a bad case of being obsessed with this song: 無賴正義 / Rogue Justice by COLOR feat. Mark. I think I’ve now listened to it so many times I’m beginning to know the words. Not that I know what they mean but do I care… It’s now my ringtone as well. Yeah, it’s baaaad.

14th Jul, 2009
Crap, it’s already past 9pm and I really, really should be in bed but…. let me do some flailing first. *flails*

My Black & White DVDs arrived along with the OST and Picks album (which is good btw)!!! *flails some more* I love ’em! I’d spent most of today out of the house but I just had to watch the first episode as soon as I got home. The quality is so good and the subs are quite passable. YAY! The packaging of the whole thing is up to par as well. The DVDs came with a little booklet, not that I understand a word of it.^^

About Us /關於我們 by Picks ♥♥♥ (one of my faves from the album)

Um… ok, it came to me that I should add a some sort of synopsis as well. This is lifted from TVTropes (more, spoilery stuff in the article proper)

In the port city of Kaohsiung, the second largest city in Taiwan, there are two divisions of the police department.

Wu “Hero” Ying Xiong (Mark) is the top detective of the South Division of the police department (SDPD). Believing that law and justice are the pillars of society, he is a by-the-book investigator who zealously chases the bad guys.

Chen Zai Tian (also called Pi Zi) (Vic Zhou), is considered the top detective of the North Division of the department (NDPD), but appears to be completely incompetent. Newly assigned to SDPD, he drinks coffee, flirts with every pretty woman in sight, drives a yellow Porsche, gets mysterious tips from a fax machine in a restaurant, and generally is a much more laid back person. Or so it seems.

Assigned together, the two must learn to overcome attitudes on both sides and act as a team to protect the citizens, investigating members of the local triad The San Lian Gang, other shadowy figures of the underworld, and even members of law.