Thoughts: “When I See You Again”

Photo taken from Google Images.

Hello!

Last April 03, I finished watching “When I See You Again”. It’s a Taiwanese series I found on Netflix starring Jasper Liu and Mandy Wang. I think this is the first time I’ve watched a Taiwanese drama from beginning to end. I know that I’ve seen one or two dramas before when I was in college but I only watched them when I saw them on TV to keep me company while I was studying late. But I’ve never fully sat back to watch one prior to this series.

I couldn’t believe how absorbed I was while watching. I often slept late because I would be too immersed in the story and I would forget the time. 

I initially thought that the story would be the ugly duckling turning into prince charming and then the girl would fall in love with his new persona. And as a way to get back at the girl for not reciprocating his feelings when they were younger, he would find ways to hurt her feelings.

Surprisingly, the story didn’t go as I thought it would. Initially, I think Xia Youqian was really mad at An Xi because of the bad things he experienced after she rejected him when he got the courage to confess his feelings to her while they were younger. But I don’t think he was actually seeking for revenge.

[Be prepared because spoilers will start now. If you don’t like spoilers, I suggest you watch the series first before you continue to read this post because I will be giving out a lot of spoilers. Sorry!]

So to backtrack a bit and give you an idea of the story, Xia Youqian was a nerdy teenager who was often bullied by his peers. Then one day, An Xi saves him from being bullied and befriends him. Fun fact: She never really got to know his name but she called him “Unibrow” because he had a unibrow before because he was so focused on reading and studying that he doesn’t really put much effort on how he looks. She didn’t mean it as an insult. It was more of an observation which stuck because that’s how she nicknamed him.

As they became friends, Xia Youqian starts having feelings for An Xi which she was unaware of. Then one day, he overheard a few boys talking about An Xi’s conditions if someone was to court her. They said that to court her, An Xi says that the suitor must bring her a bottle of angel’s tears taken from a high point in the mountains. Since Youqian wanted to confess his feelings to her, he decided to take on the challenge and gather the angel’s tears. His trek there was dangerous but he braved it thinking that if he was able to meet her conditions, she would most probably accept him as a suitor.

After coming back with his collected angel’s tears he was finally ready to go to An Xi’s home to finally confess his feelings for her. Unbeknownst to him, that day was actually the worst day of her life since the gifts she had been sending her mom were returned and she was written a letter that her mom had not been receiving her gifts. That was the day that her illusions about her mom were shattered and she learned that her dad had been lying to her about her mom and her whereabouts.

Suffice to say, he picked the worst time to confess to her. So going back to the story, when he saw her coming out of her house, he decided to give her the bottle filled with the angel’s tears as a way of confessing to her. He was totally unaware of what just happened to her and we later find out that whenever An XI gets mad, she really goes off on anyone that stood in her way regardless if they did anything to her. So when she got mad at him and threw away the bottle that he worked so hard to fill up, he was heartbroken.

Years later, they meet again. Youqian came back to their hometown as a representative of their company. They were holding a cooking contest to which Youqian’s company was a sponsor.

Their initial encounter was when An Xi was supposed to meet up with her inn’s creditor but she got lost which eventually led to her and Youqian’s encounter. At that point, An Xi was kind of willing to do anything to keep her inn and when she said that, thinking that she was speaking to her creditor who wishes to go on a date with her, Youqian misinterpreted her thinking that she has become one of those women who were willing to sell themselves to get what they wanted. As you can tell by that encounter, they didn’t have a good impression of each other upon meeting again. (FYI, at this point, An Xi does not recognize that Youqian was the boy she befriended and called “Unibrow”).

Anyways, after spending more time in his hometown, Youqian learns that An Xi was still a sweet and kind-hearted person. And he starts developing feelings for her again. Meanwhile, An Xi also starts developing feelings for Youqian but does not really realize it because she had always told herself that she didn’t want to fall in love because of the not so happy experiences of those people around her when it came to love.

In the end, they end up being a happy couple and everything falls into place. An Xi meets her mom and learns to forgive her for leaving her all those years although I’m not sure if they ever really end up having a close mother-daughter relationship. An Xi and Youqian’s friends also find love.

Honestly, I loved the story because it was light and not overly dramatic. There were also a lot of funny and cute scenes which I really like because that’s usually my cup of tea when it comes to watching movies and series. I really appreciate that they didn’t dwell so much on the sad things because although I think it was a big part of the story, I don’t like the heavy feeling that comes with the sad parts. So to have it there and making it touching and interesting but not give off a super heavy vibe was a brilliant move in my opinion because it made me feel for the characters, it tugged on my heart, and made an impact on me while watching but it didn’t make me feel that heavy feeling while watching it. So I think it made watching the series a pleasant and exciting experience for me especially with our current situation because it made me forget about the scary situation around us. It was honestly a pleasant and enjoyable series.

I think it also helped that Jasper Liu was really handsome because I think it helped in keeping me interested in the series. He actually reminded me of Seo Kang Jun a lot. Probably because they kind of looked alike especially their dimples.

Although, there’s one thing that I kept thinking about when I finished the series. It was that the ending kind of felt a bit unfinished for me. I actually hoped that it would have a part two because I want Youqian and An Xi to get married. And I was curious about An XI’s relationship with her mom. I also wanted to see more of the newfound love lives of An Xi and Youqian’s friends.

So all in all, I would definitely recommend the series especially if you’re looking for something light-hearted and funny.

That’s all for now, bye!