Taiwanese Drama: Age of Rebellion (翻牆的記憶)
Broadcast Date: 3/3/2018
Airs: Sundays
Total Episodes: 15
Leads: Peter Ho and Yang Ching
Story background: Set in Huaying High where anyone can get in as long as you have money to pay for your spot, the story follows a group of troublemaker high school students and the adults around them that tries to help them choose the right path…or just survive.
Character Intro:
Gao Yi: Our hero played by Peter Ho (who was actually one of the two scriptwriters and also the director.)
Class 209’s new homeroom teacher with a hidden mysterious past. Quite skilled at turning a blind eye to anything that is “troublesome”, Gao Yi seems content to just lay low as long as he can keep his job. Our hero tries to give off the facade as a timid teacher who caves at the first sign of trouble but it is obvious from the calmness in his eyes when faced with danger that our hero is nothing like the cowardly image he puts on.
Jiang Yu Xin: Our heroine played by Yang Ching
A detective in the youth crime division, Yu Xin has plenty of fighting skills but her passion for helping youth in crisis often lends her in sticky situations. It looks like our heroine will end up going undercover at Huaying High which will be interesting since our two leads already had a memorable first meeting where Yu Xin was in a hostage situation and had asked for our hero’s help but was severely disappointed when our hero merely puts on his “La la la, I see nothing ….” expression and slunk away.
Yi Feng: The leader of Class 209.
Disliking our hero at first sight, Yi Feng has no respect for a teacher who is obviously a coward. As the head of Class 209, Yi Feng does not hesitate to use his fist to against those that would dare to disturb those under his protection.
Wei Jie: The bully of the school.
Thanks to his rich and powerful mother (with some gang connections to boot), Wei Jie is never held accountable for anything he does at school…including his daily ritual of bullying Xiao Ou, a boy in Class 209. Wei Jie comes off like a total jerk at first but by episode 2 it becomes apparent that he is not totally hopeless…even if he is still a jerk.
Ninja’s First Impression:
I went into this one expecting it to be either an inspirational story about passionate teachers OR a piece about social issues in schools, but Age of Rebellion was surprisingly all of that…but not. The show is actually quite dark as it deals not only with issues such as school bullying but also the scary world of organized crime. To be honest, the plot of Age of Rebellion does feel a bit scattered since there are a number of storylines all progressing at the same time. I am sure all the storylines are connected somehow but since we are still in the background set up stage the story does feel a bit confusing – in an intriguing way.
One thing I am especially impressed about Age of Rebellion is that while it deals with very serious issues, the show has been brilliant at injecting light comedy at various unexpected places so that the overall vibe of the show is still pretty light and fun. Case in point: Xiao Ou, the one who is bullied daily.
One would expect Xiao Ou to be a character to be pitied…which he is of course but Xiao Ou is also a surprisingly funny character because he usually comes up with some hilarious stories in his head while he is being bullied. The scriptwriters have been brilliant at balancing the comedy with the cruel reality of what Xiao Ou has to suffer each day so it actually makes this particular character more real to me as a viewer and not just a tragic figure to be pitied.
It also helps that Peter Ho’s hero is, for the most part, a very funny character…until he gets that calm serious glint in his eyes that is so different from his usual layback facade.
All in all, I was fairly impressed with Age of Rebellion especially considering I went into this one kinda tired of the school violence premise. As far as the romance front, while it seems obvious we will have plenty of it from the younger cast (the high school students), I am not so certain we will get a solid romance pairing from the adults since these kinds of stories usually make a point of being pretty wishy washy when it comes to that. The younger casts are fairly solid and the romance looks pretty cute as well so I won’t necessarily be TOO disappointed if we don’t get a pairing from the adults…but still, our two leads did have good chemistry in the few scenes they had together in the first two episodes so I am going to hope for a miracle anyway.