Chinese Drama: The Way We Were (归去来)
Broadcast Date: May 14, 2018
Airs: Daily (M-F)
Total Episodes: 50
Leads: Tiffany Tang & Luo Jin

Character Intro:
Xiao Qing (Tiffany Tang)
The daughter of an honorable prosecutor, Xiao Qing is an upright girl who believes in only accepting what she obtained by her own hard work. Leaving her doting parents to pursue a degree in US, Xiao Qing becomes fast friends with Miao Ying, a beautiful girl she helped during a medical emergency on the plane. Agreeing easily to Miao Ying’s request that she meets up with her boyfriend (hero, Shu Che) while Miao Ying is getting transported to the hospital, Xiao Qing is dumbfounded when she ended up getting hauled to the police station after Shu Che is arrested for driving with a suspended driver licence AND for attempting to get Xiao Qing to lie that she was the one that drove instead of him.
Busy adjusting to the brand new life as a student in a foreign country, our heroine’s quiet ordinary life seemingly has nothing to do with the rich and complicated circle of our hero and his girlfriend. However, as the drama god would dictate, what started out as a rather unfortunate and messy first meeting between our lead will eventually evolve into an unforgettable romance.

Shu Che (Luo Jin)
After six long years of waiting, Shu Che could hardly wait for his girlfriend Miao Ying to join him in San Fransico but what should’ve been a happy day ends with him getting hauled to the police station. Despite his first instinct of asking our heroine to pretend she was the one driving, our hero quickly comes to realize what he truly wants is to take responsibility for his own mistake even if it means going to jail. Harboring no resentment towards Xiao Qing for telling the police the truth (that ended up as evidence against him), Shu Che’s budding respect for Xiao Qing’s honest personality took a nose dive when he saw what he believed was our heroine accepting a bribe from Miao Ying’s father thus explaining why she suddenly changed her mind and agreed to help him in court.
Ignoring Xiao Qing’s protest that what he saw wasn’t everything, Shu Che’s more immediate concern is figuring out why both his and Miao Ying’s parents are trying to convince them to delay their wedding plan despite their insistence they are quite happy with their respective future daughter/son-in-law.
Miao Ying
As the well known beauty of her university, Miao Ying has plenty of admirers but has rejected them all because she already has a boyfriend she loves dearly. Amongst all the boys who secretly or not so secretly has a crush on her, there is one boy that stands out to Miao Ying and his name is Ning Ming. Knowing full well of Ning Ming’s feelings for her, especially after he saves her life with complete disregard for his own safety, Miao Ying is moved by the extent of Ning Ming’s love for her but that doesn’t stop her from leaving the country to go to Shu Che’s side.
However, what she thought would be a happy ever after with our hero hit a major roadblock when she finds out about her father’s shady dealings with Shu Che’s father. Raised all her life with the knowledge that she will be heir to her family’s business, Miao Ying now has to choose between love or duty.

 

Ning Ming
Keenly aware of how ordinary he is, Ning Ming knows that his crush on the school’s princess will forever remain an impossible dream…especially when she already has a prince charming by her side. However, the knowledge that his goddess is forever out of his reach can’t seem to stop Ning Ming’s heart from craving the impossible.

A rather rational person, Ning Ming had gotten used to forcing himself to give up on Miao Ying again and again but when he hears of Miao Ying’s upcoming marriage Ning Ming finds himself doing something daring and totally irrational…

 

 

 

 

Ninja’s First Impression:

This one has a very interesting approach to the story set up. Instead of focusing on the two leads right off the bat, episode one was actually all about Miao Ying and Ning Ming’s story. It was a bit confusing at first to not see either of the leads but Miao Ying and Ning Ming’s story was quite cute and lovely so it was pretty refreshing to totally focus on the second leads for a change. I think this particular set up also prepares us as the viewer to accept the eventual breakup between Miao Ying and our hero despite the fact that they really do seem to have a happy and healthy relationship at this point.

We are about 10 episodes into the show and from the looks of it, the romance between our two leads will be the SLOW built up sort (which in a 50 episode long show might be a very smart thing). In fact, our two leads really had very little interactions up to this point since our hero is currently a man who only has eyes for his girlfriend. Fortunately, as one who usually has little patience for secondary plot lines,  I am strangely finding myself fairly engaged in the story. (There are a few secondary plotlines I don’t care for but they are relatively painless.) While I am certainly anxious for our two leads’ romance to get going, but I feel that the writer is laying a good foundation in developing the story and all four main characters.

My favorite thing about this show currently is that the hero’s character feels very refreshing. Yes, he is rich, handsome and smart like 90% of heroes in C-dramas, but he is not cold nor is he flawless. Here is a guy who is willing to admit out loud that yes, it is extremely tempting to let his father’s influence and money to make his life carefree. Just like when our hero instinctively wanted to use our heroine to escape from the law’s punishment, Shu Che is keenly aware that there is a part of him that wants to simply enjoy everything everyone else around him seems to want but can’t have. However, our hero is slowly learning to listen to his heart that tells him that living a clean life, a life that is the result of his own hard work is the true freedom he craves.

I won’t take the time to go through the other three characters, but I do find each of them fairly intriguing as well. As curious as I am about how our two leads will get together, I am also very interested in how Miao Ying and Ning Ming’s romance will develop as well.

The Way We Were billed itself as a drama that showcases the experiences of Chinese students studying in overseas and it indeed does that to a certain point, but I think at the end of the day, I see this one as a coming of age story where four young people have to learn how to follow their heart no matter how difficult and thorny the path in front of them is.

 

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