Before We Get Married (2019)

This drama really is on the cutting edge for examining the social, emotional and physical relationships that exists between two adults. That relationship is expanded by the interaction with friends, co-workers and even parents. It also is realistic because in most long term relationships there are interventing circumstances that will change the "love story" of the adults involved. This drama has a good depiction of murphy's law. Everything possible started to go wrong because of one intervening party's opinion. I call in "enlightenment" combined with lust (initially).

The lust becomes respect and love and the enlightenment becomes the basis of collapse of this couple's plans.
The drama is extremely addictive with a maturer theme and filming - the story was well written and the actors were excellent throughout. Total investment in their outcomes. A good analysis of the uncertainties of what would or could be considered a certainty. A good analysis of obsession and its eventual outcomes. Without writing a spoiler - the ending was perfect - more of a reality (especially after understanding WeiWei's character).
I am really glad that I never watch the prologue "clips" and always fast forward to the story because it was apparently depicted in the finale. (don't like to know parts of the ending in advance).

The music was so good and set the tone for most scene changes or encounters. This drama is not for everyone and I would give parental guiding warnings if you have young viewers interested in checking it out.
Infidelity or cheating issues are not adulterous issues. All characters are single and dating.

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I felt more frustration than "love" unfortunately

*UPDATE: Finale was a big MEH for me as predicted. Sad Panda.*
I will likely come back and update this once the final episode air.
SO, the acting is wonderful. I love the characters and the storyline and this is definitely one of the steamiest shows on Viki. I love everything this show could have possibly been. I still love the show but feel more frustration than "love" a lot of the times which is why I'm giving it 7 stars instead of 10 for right now.
My issues:
1. For a drama romance to work, there has to be a bit "more" to keep the main characters apart. In my personal opinion, after 10 episodes, the "why not" just isn't there and it drags the entire storyline down in a major way.
2. The Chu Kehuan's ex is a bit of a one-dimensional & psychotic/dependent/weak character on ALL levels and it makes her whole storyline aggravating to watch. Since they also keep shoving her in our face as a "reason" the main character's don't just get together already, it makes episodes painful to watch and honestly, cringe-worthy. When she keeps repeating the same shit over and over again about "10 year relationship" and "but I love you" and so on. So. Painful. Already.
3. Speaking of #2 above, we all know from little hints that she has some hidden secret of WHY she got an abortion all those years ago and broke her man's trust in their relationship, but IF & WHEN she finally reveals it... do we even CARE??? No. No we do not, so that plot point is null and void and won't make any impact on us as viewers because she's a douche and we couldn't care less at this point.
4. ZWW's ex, 321. He might be CLUELESS and a bit of a bore AND he has 0 skills when it comes to knowing what a woman thinks, and so on, BUT I feel like the writers turn him into a bit of a manipulating, violent ASSHAT in a single episode because they didn't know what else to do to vindicate ZWW's decision (as if she needed any other reasons) AND to keep the plot moving along with drama thrown in for good measure in nearly the last episode. Now, with ONLY TWO episodes left and the previews showing 321 still showing his ass in the next episode, well, I don't foresee us getting MUCH actual ROMANCE/happiness between ZWW and Chu Kehuan that we've all been anticipating with bated breath.
OK... I have more issues with the show than I realized. And, sadly, I'm only watching the last episode because I love the actors and have invested way too much time NOT to see the ending. :/

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Reviewing a drama like Before We Get Married is difficult since - like a lot of Taiwanese dramas - there is the drama it's trying to be and the drama it's being forced to be.

Unfortunately, Taiwanese dramas have a mould. Sometimes what comes out of that mould can be flavoured differently. But it is, unfortunately, a somewhat superficial change.

So let's talk first about what this drama is trying to be. It's trying to be an intelligent and nuanced conversation about two unhappy people maintaining relationships out of habit and obligation whose mutual attraction shocks them into re-evaluating their lives. And in many aspects, Before We Get Married succeeds admirably. The core story underpinning it is good with strong characterisation, excellent performances and fine writing. Taiwanese dramas are known for having real people having real conversations in realistic ways and this drama is no exception. How it begins and how it ends are good and the ways in which the characters move around each other within the text is generally good too. Some of the emotional beats between Weiwei and her fiancé, for example, are utterly perfect. Painful and frustrating but perfect. Puff Gao and Jasper Liu have extraordinary chemistry and it's not hard to believe they want to tear each other's clothes off throughout.

So, then, it's the execution that becomes a problem. And this is where that Taiwanese drama mould comes in. The show is marketed as a sexy infidelity drama but ultimately the cheating is meant to be a mere impetus to the character's development. As such, the show struggled with how to deal with incorporating cheating while not alienating an audience that was likely to respond negatively to it. Like a lot of infidelity dramas it tried to have its cake and eat it too, metaphorically speaking. Weiwei had to have an affair while not actually having an affair. Weiwei and Kehuan's respective others had to be progressively terrible so we'd feel the infidelity was justified. Both partners were obsessive and controlling but it seems as though this was deemed insufficient to justify the emotional affair to the audience and so greater sins were thrown into the pot, often in random and frustrating ways.

The show's first episode and THAT scene was the perfect example. The conversations between Weiwei and Kehuan in episode 2 show that this incident was supposed to be consensual; the first volley in an affair. Instead it was a disturbing non-consensual incident that framed Kehuan as a potential abuser and possible rapist. I have no idea what it's doing in this show or what we were supposed to think about it. That also goes for the camping incident, which did neither lead any favours.

As the show progressed it began to opt for cliched Taiwanese romcom scenarios to portray our couple as being destined for each other. At the same time it tied itself up in knots to make sure that Weiwei could deny a sexual relationship when the time came. And it's true - Weiwei wasn't leaving her boyfriend for another man, she was leaving him for reasons that were entirely her own. Trying to do this plotline within the context of an active affair probably seemed too complex and too difficult for writers of a 13-episode Taiwanese show. Especially when they were no doubt pressured to imply that this new relationship was in fact Twu Wuv when instead it was about two people who just really wanted to bone each other.

Whether this show falls down by not delivering on the sexy it teased or whether it falls down because it made the leads unlikeable due to their infidelity is a matter of personal preference for the average viewer. Either way, it was a frustrating and sometimes tedious watch as Weiwei prevaricates and dithers and recommits to the wrong man and Kehuan turns from a complicated win-at-all-costs manipulator into the Perfect Male Lead and everyone starts working together for reasons that make no sense except that Taiwanese writers need new scenarios, stat. The last thing this needed to be was a workplace drama.

Overall, what this drama was trying to do was very good, original and interesting. A new flavour if you will. But what it actually needed was a whole new mould.

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The Good:

Kefei and Dawei are redeeming characters that offer perfect relief for the some of the more dense story lines.

The ending was funny, to see them all gossiping at such an inappropriate time made me laugh.

I loved that it wasn't a happy ever after story per se.

The Bad:

There were a lot of forced interactions and grabbiness in the first few episodes.

Ziyuan is a limpet. She's an unbearable character throughout the entire show.

Weiwei constantly flip flops between having a backbone and not having a backbone and it's exhausting to watch.

The Downright Ugly:

The writers use shock tactics and then never explain the point. For example Kehuan and Ziyuan broke up because she aborted his child. It's never explained why and it's said in such a matter of fact way. A second example is agreeing to sleep with Kehuan for a discount on the house, admittedly she didn't do it in the end but what was the point.

Also what was with the weird kinky handcuffed to a bed dating party in the first couple of episodes?

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This is my very first review.

CHEMISTRY!!!! THE BEST CHEMISTRY I HAVE SEEN IN THIS DECADE.

I admit that this drama is not everyone's cup of tea. You will either love it or hate it. There is no in-between.

I tried this drama the first time because of Jasper (He is all I want to be served for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack ;0). But then the first episode drove me to the edge and I dropped it. I later decided to give it another chance and went in with my brain turned off. I ended up being insanely entertained. I marathoned it in 1 night. It was soo good!

Story
Unconventional. It defies some social and conventional norms and this might or might not have worked against it. But that what makes this story special. This is not to say the story is unique and doesn't cliches but the whole plot was well executed.

Acting
Puff Kuo and Jasper in one drama. I don't need to say more.

Music
Not the very best but it works.

Rewatch Value
It is my guilty pleasure. If you are in a good mood, rewatch BWGM. When in a bad mood, rewatch BWGM. When you are in a MEH mood, rewatch BWGM. It is a perfect little thing for all the seasons.

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The best mature drama I have watched so far (mild spoilers)

And here is why:
Acting: off the charts (Ep.9 has acting so good, I wasn't sure it was acting anymore.)
Chemistry: off the charts
Characters: So complex and real, that you start getting frustrated and almost bored, the way you would become frustrated and bored with yourself if you wanted to do the effing right thing, even though every cell in your body draws you to do the not-right-thing.

On the surface, this is a story about a smitten guy and a girl, who have kind of an affair, although they are really just in and out of the grey area. But underneath, it's about the kind of relationships adults in their thirties have. They aren't young, wild and impulsive and go-with-the-flow.
They settle, because otherwise they would be out of their personal timeline and then "Perfectlife.exe" would malfunction, and also responsibility for others feelings comes at you hard and heavy for people with a heightened sense of responsibility.
They do shady stuff, instead of breaking up, because in their mind they aren't a lot more than roommates or "family" as Kechuan puts it and it does not feel like betrayal.
They hold on to an empty shell of a relationship for way too long, because they invested too much time and energy and also don't quite know how to be alone.
They date someone, because they seem to fit perfectly into the slot they have drawn for "WIFE" in their 50 year lifeplan, not because they see into that persons soul and find it beautiful, but because they only see the endgoal of having a good, early pension and a, b, c, e... needs to happen before that.
They do whatever they like, with other consenting adults, but need to deal with the
They don't dance to the beat of their own drum, until someone hits their heart just right and it derails their life enough to see everything, every single layer of their life, from a different perspective and they wake up from their trance of eat.sleep.work.

This is a story about the hamster wheel society puts people on, and how you can get off it, all at once or in little steps.

And for anyone hating the ending: It's so real, and so true to WeiWei, because if you had been on the emotional rollercoaster she had been on, any woman as self-controlled and rational as she is would do the same.

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First of all, what’s with all the noise about cheating? Yes, Kehuan was playing around with women in the beginning, before breaking up with Ziyuan, but I don’t consider Weiwei kissing Kehuan as cheating although she did ALMOST sleep with him — but it didn’t happen after all. This is a story of how people settle for a life partner based on a checklist and it’s good that Kehuan and Weiwei discovered this beforehand.

The cast was excellent although I never felt SLS for Haoyi. Ziyuan is the type of woman that really grates on my nerves with her so called sacrificing for Kehuan—he saw that Weiwei was the opposite and that attracted him to her. I would also like to have a friend like Kefei who is always there for Weiwei.

The music fit the storyline and enhanced the story. Overall, I really liked this and will be watching it again.

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Without a fail, when I want to pick up a Taiwanese drama, I know for a fact that anything Puff Guo is in will be perfection. It was completely different than any other drama I had watched in the past and (according to mydramalist online) this is Puff's and Jasper's highest rated drama for great reason. This drama is tied for first place in my heart with my first Taiwanese drama and the first time I had ever encountered Puff, Just You (2013). I've been waiting for her to act in a drama that was more recent (compared to 2013 & 2014) and she did not disappoint. It was amazing seeing her in another drama with Jasper Liu as I loved their chemistry in their first, but I wanted to see them in something more mature as I thought Jasper's character was sweet...but goofy in an unattractive way (to me) while Puff needed to take the stick out of her butt even at the end. I honestly thought this drama, based on all the clips that were posted on my instagram feed, was going to be this story about these two people who were engaged and met, and fell in love behind their partners' backs. Oh yeah and that this was going to be some kind of 50 shades of grey fan fic because it seemed like there was going to be a lot of sex. And I am SUPER HAPPY that this drama was NO WHERE near what I thought. I was scared that I was going to hate it because regardless if you are the main characters and are meant to be together, I cannot condone cheating. Instead, it is about Puff who is in this 3 year secret relationship with her coworker who basically tells her how to live her life, but she is blind to it all because she is in love and doesn't know anything else. Jasper, on the other hand, is in this loveless 10 year relationship (one sided love) where we numbs himself by drinking and and sleeping around. One day they meet each other by chance and Jasper (yes I realize that I've been calling them by their real names, and not by there characters names, but I am already this far so) is immediately intrigued by her and wants to pursue her after her many rejections. We get to follow this odd yet interesting relationship between the two of them; Jasper (Kehuan) teaching Puff (Wei Wei) that she should be treated as an equal in her relationship, while Wei Wei teaching Kehuan to be a strong and courageous person instead of hiding behind alcohol and women. It was interesting and frustrating seeing the back and forth with their characters as I felt like there was never a time until the very end that they were truly friends and able to breath, but when you have Hao Yi and Zi Yuan as partners/exs, you will never get to breath and be happy. Gosh, they were both nightmares. I did love the character development with each character as well as being able to read every emotion on both Wei Wei and Kehaun's faces. It added a sensual touch to the drama, where they didn't have to say anything to know how the other was feeling. Overall, amazing drama, def will rewatch it! I do think that everything timed out perfectly, no matter how much I wanted the two mains to get together...but I appreciate the timing of everything as it seemed 100% realistic and it made both characters come off as genuine human beings who had nothing but love for one another, even after the crazy first episodes of Kehaun being a creepy pervert.

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This show started strong but quickly became repetitive with the same events happening over again in every episode. The female lead treated the male lead the same way through the majority of the drama except for maybe the last 3 episodes. The last few minutes of ep 13 were handled in a mature way, but the drama lost steam in the middle. It's like the writers ran out of ideas and so decided that having the leads go through the same conflicts throughout the entirety of the drama would suffice in filling up time. That to me is lazy writing and I was not here for it. I wish I would have dropped this earlier when it became obvious, but no I'm hard headed.

- Final episode thoughts

Almost all of the finale was so unnecessary and uninteresting...
The continued ex conflict was lame enough, but the separation took away from the intense love and friendship they had for each other, which was the best part of the entire drama.
Wei Wei was supposed to be an intelligent adult woman, yet she couldn't possibly stay in contact with her male friend/ lover Kehuan and focus on growing as a person ?

I could understand a bit of time and space before having a serious relationship, but 13 months completely out of her life, with no interaction as friends? Ke Huan proved that he would respect her boundaries as friends, so she is not under any pressure.
The actors were amazing, the story was not.

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short, straight to the point, and exciting!

I appreciate this drama because of 3 things: it's straight to the point (not a lot of filler scenes), realistic, and kinda sexy (which we don't always get in Asian dramas)

This is my type of drama. I love heavy dramas that break my heart but teach me so many things at the same time. There were a lot of painful and difficult things in this drama that felt so realistic because it's part of life (couples splitting after a long time, sacrifices, etc).

Regarding the sexy scenes, it's not graphic at all, but there are hot moments and a few kisses here and there. Much appreciated tho, some couples in long dramas (40+ eps) can't even hold hands/look at each other HAHA

Also, can I just say how beautiful the OST is??

I'm not even 20 but this show feels so nostalgic for some reason, I don't know, I felt like I was in a different life/timeframe because of how much I felt like I was part of the show. Loved it!

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I waited 3months for all the episode to be out and binge watch it. I was having so much expectation for this drama since the trailer because it is not your typical high school romance. The content and storyline definitely seems more mature since it talks about cheating in a relationship which is pretty uncommon to see such drama in an Asian context. The songs used were probably my only favourite thing and the main lead.

The drama started off pretty interesting but it became very repetitive and very one sided. Ke Huan is always the one showing affection to Wei Wei while she remains unwavered. It lasted for more than half of the eps which I felt was a little too long and unnecessary. The foundation for Ke Huan falling in love with Wei Wei was also very weak and unrealistic. After all the repetitive scene, the writer seems to decide that they have ran out of how to continue the drama so they rushed through the ending. Everything was condensed into the last episode where Wei Wei decide to open up and accept Ke Huan and the Long awaited bed scene (which seems to lose my interest because it just felt so rushed). There was an unresolved problem in this drama where there was no explanation given about the abortion of the baby.

I hate it when dramas drag the front and rushed through the ending. They could have use more time at the back and showed us a little more about what happened afterwards. Also, I expected so much more romance but half of the time, i’m Just annoyed with Wei wei’s choice.

Overall, it is an highly anticipated drama but it failed to capture the heart of viewers because of the lack in development of the storyline and the characters.

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