The best TW-drama of the Oct 2011-Oct 2012 season has been validated by In Time With You sweeping through all the major categories at the just announced nominations for this year’s Golden Bell Awards (Taiwan’s Emmy’s). Already a Golden Bell best actress winner for It Started with a Kiss 2, Ariel Lin continues her dominance at this award ceremony by getting a nod for playing the prickly and self-absorbed Chen You Qing in ITWY. Her leading man Bolin Chen also got nominated for playing everyone’s dream best-guyfriend-turned-lover Li Da Ren, garnering his first best actor nomination. Director Winnie gets a well deserved nod as best director and Lin Mei Shiu gets recognized for dropping a poignant performance as You Qing’s mom. Lastly, the drama also got tapped in the best screenplay and best editing categories, not to mention the big Kahuna, getting a nod for Best Drama. Overall ITWY led all competition with a total of 8 nominations, so congrats to GTV and the drama for being the big winners on nomination day. I have a very complicated appreciation and dislike of ITWY that I wrote about last year here which generated quite a lot of discussion and debate. My feelings towards the drama haven’t changed, but I’ve always felt it was a superior dramatic work and hope that more TW-dramas try to push the artistic boundaries like ITWY did.
Other than ITWY, none of the idol dramas most viewers are familiar with got any nominations, aside from Tony Yang and Gina Lee getting a nomination for Best Actor and Best Actress, respectively, for Ex-boyfriend. I watched bits and pieces of the drama and found it thematically interesting but a tad too OTT in execution at times making it feel jarring. I went back and watched the final episode since I heard howls of outrage about it and instead loved it very much. I think it ended much better than it started. As for ITWY, the general reaction seems to be love it or hate it. I managed to hate it and still love the amazing directing and solid acting, so I think it possible to find more to appreciate about ITWY beyond the story and characters. So far the TW-netizens and the media have publicly been lamenting the lack of a nomination for Ivy Chen in Skip Beat and for Roy Qiu in Office Girls. I totally agree that those two most definitely deserved a nom. In fact, the number one rating drama of of the year was OG which got shut out of the awards, continuing the trend of the Golden Bells rewarding mostly obscure dramas that no one gives a fig about. At least ITWY was both a critical and ratings hit, otherwise this year’s telecast will be such a dud frogs will start croaking and you can hear it.
Have an ITWY Official MV:
Watch the opening credits to Ex-boyfriend:
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I too have a love/hate rel'p with this drama. Props to Ariel for playing such an unlikeable character w/ aplomb. I liked how Bolin's character was the typical K-drama 2nd male lead type. Both of them were tremendous. My beef with this show was that they introduced the cheating ex-bf trope...so unnecessary and my interest waned precipitously after that. I should go ahead and watch the last epi BUT it gets really difficult to drum up lost-interest and watch it just for the sake of it. That said, this is by far the best Taiwanese show that I've watched.
This drama copped out so bad. Beyond making Sunny a cheater (AGAIN!), they had Jassie's character be such a clingy wreck not to mention cute subordinate boy turned out to be a workplace climbing gay guy. Like, WTF? It's not cool for a drama to pull the rug out from under for the sake of pulling the rug from out under. Everything felt like such a manufactured rat maze so that You Qing and Da Ren could get together. When really it was 12 years and they still couldn't get together for a reason! He was a spineless best friend and she was a shrew who stepped all over him. Gah...I need to stop now before my ITWY ire gets riled up again.
A LOT of the things I disliked came rushing back after reading your comment. hahaa Ariel's char being bitchy to his gf started it all. Sure she was clingy and seldom childish but nobody deserves to be patronized the way she was. :S
I know! It's her best friend's new girlfriend, and she couldn't even be bothered to get to know her or be decent to her. Just shockingly juvenile behavior. Just because the girl was a lot younger? And justifiably insecure around her? That it? *shakes head* My desire to bitch slap You Qing was so strong through out the drama. Like when she purposely picked a freaking pink poodle as the class mascot and was pissed the guys didn't like it. No shit! If she stopped being so defensive for a moment about everything, perhaps I would have appreciated her flaws for being genuine. Instead it felt so forced.
My solution to ITWY was to watch the first five or six eps (until whenever it is that Sunny shows up) and then the very last one (after Sunny leaves). That way I still like it. Mostly. I totally agree that Ariel's character is a shrill shrew and Bolin's character is basically a doormat...but I know people like that. I might not like them very much, but they were acted very well, and I have to say, I loved the ending. I wish the drama had spent more time on how they got together and dealt with the change from BFFs to lovers. Ah, well, it was still mostly fun.
All I saw was that my ICOMYM, Roy, did not get a nod for OG. WHAT?!?!? That's just wrong. He should get an award just for being so pretty.
Hahaha. Patrick Li deserves an award as well for his outstanding performance.
Mrs Koala, would you please consider to do your own Award Special by this year's end with serious and less serious categories such as "Prettiest face with the most lacking acting skills", "Good acting chops but poorly-written character", "Abs galore" (I nominate Si Won right away esp after javabeans' latest entry lol), regarding the cast/drama/crew. How does that sound? [Je sens que je vais me prendre un vent]
I think it's either ur cup of tea or not.
I'm the minority - I was crazy about EX-BF and I gave ITYW a try but only managed to see bits & pieces of the first 3 eps~
To me, it helps that I went into EX-BF, never seening any work from Tony or Chienna (total strangers to me); as opposed to having no interest of watching Ariel's ISWAK or have I ever finished watching any of Bolin's work (although he's a one smark cookie~).
I found Ariel and Bolin's acting solid as well, nothing jumps out.
But when I watched the very first 'remembering the past' scene in ep 1 of EX, I was impressed and in the 3rd ep, when Chienna was drunk and confessed, I was sold.
Anyways, I'm happy my babies got recognized. If they won, it's a bonus! <3
Speaking of The Golden Bell..I really find it striking that Cheryl(for My Queen) and Sonia (for Fierce Wife) lost their bids but Ariel and Rainie won. No offense to Ariel or Rainie who I think are good actresses, but maybe it's the dramas that they won for that make me kind of go ehhh? Cheryl and Sonia gave really terrific performances and were in better dramas that their losses made me more sad. Though perhaps if they were in another year.. (more Cheryl though since she lost to the well respected Liu Ruiq but Sonia's loss was another story..)
Hmm, well I loved ITWY and it's one of the few TW-dramas that didn't make me want to run away screaming so I hope it wins in all the categories it's nominated for. I can see how the characters would drive some people crazy (I wanted to hit Da Ren a few times for never saying anything) and near the end it got boring, but overall this drama worked for me.
I wonder what ratings In Time With You would've gotten if it didn't go against Office Girls... How high would've gone?
I adored In Time With You and am so pleased that it got some recognition. Thanks for sharing the news!!
From what I've read I think I'll love this one. It's Ariel Lin's! I prety much watch everything she's in. Will definitely watch this one. Still watching Office Girl and although I've never been a big fan of Roy Chiu but I have to say I love him in OG.
Congrats to Bo-lin & especially Ariel! Well deserved indeed, win or loose, they were just awesome as Li Da ren & Cheng You Qing respectively. Their acting & chemistry was perfect that it was so easy for me to relate and get involved in the drama. I loved ITWY and Ariel & Bo-lin acted perfectly in this drama. Congrats to Director Winnie as well, the direction for ITWY was lovely. I hope & pray Ariel wins, love her so much. Maybe its harder for her to win now, since she has already won this last 2008. I wonder if GBA would still give her a second recognition. Well, I just hope the ITWY team wins. Watching ITWY was a wonderful & memorable experience for me, one of the best Taiwanese drama I've watched. :)
I simply loves ITWY - there were silly moments, how bitchy You Qing was and how slow Da Ren was too!
ha ha! maybe I just could not enjoy the revenge type of story and sick of that kind of plot and love this kind of easy going kind of story that carries me back down memory lane :)
if ITWY wins, yea!!!! that's fab!
though our Ms Koala clearly didnt fancy ITWY, but sharing this news with us, I'm veeeery grateful. terima kasih Cik Koala ;)