Retrospective of the Four Leads of In A Good Way at Live House Last November
This is a bit like a wayback machine but the leads of In A Good Way have been red hot ever since the drama premiered two months ago so it’s adorable to find their more low key promotional pics from before the drama aired. Nowadays the fans and the press are itching to scrutinize every interaction between Lego Lee and Kirsten Jen, so much so I worry my babies will be awkward around each other down the road. Lego and Kirsten were joined by Jay Shih and Smile Wen in early November at an open mic night at the Live House at EZ5, a very well-known pub that opened its doors in 1990 and in the last two decades have been the fertile ground for the discovery of talented singers who have gone on to success. The foursome hit up Live House on November 7th, exactly a week before IAGW premiered on November 15th, and it’s so adorable to see their easy camaraderie even so early on in the drama filming. Lego looks nothing like his Liu Chuan persona, and in fact appears to have just rolled out of bed and joined his cast mates. Initially they were they just to take in the show but once the MC spotted them all four were called onstage and asked to perform a song. They chose one of the most iconic 90’s songs Richie Jen’s “The Girl Across the Way Look Over Here”.
Be forewarned the performance is a giant hot mess. Singing off key, Lego looking at the lyrics written on the palm of his hand, Kirsten asking for a do-over – you name it, these four suck their way right into it. But it’s still the cutest impromptu attempt ever. Once IAGW started it was immediately clear all the actors were perfectly cast for their roles. It’s funny now looking back but there was some suggestion that Smile and Lego were almost too perfectly cast and not much acting would be required of them. Lego is naturally as athletic as Liu Chuan and he was the School Grass when he attended National Taiwan Sports University. Smile is even more like Bai Xue – she’s whip smart being a graduate of Taiwan’s top college which is National Taiwan University (Tai Da), and she graduated number 1 in her departmental major as well. During her four years at Tai Da she was also the renowned School Flower much like Bai Xue is at CDU. Similarly Kirsten has a reputation for being totally dorky and rather clueless in real life and even her sister Selena Jen has remarked that the real Kirsten is a lot like Jia En. I say all this because watching the four of them onstage singing and being silly together, I see both the real actors and their characters all blending together. It’s nice hearing them sing, albeit badly, and a great appetizer for Lego’s upcoming performance for the fans since the FB page for IAGW just broke 200,000 fans.
Lego, Kirsten, Jay, and Smile at Live House:
[youtube id=”VJXg4t7JLWw” w=”625″ h=”445″]
This is ADORABLE. I can’t help it, I ship Lego and Kirsten so hard.
On-screen chemistry is really a mysterious one, writing can totally help in creating one, though it can’t be present for all. But with this cast, their off-screen banter really helps with their over-all on-screen chemistry, not to mention the writing. And you’re right, sometimes the line between their on-screen and off-screen persona turns hazy.
And with regards to Lego and RongRong, I’ve seen the recent BTS and seems like Lego is a bit more guarded with the camera, but not with Rong Rong. So, I guess, their interaction is still the same except when they know the camera is focused on them. Lego is careful, while Rong Rong seems more like a free-spirit.
And just wanted to share the SPOP photoshoot BTS of RongYi. Get your sunglasses ready! Can we have a gist of their answers? 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifRVOgqas1w
Oh my thanks for sharing that photoshoot BTS. Resistance is futile with these two! Argh. Did you see how she leaned in for a smooch at the end??
Thank you for sharing that video! I made a truckload of gifs out of it on Tumblr 😀
i can’t help but feel like a meanie, because i can’t find kristen attractive at all, she is not even cute to me :/
which is weird seeing that selina always was stunningly gorgeous.
Lol, even though I know they are sisters, I think Selina and Kirsten look quite different and not really related, so it’s not that weird!
hehehe everyone has different beauty standards.i on the other hand find RongRong pretty..I love her eyes and nose especially 🙂
Are you kidding… Kirsten is very adorable, very attractive and very natural looking, meaning NO plastic surgery, kinda reminds us of Park Shin Hye. Can’t say the same for the other actresses in the show. No point looking perfect due to PS…
Directed at “onhersleeve”…
@pirie so? idk if you actually read my comment but i said ‘i can’t find’ and ‘to me’ which means i am exposing my personal opinion, not an universal truth and it won’t be changed by you comment spamming girls that had ps work, which in my opinion (once again; MY opinion not a universal statement as if i speak for the universe) are better looking than her.
it is funny and depressing how you can take a harmless comment and use it not to defend your darling from my ‘attack’ (which is non existent as i never said a bad thing about her) but to insult girls that had anything to do with my comment.
Other actresses in the show? Are you referring to Smile? If it helps any, I watched this on YouTube last night (it’s sooo interesting, haha); at 04:45 Smile shows a picture of herself in high school and says, 「我從很小到大幾乎都長一樣，我都沒什麼變，然後我以前同學都說，『天啊，翁滋蔓，妳怎麼都長一樣？！』」 // “I’ve looked like this ever since I was little and haven’t changed much. My former classmates would say, ‘Oh, my God, Smile, why do you still look the same?!'” So, yeah, she’s always been quite the beauty. (And for anyone who watches this, at some point in the video Smile talks about how she stayed overnight at the school library studying… physical education. I died laughing. She is such a nerdy bookworm, it’s not even funny.)
@onhersleeve To be honest, before this drama aired I was wondering why Smile wasn’t the lead since she was obviously much prettier than Kirsten from the stills (totally shallow of me, but I wasn’t familiar with anyone in the cast at the time), but after watching the show the switch flipped and I could totally see Kirsten’s aesthetic appeal. She is so pretty and adorable; I don’t think I’ll ever go back to thinking she’s less than attractive.
About Smile, I can prove that she just looks the same as she was in high school. Because we were in the same grade and same school!!! Ｉhad met her in the campus. She is definitely a natural beauty. I found some her high school pictures. FYI http://pic.pimg.tw/nbamoney123/1331046410-1938656918.jpg
http://static.ettoday.net/images/2/d2952.jpg
I watched this during my “I need to watch anything to do with IaGW” Saturday.
They are all such good sports about it. Not everyone can get up on stage – even if they can act in front of a camera well.
As I rewatch the eps and over, I see more subtleties between LC and JE.
Partly because I have the dialog memorized and don’t need to read subs.
Kirsten has a LOT going on in her scenes. You can see her (character) thinking. I wonder how much better these shows are for folks who speak the language. Prolly even better than I think.
Gaaah! How is it even possible for anyone to be so adorkably cute as RongRong? Thanks so much for the background, fascinating to learn that Smile pretty much IS Bai Xue. The only downside to this write up and video is that it makes it even harder NOT to ship RongRong and Lego together. WHY do we only get this once a week? 🙁
They are just too adorable for words.
lol… they are cute.. I know the song, it is such an old song. haha..
im happy for the success of their drama.they deserve the hype! i didn’t even know them before IAGW..it’s nice to know other tw actors besides the usual popular ones that i know globally..it’s a breath of fresh air to see RongRong and Lego Li as leads..and yes im a sucker for their BTS together and been shipping hard..Just seeing RongYi doing random stuff together in their own lil world in the BTS makes me giddy! Their playfulness in real life helps them act more naturally as college students in the drama..Gives them
that young vibes despite the fact that they are over the standard college age..
Also, agreeing with you on LL’s sports skills.
A lot of dramas feature actors who play basketball with varying levels of skill. They edit the shots to make them look better. In this show, I like they they just keep showing the guys play ball – not a lot of editing to make it pretty – and sometimes they’re just in the background.
It’s either exhausting, or a good stress/boredom reliever.