The most critically anticipated TW-drama of the year is premiering this Sunday on FTV and from all the promotional materials looks as good as the talented cast and production team assembled. Director Winnie (It Started with a Kiss, The Rose, In Time with You) is coming back with his biggest drama to date in terms of cost and pre-planning in the TW-acting industry expose-ish You Light Up My Star. He waited a year for Joe Cheng to get out of the army and then landed Joe immediately for his first post-military service project, making it their fourth time working together (two ISWAKs, The Rose). This is also the second time for Joe to act opposite Janine Chang and hopefully You Light Up My Star will give them a happy ending that didn’t happened in Honey and Clover. Star isn’t your typical frothy TW-drama and actually looks serious and solemn in both subject matter and execution as it deals with a leading man unraveling in his personal and professional life as he deals with depression.
A nearly 30-minute long preview was unveiled at last week’s press conference and gives away just enough of the central narrative without ruining the experience by revealing too much. I adore Joe and Janine and with the talented directorial guiding hand of Director Winnie this drama is a cannot miss for me. Director Winnie’s last TW-drama In Time with You cleaned up at the Golden Bells and if Joe really delivers what I already see in the trailers then he’s a shoo-in for a Best Actor nod in a few months. ITWY managed amazing ratings despite going up against the biggest drama juggernaut that year in Office Girls, whereas Star’s competition on Sunday night will be the pretty low-rated Fall in Love with Me and the even more low-rated Rock N’ Road. The theme songs are also getting lots of pre-airing buzz, with the opening rock theme “Rainbow Blackhole” by Magic Power already on my play rotation and the ending theme by Japanese superstar Fukuyama Masaharu singing in Chinese pretty darn well. Check out the drama stills, long preview, and official theme MVs below.
Director Winnie wanted a deep and raw dive into the modern TW-acting industry, with Joe and Janine playing top actors who have been dating each other for many years since they first started out in the industry together. Both have reached the pinnacle of fame but Joe’s character suffers from depression and deep unhappiness with his career and life and from that the story delves into how actors are people also struggling to find meaning in their life. Second leads Summer Meng and newbie actor Chiu Hao Qi find themselves swept up into the top stars increasingly out-of-orbit lives when Joe’s character gets fed up with his onscreen and offscreen scrutinized romance with Janine’s character and slowly unravels his neatly packaged public persona.
Opening theme preview for You Light Up My Star “Rainbow Blackhole” By Magic Power”
Ending theme preview for You Light Up My Star “Breaking Dawn” By Fukuyama Masaharu:
25-minute Intense Long Preview for You Light Up My Star:
I don’t even care about the leads, its director Winnie’s drama! I’ve enjoyed every single one of his works, from the Rose to In Time With You. Can’t wait for this one to be subbed in English.
Joe and Winnie collaborated in The Rose, not Love or Bread.
Hopefully, Joe will redeem his career after this because the past projects he did after It Started with a Kiss series are all a let down. Frankly speaking i think he should just collaborate with Winnie often, he knows how to worked around Joe’s weakness as an actor.
ditto. previews bring back the Joe I remember from ISWAK. I don’t feel the chemistry rather just the motions of it b/w the two leads…so I will likely not check it out. I tried The Rose but was horribly allergic to it.
The rose you have give till at least episode 10. The ending is the best.
Woah it actually sounds really fascinating, way more than all the fluffy romances that TW has been producing recently. My only quibble is with Joe, I know people love him but he just doesn’t do it for me. I guess I’ll check out the first episode and see if he’s more palatable in this show, or if the plot and directing is just so good this show can’t be missed.
Watching rock ‘n’ road and probably this, the latest preview is pretty fascinating. I’m not that of a big fan of Joe or Janine but the story intrigues me.
The song is sung by my favourite Japanese actor/singer 福山雅治！swoon!!
Can’t wait to watch this been excited since you first posted about it months ago. But I feel bad for Chris wu, doesn’t that mean he is now up against Aaron and joe, the ratings for rock n road aren’t looking good and he is my favorite of the 3 actors.
I love her cheongsam! Nice cut in the right places and very sexy when they did the tango. I might check this drama out…
Wow, looking pretty intense! Planning to wait patiently till all eps are released, this seems like there’ll be plenty of suspense and cliffhangers. O.O at all the intense kissing scenes. Hope Joe can rise up to this extremely challenging role. Oh, the ending song by Fukumaru Masaharu is awesome, he even managed to incorporate his characteristic singing style while singing in Chinese 🙂
I see Sunny is going to be a new Winnie favorite.
Seems like Joe and Janine’s characters are going to have a tough road
The preview really looks great! I was expecting something more light and fluffy from the news of Janine and Joe filming. Did not expect it to be so intense~ But it looks like a knockout performance by Joe. Hopefully Janine gets some meaty scenes too!
Sounds very interesting, definitely watching this!
this looks so good omfg.
Omg! Of course I have to watch this. The tw dramas just keep piling on for me!! 🙂 I really like these two actors not because I think they are consistently stellar but I just like them. Hope it is good!!
Watched the first ep. Definitely different from the usual fluffy ones. For me, I found it sort of boring. Need to see the rest to change my mind.
Hi!(: Will you be recapping?
JANINE IS BACK? JUST NICE FOR MY POST CFA TREAT.
It looks interesting and I saw ep 1 and it’s pretty good so far. Will you be recapping this, OC Koala?