Screencap and MV of the Kick-ass In A Good Way Opening Theme Song
Combining two In A Good Way posts into one is probably a good idea before this place becomes Liu Chuan central. Okay, it kinda already is and who can blame me? He’s perfect, though that’s clearly giving him too much credit since he seems rather love dense. Well maybe not dense since it’s clear he knows he feels something for Jia En, but he doesn’t quite seem to be ready to put the pedal to the metal yet and pursue her. Liu Chuan is so smart and focused on the things that he’s interested in that he’s clearly turned off his love antennae despite every girl on campus crushing on him since he’s not interested in getting credits in that subject matter. But his antennae is clearly functioning because he’s only able to “receive” signals from Jia En, who is herself a love idiot if I ever saw one. I still can’t get over the hilarity of her concert date with Liu Chuan ending up with her firing him as her tutor and then a whole year of no contact between them. Could she not see his pause and disappointment? Only she would actually tell the CDU School Grass buh-bye like that. A quick Taiwanese slang tutorial – School Grass 校草 = most handsome boy in school which is the lesser known male equivalent to School Flower 校花 = prettiest girl in school, and here Liu Chuan is the 校草 and Bai Xue is the 校花.
For those not watching the drama but are keen to maybe check out a snippet, IAGW has one of the best opening song sequences in years and I can’t stop watching it. It also has a new song (not yet released) called “Good Morning Hard City” by Adrian Fu that is so delightfully easy to rock to. Check out gorgeous HD screencaps of the entire sequence and then watch the opening theme video. I’m also hear to debunk some rumors. This drama is NOT 33 episodes, never have been never will be. Whoever wrote that is smoking something. It’s a SETTV once-a-week drama, the longest those have ever been is 25 episodes and that only happened with Office Girls which kept getting extended due to super high ratings. Most are 18-22 episodes long. This is also live-filmed so the ending number is not yet set, that’s how SETTV rolls. The synopsis which says Jia En comes back in 2005 and reminisces about her college days including Liu Chuan is also wrong – that was before the drama started filming. I found the original Chinese and its written on a non-official IAGW fan site and was not released by the production. That synopsis is also wrong because the reasons for Jia En staying in Liu Chuan’s room is different. The official drama website does not have this synopsis and only says this drama is about kids in 1995 living their college days. My guess is that the synopsis was the first draft but later tweaks were made to remove the 2005 start and let this drama begin with the 1995 time line.
Li Guo Yi has no business being this good looking. He used to be cute, now he’s *@!#&*@(#*! smoking hot. Rong Rong is so lucky to work with him. *____* I’d probably need a hospital stay for heart palpitations if he stared at me the way Liu Chuan keeps staring at Jia En in the drama.
This was the rumored synopsis before filming began but SETTV never confirmed it:
2005年嘉恩回國了。他收到一封社團寄給他的邀請函，裡頭，有一張通往「月亮之地 」的藏寶圖。這封邀請函，讓嘉恩想起他的大學生活，想起流川這個影響他一輩子的男人 ，不知道他現在好嗎？ 嘉恩回想著，回想著。時光，彷彿重返1995年… 1995年，林嘉恩高三。還差幾個月就要解放。 嘉恩的父母在台北打拼，仰賴從小一塊長大的鄰居人維父母收留，人維是當地的大地主， 多一副碗筷、多一個人住，沒什麼。 嘉恩心裡充滿感激，下定決心努力苦讀，期待考上大學、離開家鄉，期待跟人維讀同 一所學校，甚至也暗暗的期待著，和人維談一場戀愛。一直以來，嘉恩有人維的陪伴，心 裡住的都是人維。 終於，嘉恩拿下比人維更高的分數，志願卡上就只填了人維的第一志願─城東大學！人維卻偷偷更動了嘉恩的志願卡，結果，人維考上台北夢寐以求的城東大學企管系，嘉恩 不幸落榜…… 嘉恩打算北上半工半讀準備重考，但卻把身上的錢弄丟了，有連絡不上父母，他來到 大學向人維求援，好不容易才在公告欄上找到人維的住宿位置。 嘉恩以為來到人維的宿舍，沒想到宿舍主人流川回來，見到一個陌生女孩躺在自己床 上。嘉恩一睜開眼，看到不是人維，更嚇了一跳！嘉恩被流穿趕了出去。 嘉恩為了再見到人維，只好等在宿舍外，人維回來見到嘉恩很驚訝，完全沒有要讓嘉恩留下的意思，把嘉恩給趕走，他們的對話全被流川聽見。流川心軟了決定收留她一夜。 從此之後，兩人便展開一段關於愛和夢想的冒險……
A quick highlight of the differences: Jia En comes back to Taiwan in 2005 and receives “The Moon Place” treasure map which leads her to remember her college life and Liu Chuan, the man who influenced her entire life. Is he doing well now? She then flashes back to 1995. In this version, Ren Wei is a total ass. He purposes changes her rank+major because she put down as first choice his first choice so he intentionally doesn’t want her following him. The dorm incident is also different, in this version Ren Wei comes back and has no intention of letting her stay for the night and sends her away. Liu Chuan sees it and takes Jia En in for the night, and thereafter the two of them embark on an adventure concerning love and dreams……. I’m so glad the first episode didn’t follow this version of events because I really like Ren Wei and it would be impossible to like if he actually screwed Jia En over on purpose just so she wouldn’t follow him, and then sent her away that night in a strange city with no money and no family. I also don’t like the 2005 start which confirms Jia En and Liu Chuan are not together in 2005 for whatever reason. I rather like letting things remain unknown as we watch it.
I love the eye-exchange between Liu Chuan and Jia En after he wins the rock-paper-scissors and then with a look and a tiniest head gesture he indicates for her to take the front seat. I’m going to say she’s his girl at this point because that’s totally a guy telling his girl “Yeah, your boyfriend won and you’re getting the front seat, baby!”
Funny bit of trivia about RongYi: Lego’s first gig was being the MV guy and it was in an early S.H.E. video so he’s actually worked before with Kirsten’s super famous older sister Selina Jen. For those shipping RongYi, it can totally happen. Both are single and there is no huge age gap, Kristen just turned 25 while Lego is 28. They are three years apart and you can tell in the BTS they act like buddies without any deferential docility on her part. Their banter in the BTS is such good stuff.
HD version of the opening song for In A Good Way “Good Morning Hard City”:
[youtube id=”Vddi2txMsOY” w=”625″ h=”445″]
I’ll bring the song link when it’s released, I promise!
Oh thank goodness its not 33 episodes! When I read that I almost had a meltdown as a drama that airs once a week that’s too much!
Haha, I’ve watched the opening sequence so many times it’s not even funny. Can’t wait till the official song is released!
Thanks for posting the rumored synopsis too! I’ve been wondering what the whole 2005 thing was about, since there was no indication of that in the drama whatsoever.
One question: didn’t ren wei screw her in episode 1 when he purposely swapped her ranks just because he didn’t think she actually wanted it as much as him and therefore didn’t ‘deserve’ it?
No. Ren Wei switched her college+major choices because she picked the same as him but her test score was much higher so he thought that was such a waste of her smarts to go to the colleges he could get into. I have no clue why he picked Finance as her major but that year finance was red hot hence despite her high test score she didn’t get into any college finance major he listed for her. He was trying to be “helpful” because she didn’t put any thought into it and just followed his picks. I get his intention but it was still a stupid move and he had no right.
OHH thank you for clearing that up! And there I was trying to figure why everyone still liked ren wei; I can now enjoy the drama in peace without being marred by my hate for him 🙂
No, according to Koala’s recap, he changed her university and major choices to better ones because her score was higher than his and thus she qualified for better university/major choices. I’m sure he didn’t know that he was screwing her over; he thought he was helping her, by pushing her to be independent and toward opportunities that were better than those available to him.
Oops, Koala beat me to it. 🙂 Thanks, Koala!
I haven’t liked a taiwanese drama this much since as long as I can remember……<3<3
So many opening theme songs from T dramas end up on my everyday play list.
This one: ADDED
I love his voice sooooooo much! It is nice to picture this cast while listening, too.
I am really loving everything about this show..from the music to the chemistry between the leads! And i am also glad that ren wei isnt a total bastard..i am hoping that the same goes for bai xue once she finds out about liu chuan liking jia en.
Also i am in love with the good morning hard city song, i was considering searching it up but i dont know an chinese. Thanks ms koala for all the IAGW posts, keep em coming!
thx so much for sharing!!!! i was squealing the entire time when i watched the video. ***blush***
Well good to know the episode length isn’t set and that synopsis is old…nice
The head nod is completely “my girl gets front seat”. In fact, I can almost swear that both of them are going out in that mv because you only ever film your boyfriend that way and he only ever makes those faces and expressions if the girlfriend is filming him. She’s also the one who gets spontaneous piggyback rides and gets dropped off last (ok, that’s the ending mv, but still).
Rong Rong sometimes reminds me of Park Se Young, while Lego Li (from some angles) reminds me of KimuTaku circa Pride… tell me I’m not the only one who sees it?
I feel like the director has done a really good job keeping everyone relaxed on the set so their interaction is genuinely fun.
There were a few scenes earlier on where it almost felt like they were improvising – it seemed like we were evesdropping on real people rather than watching actors act.
The long looks between Kristen and Lego – sweet, open, real, curious.
Unlike the tortured and tortuous long looks in that other show not to be named (Heirs) where the director needs to relaaaaaaaax.
It’s probably unwise to compare but I just can’t help agreeing about how different the long looks and stares between the OTP are in both dramas. In heirs I just accepted that as part of their courtship but in IAGW I have the shivers every time they looked into each other eyes. It’s positively electrifying.
I’m of a probably unpopular opinion. I was actually looking forward to them parting and then meeting up 10 years later in 2005. I actually quite like the “first love” and then sad ending thing, I think the mix of nostalgia and sadness would’ve been weirdly sweet. I know, you can all throw tomatoes at me now! I don’t mind an extremely typical cheesy, happy ending though 🙂
As long as there is “meeting up later,” I am fine with the parting. 🙂
No recap for ep 4? I watched the ep but didnt undertstand anything..haha now am regretting not paying attention during my mandarin classs..
Viki is at like 85% for English subs…and I know Dramafever is subbing too
Omg glad i am not the only one loving the opening (abd ending sequence). It is such a feel good opening. I tend to skip the openings, but I watch and savor every moment of it.
I can’t take it anymore! I have to proclaim my growing love for this drama. I melt every time Liu Chuan and Jia En have a scene together. I’m glad they didn’t stick to the original synopsis cuz the new one is so much better. The OST’s are so catchy, too. I actually watch the opening and ending credits each ep instead of skipping them as like I do for other series.
Thank goodness for the shorter length. Just seeing their photos make me smile. That’s how much I am into this drama now.
Thank you Ms Koala for pinging my radar. To think I could have missed it, am now going into ep 4 viki now to help. But man he is hot, not in a shippy way but hot as in perfect for her.
I searched some stuff up and found out that RongYi have already acted together before, that’s probably why they seem more comfortable together. They acted in Yong Shi Men in Part 2, they were most probably the main couple in that one.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uX0dRbOAAewctually, I just looked up the drama and it looks like they weren’t the main couple afterall. But it’s interesting that they have worked together. I can’t help but ship them so bad!!!
if you want to see the video , it’s this one at around the 1hr and 16 minute mark.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uX0dRbOAAew
opps, wrong link. Here’s the right one.
Oh really? I wasn’t sure they were just listed as the first two in the Part 2 so I thought they would be! Yeah it is, thank you for clearing it up, it would have been awesome if they were! I know I ship them so much too!
Found this drama by chance two weeks ago, and it’s never been the same since. It’s been so long since I last fell in love with a TW-drama (the last being In Time With You, but that script sadly went downhill in the second half). And I rarely ever ship the OTP in real life, but the RongYi couple really have such good chemistry and watching them interact on screen and behind the scenes just makes you feel that they are a match made in heaven. Will share links of the subbed BTS scenes if I find any! Enjoy watching, everyone!
Do you know where we can watch BTS videos? I’m a sucker for those BTS stuff *___* lol.
Official BTS videos released by SET TV here (unsubbed though): http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQzMpuOPi0S8ceaTrSRv__Q79VcpullbG
Look for “自由ing 花絮” for each episode
The only BTS videos that I have found on YouTube are unsubbed, but here are the links anyway! Enjoy 🙂
Episode 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrAa1-gI1B0
Episode 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVN_LdT7pjs
Episode 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1yl4x71t10
Loving this TW drama! Thank you so much koala for introducing this awesome show. Love the music, the characters, and the plot. I’ve also listened to the opening and ending song multiple times now on YouTube. Do you know when the full songs will be released?
(So thankful that I’m a native Mandarin speaker so that I don’t have to wait for subs for this drama!)
I love the songs in this show, especially the infectious ‘Free Night’.
I’m so glad Ren Wei was not portrayed as a jerk, and that Bai Xue has been so sweet to Jia En thus far. I thought she’d be colder to her judging from last week’s preview. There’s going to be enough drama from each character’s conflicting interests without making us hate the second leads from the start.
School Grass… does not sound like a positive title. I’d associate it with weeds rather than think it is a title for the most popular guy.
You give me so much hope with saying that the 2005 synopsis isn’t official and was never confirmed.
I’m all on board if you want to make this Lego Li central 🙂
Before I watch the first episode, I came across this video and IAGW’s long preview that made me watch IAGW. This is one of the best opening video in tw-dramas to date! This song is damnnnnnnnn addictive and the lyrics is just so so so meaningful, I love Adrian Fu’s voice.
The ending video is well done too, it’s consistent with the opening. However, I prefer the opening theme than the ending theme.
Lego’s smile reminds me of Hyunbin ^^ such a nice smile :))))
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to notice that resemblance. Lego Like is like a combination of Hyun Bin, Joo Jin Mo and curiously, Louis Koo.
Maybe that’s why I’m so addicted to Lego Li right now! I absolutely ADORE Hyun Bin
Thank you for introducing this drama ms ockoala seriously i couldnt find any drama that i am interested in. Not heirs mhiyd but this one is so goood right from the start. Now i have to suffer the waiting, but thank you for your updates that makes waiting bearablee.
Oh btw doesnt liuchuan/lego smile and gaze remind you ¿f jo jung seok and they both are sporting same hairstyle. Im loving them both omggg
I am caught up now and am ready to join the squee fest over this couple and Lego Li in particular. If there is no smooching and a happy ending with this one, I will probably have to flip some tables. She is really good. If he looked at me like that, I would probably keep forgetting my lines!
I love the mello tone to this show. I am loving that they changed the Ren Wei character because not only is that too easy (and stereotypical) but it is not really needed for narrative conflict. It would also make Jia En’s chaeracter stupid for not noticing that her best (only?) friend was a jerk underneath it all for years or they would have had to make Ren Wei completely change upon entering college. I like the bromance this is setting up as well.
I did not listen to Wu Bai in 1995 but my favourite scene in episode 3 was what Koala described in her recap too. Jia En riding pillion on Liu Chuan’s bike, as they raced through the night scenery of a Taipei that is still new and fresh to her. Imagine the wind in your hair, the feeling of riding a motorbike at night, while Wu Bai’s music played over the scene. When they reached the concert venue, he dropped off his helmet and dashed ahead, and she promptly followed after him, grinning from ear to ear. He then turned back to grab her hand and they ran ahead together, as the Wu Bai concert has already started.
Anyone who has raced hand in hand with a member of the opposite sex can know the exhilarating feeling. Also making your way into a crowded venue, full of loud, rocking music, and swaying bodies, holding the hand of your crush, under rotating lights. I love the way it was filmed. So understated but yet evocative.
Does his happen to anyone? I go all shy and get butterflies in my stomach when them two talk or look at each other and that happens when I don’t even understand what they are saying. Their chemistry can surpass the barrier of communication. WOW! Koala unnie thank you for introducing this drama to us.
Once again, koala has managed to sway me to another TW drama that wasn’t even on my radar until now. I’ll have to start watching it tonight. The song clinched it for me. I LOVE it.
sankyu, Ms Koala 🙂
Great that they changed Ren Wei’s character. I’m so glad we so far don’t have any evil characters and I hope it stays like that.
And as many already said, this intro is one of the few I don’t skip.
If anybody is interested, here
http://www.ulozto.net/xfdNAW7K/in-a-good-way-clip-srt
is a srt file with English subs to go with the video (credit to viki).
I’m now seriously addicted to this drama and a Lego Li fan girl. I keep thinking about Hyun Bin, Jo Jung Seok and Go Soo whenever I see him. His looks are a combination of them, how hot is that?
I know right! Ive been catching up with all 4 episodes and am planning to watch it again lol. I cant help but keep on thinking im watching jo jung seok in twdrama haha, but i do love lego li so i tried to focus that he is who he is.nevertheless he is smoking hot..
I love how in your screencaps, Liu Chan is always looking at Jia En (like when they all stand in a circle, and in the blurred back Liu Chan is looking at Jia En. The same goes for Liu Chan when Jia En looks at him in the screen caps- so cutee 🙂
Thank you Ms. Koala for introducing this wonderful Taiwan drama… Have given-up on TW dramas for it’s usual silliness. Left Taiwan at age 10, so never experienced college life in Taiwan. This drama gives moi a chance to see a slice of college life in Taiwan… NICE… Lego Li and Kirsten Ren are great in it. I miss my beloved Taiwan… You can take a person out of Taiwan, but cannot take Taiwan out of the person…
Thank you for writing about this drama! I would’ve not known about it if you didn’t. It’s so refreshing and cute. I’m liking all the characters so far. Just hoping there’s no unnecessary angst along the way. Angst is ok, just not the unnecessary type. I’m just sad about the one episode per week but that’s ok, I can totally be patient. 🙂
I soooo love this! I can’t wait for their kissing scene. I hope there are lots! 😉
Lego is such a hottie! The role suits him so well. Watching this leaves you smiling like a fool. It’s so fun and easy to watch and yet the substance is there unlike the recent Kdrama I watched which is really a weight to bear (eventhough I am not wearing a crown). I love feel good dramas and having Lego Li with it is a JACKPOT!