I really shouldn’t have a problem with the popular pairing of Annie Chen and Chris Wang splitting up onscreen to pair with new actors in their respective upcoming TW-dramas. With that said, its impossible not to watch the trailer for Annie and George Hu‘s Love, Now followed by Chris and Tiffany Hsu‘s Love Before, and not feel like Ke Wei Xiang and Song Yi Jie (their characters from Inborn Pair) are totally cheating on each other. It’s like watching IP via the lens of The Fierce Wife, or something like that. This tends to happen in TW-drama land since the number of actors and actresses are significantly fewer than in K-ent or even J-ent. With that said, something must be in the water at SETTV because the teaser for Love Before looks adorable as well! First Love, Now gets me all excited, then Love Before ratchets up the excitement even more. I also think its funny that the English title of Love Before mirrors Love, Now, except the drama title in Chinese is translated literally as I Rented a Lover. Apparently in the story, Tiffany and Chris played a long-time couple with the girl being a commitment phobic on marriage. Chris insists they live together first, and to test his devotion to her, Tiffany hires a woman to tempt him. Or something like that. I hope what she did doesn’t come back and bite her in the arse, though drama karma says it will. The drama premieres in early November and Tiffany and Chris are starting to do the media rounds to drum up publicity. When asked if she was co-habiting with her long time boyfriend Ethan Ruan, who is off in military service, Tiffany admitted for the first time that they are pretty much living together and she believes strongly in it before even considering marriage. While I’m not the biggest fan of Tiffany, she’s consistently gotten better and I’m hoping this is her launching point to being a leading lady full time. Continue reading →