There is a genre of Chinese dramas called nie lian (孽恋) which basically translates as tortured love or tormented love. It’s probably a genre that closest aligns with the makjang K-melodrama. Tortured love C-dramas are all about the dysfunctional love of the OTP that involves lots of screaming, pulling, pushing, accusing, yelling, angry kissing, basically everything bad you shouldn’t do to the person you like is done all in the name of a love that hurts so good. Some extreme tortured love dramas even throw in the dreaded R word, i.e. rape, and the one that always pops into mind first is the sick drama that so many fans secretly love Sealed with a Kiss. The upcoming C-drama Loving, Never Forgetting (恋恋不忘 Lian Lian Bu Wang which means Love Love Not Forgetting) stars the elusive TW-actor Jerry Yan with the stunningly gorgeous C-actress Tong Li Ya. This isn’t Jerry’s first C-drama as his last drama was the 2011 C-drama My Splendid Life, the remake of the K-drama Shining Inheritance/Brilliant Legacy. That drama was poorly conceived and nowhere near as fun and watchable as the original.

This one actually looks ridiculously addicting in that “bad for you” sort of way. It’s tortured love with unending amounts of angry romance but no raping so I’m willing to give it a shot. Jerry plays a rich heir and company president who discovers one day that a one-night stand with an ordinary girl played by Tong Li Ya that he forgot about five years ago has produced an illegitimate son. It spawns an angry custody battle that pits the rich cold-hearted man against the poor plucky heroine who just wanted to raise her son quietly but is now dragged into his complicated world. Thrown in the mix is second male lead Denny Huang playing a family law lawyer who takes on Tong Li Ya’s custody case solely to spite his rival in Jerry but then falls for her for real. The two men turn out to be secret half-brothers who hate each other because both blame each other’s mother for stealing their mutual father’s affection. When watching the preview, I got a kick out of Jerry looking hot in suits and playing a rich dickhead type of character that totally screams Dao Ming Si if he hadn’t met Shan Cai and gotten normalized early. This one snuck up on me and premieres this Monday on Zhejiang TV. Continue reading →