Now that Miss Rose is finally over, SETTV is wasting no time ushering in its next Sunday night idol drama 金大花的華麗冒險 (literal title Jin Da Hua’s Extravagant Adventure, but I think its English title will be Replacement Princess or Substitute Princess based on its original drama title). Starring Nikki Hsieh, James Wen, Chris Wu, Chao Chun Ya, Yao Yao (Guo Shu Yao), Lene Lai, and MC40, this drama is billed as a cheerful comedy with a identity switching premise. Nikki’s plays both the titular Jin Da Hua, buck-toothed and bumbling and crushes on James Wen who she grew up with, as well as rich heiress Du Liang Yen, who loves and is engaged to Chris Wu. This will be a switch up of James and Chris’ onscreen images, with James shedding his douchey cool dude persona from The Fierce Wife and My Queen and playing a poor guy with a strong sense of righteousness and a good heart, while Chris goes from the hot-headed love strong country boy from Autumn’s Concerto and the calm blind dude in Zhong Wu Yen to a tough and controlled company president.

In the drama, an accident befalls rich Liang Yen that leads to poor fugly Da Hua getting plastic surgery to take her place. I’ve been loving Nikki in Die Sterntaler where she plays a deaf mute and she looks so charming here in all the trailers. Chao Chun Ya goes straight from the set of MR to this drama and plays Chris’s best friend and the plastic surgeon who makes the transformation possible. I’m not that enamored of the story because my gut tells me Chris will fall for poor Da Hua masquerading as Liang Yen. Nevertheless, TW-dramas rarely off people so here’s to hoping both leading lady characters share the screen later on and both get their respective men. At the press conference, it’s clear the three leads have lots of chemistry, which is bolstered further by the first trailers released. I’m planning to just watch this for fun so don’t expect any recaps. I need some time to recover from the tailspin that was MR and haven’t the heart to commit to another TW-drama anytime soon. MR ended with a 4.18 and right now the competition on Sunday nights remains weak so I bet SETTV has another hit on its hands. Continue reading →