TWdrama - Mars (2004)

Synopsis - Wikipedia
Photos - surfing the net for pics

The series started with Ling (零 Líng) (Vic Zhou) asking Qiluo (綺羅 / 绮罗 Qǐluó) (Barbie Hsu) for directions to a hospital rehab center. Reluctant to make any sort of communication, Qiluo drew a map to the location on the back of one of her sketches. After discovering the drawing which happened to be about a mother and child Ling was immediately drawn to it which led to his curiosity for Qiluo. The more Qiluo tried to brush him off the more he became curious about her until his fellow classmates begin to take notice. Ling learns from his best friend Daye (達也 / 达也 Dáyě) (who went to same high school) that Qiluo's personality suddenly changed from high school years with a distaste for men. He also learns that Daye has a crush on her since high school. When Ling saved Qiluo from being sexually harassed by their English teacher, she started to open up to him. In exchange for the final painting of Mother and Child, Ling promised to protect her from now on. Ling's special attention towards Qiluo stirred up jealousy on some of his ex-girlfriends which led to harsh bullying of Qiluo by those girls. One of them being Qing Mei.

Mars is actually the first ever Asian drama of any kind that I've ever watched. A few of my Hmong friends have tried to get me to watch Korean dramas but I simply refused to because I hated sappy, love stories. One of my friends guranteed me that I will fall in love with Mars. She was right! I absolutely love this drama! I loved it so much that I even read the Japanese manga version. The TWdrama stayed 95% faithful to the original version.

Having said that, I mainly enjoyed the drama due to its lack of a romantic, sappy love story. No love story. There were a lot of darkness in the drama which glued me to my seat. I had to find out what happenes next! So many secrets -- along with some old memories being erased. I just loved it!

Vic Zhou was definitely pleasing to the eyes. I'm not a big fan of guys with long hair but Vic rocked it! He's actually the only few Asian guys who looks hot with the long hair.

I prefer guys with short hair. Therefore, of course, I found him better looking with short hair. Let me just take a moment right now to breathe.

There, I'm done. So hot.

Barbie Hsu looked so innocent and boring, to me.

However, when looking her up - this babe is so gorgeous!

I'm glad Vic and Barbie are a couple in real life cause they look so adorable together! Update news - they just broke up: January 2008. :(

Sorry for the misspelled use of their names. Romanizing it can be spelled in so many ways! I have this problem with the Hmong language as well!

Please, please give this TWdrama a watch! Highly recommended! If you don't, at least read the manga. Or just watch it for Vic's hotness. Honestly, this movie actually made me appreciate Nascar drivers.