Asian Addicts Anonymous

A typical drama plot: Guy likes girl, girl likes guy, but guy is afraid to get involved with girl and pushes her towards another guy (who usually likes her too and might actually be the better choice). Hilarity and annoyance ensue. I probably won’t do many of these posts. But when I get really annoyed by particular drama tropes found in Asian dramas, I have to rant somewhere.

I have noticed this quite a bit. Pi Li MIT and A Game About Love are good examples of this recurring plot theme (note: this is not limited to Taiwanese dramas, I just picked these two because they are very good examples).

In A Game About Love, Wei Qi Xiang likes Ye Dou Li, but due to his family circumstances, he doesn’t want to get involved with her. Seriously. Really funny when you think about how his grandfather loves Dou Li and wants her to be Qi Xiang’s wife, but his mother doesn’t like Dou Li because she reminds her of Qi Xiang’s father’s lover. Ah, gotta love drama.

So throughout the 27 episodes, Qi Xiang desperately tries pushing Ye Dou Li onto his best friend Chen Ke Lou, who happens to have fallen for her as well. As much as Ke Lou likes Dou Li, he wants to have a fair fight, not just have Dou Li thrust into his arms. I like how the guys in this drama ignore Dou Li’s feelings on the matter. Qi Xiang is playful, draws her to him, angers her, then pushes her away. He is a lot like a little kid. Ke Lou is the opposite, he is more considerate, but he still forces his feelings on Dou Li who is confused and hurt due to her ex-boyfriend dumping her and comparing her to an all-purpose cooker.

This of course creates needless agony and pain. Qi Xiang is in pain because he loves her, but he purposely tries to lose her, especially when the plot gets even more complicated (an unexpected person turns out to be his brother). He eventually says to hell with it and decides to pursue Dou Li wholeheartedly, but that was like in episode 25 or 26. It was ridiculous.

Pi Li MIT suffers from this same plot. 007 falls for Tian Mo Xing, but can’t face his feelings for 3 reasons. I am not saying they are unnecessarily unreasonable reasons, just that it’s more of making a mountain out of a mole hill.

1. He has a disease which causes his vision to blur and causes him to pass out (not fatal by the way)
2. Love can be the undoing of a detective
3. If you can’t bravely face your feelings, then you don’t deserve the person

See, not horrible, but still these things can be gotten around. So, after Tian Mo Xing finally grows on 007, we get to see him fighting to keep her at arm’s length while pushing her towards fellow comrade 747. It is fun to watch him get jealous of 747 because of the time Tian Mo Xing spends with him. All this suffering and heartache is brought on by himself and there is no one else to blame.

These situations add humor to the plot but definitely makes me want to scream and to throw something at the screen. Can’t there be a better plot device? This situation is right on par with the “can’t let them be happy” plot in which the main couple gets just about every obstacle imaginable thrown at them.

Craziness.