In A Good Way

Year: 2013-2014

Episodes: 26

Synopsis

In 1995, after failing her college entrance exams, Lin Jia En (Lorene Ren) decides to follow her childhood best friend Zheng Ren Wei (Jay Shih) to Taipei while she prepares to retake the test the next year. There she meets Liu Shan Feng, or Liu Chuan (Lego Li), one of the most popular boys at school. He is the definition of perfect: handsome, smart, athletic, and kind. As a lover of history and puzzles, Liu Chuan teaches Jia En many valuable lessons through puzzle solving which causes Jia En to respect him greatly. A year later, she enters the same college as Ren Wei and Liu Chuan and joins the Treasure Hunting Club of which Liu Chuan is the president. There she meets many new friends. Together, they all try to balance love, friendship, school, and family, all while searching for freedom (the Chinese name of this drama translates directly into "my free generation").

This is one of my favorite Taiwanese dramas and it reminds me a lot of the Reply series. 

Characters

This drama has some endearing characters and you will definitely see glimpses of your own friends in them. Every character is flawed but together they all learn to fix and embrace these flaws.

Liu Shan Feng or Liu Chuan (Lego Li) is easily my favorite character in this drama. Though he is supposed to be the stereotypical archetype of the rich, handsome male lead, his charisma and maturity make him so much more. He is extremely well educated; every word that comes out of his mouth sounds so wise. Thus, he is usually the first person everyone goes to for advice. He is also very principled and never afraid to point out and fight against injustice, making him a great advocate and leader. His various positive traits make him extremely respected by peers and teachers alike. Though he seems to have it all, he lacks the one thing others have, freedom. As the son of a politician, his father wants him to continue in his footsteps. However, Liu Chuan's interest is not politics but rather history and puzzles. Having grown up as the "politician's son," he despises all the special unearned favors he received due to his father's identity. However, knowing he cannot disobey his father's orders, the most he could do is strike a deal with his father: four years of freedom in college in exchange for his compliance after graduation. Thus, he cherishes his college experience more than anyone. 

However, even someone as perfect as Liu Chuan is not without imperfections. He always looks so perfect because as the politician's son, he trained his whole life to keep up this picture-perfect facade. Even when he is troubled or tired, he never shows any signs and definitely does not talk to others about it. This resulted in one of the first major conflicts with Jia En. Jia En is a sweet girl who always wants to help others, so when she knows something is bothering Liu Chuan but he refuses to confide in her, the two get into an argument. Through Jia En, Liu Chuan learns that it is ok to not be ok. 

Bai Xue Fen or Bai Xue (Smile Weng) as her name suggests (Bai Xue means Snow White) is the princess of  Cheng Dong University. She is pretty, smart, independent, and very popular with the guys, which also makes her every girl's enemy. She has had a crush on Liu Chuan since high school but never confessed her love due to her fear of rejection. She befriends Jia En and teaches her valuable lessons about being a girl. She is also a great role model for other girls around her as she always carries herself with pride and does not care about other people's opinions of her. I really like her because she had the potential to turn evil but did not. Most times when the second female lead learns that her crush has a crush on someone else, they oftentimes turn evil, but not Bai Xue. Understandably, she was disheartened and a bit jealous of the girl, but she remained good friends with her and gave them their blessings. 

Though she also seems to have it all, she is very much flawed. She lacks courage and confidence in herself. She also does not try to resolve the misunderstanding between her and other girls but rather just accepts the fact that she is hated due to her good looks. Her character is quite pitiful as she does not have many true friends because people either have a superficial crush on her (AHEM Ren Wei) or are jealous of her.

Zheng Ren Wei (Jay Shih) comes from a small city named Ping Dong. His dream was always to escape Ping Dong and become a city person. After arriving in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, he tries extremely hard to fit in. In college, he meets the Three Musketeers made up of Liu Chuan, Xie Qing You, and Liao Ri Qi. Not wanting to lose to these city boys, his ever-so-confident self creates his own trio named Steel Men, which is nowhere near as popular as the Three Musketeers. He falls for Bai Xue because of her beauty and starts to neglect Jia En despite having been best friends since birth. However, Bai Xue ultimately teaches him the true definition of love when she points out that he had only been pursuing her for her looks. He also learned that real friends are very valuable and begins to cherish his friendship with Jia En, taking care of her wherever they go. I really like him because he is very determined and is not afraid to express his love, unlike many other characters in this drama (cough cough Bai Xue). Though he may seem very flawed due to his lack of popularity, poor grades, overtly confident self, and lack of loyalty, he makes up for it by being a down-to-earth guy who is extremely determined, passionate, and talented in singing.

Lin Jia En (Loren Ren) initially was a slightly annoying character; however, her growth is an embodiment of what this drama is trying to portray. She starts off as your average girl. She had good grades but was not 100% sure what she wanted to do. When asked about her hobbies, she really couldn't come up with an answer. When she had to fill out her aspirations list (where you list your desired colleges and majors), she just copied Ren Wei's list. She came to Taipei because all she really had was her childhood best friend, Ren Wei. Thus, when she arrived in Taipei, she was a pretty annoying tagalong that followed Ren Wei around despite him wanting to branch off and make new friends. As mentioned before, she is a super sweet girl who always wants to help others. However, her concern for others sometimes comes across as too much and almost an invasion of privacy. However, as the drama progresses, she shows the most growth. After meeting Liu Chuan and seeing how independent he was, she started to take charge of her own life. She blossomed into a young lady with aspirations, interests, and confidence. 

Friendship

I think Ren Wei and Jia En's friendship is very beautiful and special. Though they have had their fair share of ups and downs, they ultimately learned the importance of each other and continued to be best friends. Ren Wei learns that Jia En always has his back and really cares about his well-being. Jia En learns to give Ren Wei space and to stop being an annoying tagalong. One of my favorite moments is when Ren Wei gently tucks Jia En back into her sleeping bag when they went camping together because he did not want her to catch a cold. AHHHH I live for their best friend interactions. 

I also love the friendship between the girls. The group of girls in this drama don't have a #goals friendship. They are not ride-or-dies and it is nothing like the picture-perfect friend group one might see in a movie. However, their friendship is enviable nonetheless. They are always so encouraging of each other and they learn a lot from one another. Bai Xue teaches the girls to carry themselves with pride and disregard other people's negative opinions about them. She encourages the girls to find their own interests and pursue them. Both Bai Xue and Tracy teach the girls to take good care of themselves. One of my favorite quotes from Bai Xue is "looks are not everything but it is still a part of you." She teaches Jia En, dressing up nicely does not represent that she has succumbed to societal's beauty standards but rather is a form of self-love and a way to express herself to others. Tracy always encourages the girls to try new clothes and makeup and to wear what they want without feeling embarrassed. Tracy has a #treatyourself mentality and I am all for it. When everyone was pressuring Xiao Wei to do something that they thought was right, Tracy was the only one who considered things from Xiao Wei's perspective and supported her. Jia En teaches the girls to stand up and fight for their beliefs.  

Depiction of College

For most dramas set in a college, college is just a backdrop and a reason for the characters to all meet, but not this drama. This drama is more of a slice-of-life college drama. They talk about a lot of realistic topics such as internships, clubs, financial aid, expensive textbooks, and more. This drama just seems so realistic and relatable.

Having grown up in a Western country that always emphasized the importance of fighting for our freedom, I find oftentimes when faced with injustice, we lack the courage to stand up for what we think is right. However, in In A Good Way, the characters learn to truly apply what they have learned in school and stand up for their own opinions and protect their freedom and rights. One of the most important arcs in this drama involves Jia En protesting against a professor's shady actions. It reinforces that college is not only about academic achievement but also personal improvement. College should not be a time where we truly to get as many A's as we can but learn to improve ourselves as people. 

Music

I really enjoyed every OST and as a bonus, there is an episode in which Wu Bai and Zhang Zhen Yue, two very popular and influential Taiwanese artists, performed live at their school event (my college could never). The title song and ending song are two of my favorites.

Good Morning, Hard City by Adrian Fu

This is a perfect title track for this drama because the lyrics really accurately represent the drama. It talks about searching for meaning and answers but feeling lost at the same time. And despite these feelings of being lost or tired, one continues to stay in this city. It acknowledges these negative feelings and tells us it is ok to feel lost or tired. Every morning we wake up, we can try again. 

明明愛你 by 林凡

The ending track is probably my favorite OST in this drama. Once again, this is a pretty good representation of the ending of the drama which I will warn you now is not perfect and might even be considered bad by many. It sings about loving someone but not being able to confess their love due to fear of losing the person. I noticed this also perfectly describes Bai Xue's feelings for Liu Chuan. 

Romance

The love in this drama slowly simmers rather than erupts. I feel like this is the romance I would ask for. Just a simple relationship in which two people who understand and like each other realize their love for one another and date. Their process of falling in love is slow and steady. Just two friends who slowly learn about each other and ultimately realize each other's impact on one another. They are both a source of positive energy in each other's life. They have a very mature relationship in which they hope for the best for each other, even if that means sacrifices must be made.

Summary

Overall, this is a drama about freedom, personal growth, friendships, and love. I also love how it takes place in the 90s when they lacked smartphones and instead used BB calls or pager. The music is amazing and the acting is pretty good as well. I hope you enjoy this drama because it is truly a breath of fresh air in the now saturated market of lovey-dovey or suspenseful dramas.

Rating: 4.5/5