ISWAK...DISCUSSION - Page 2

i liked ISWAK!!..although i must say some episodes were quite a drag..meaning they were really unnecessary..they only picked up and got better close to the ending 😊

i liked ariel lin and joe in the show....sometimes ariel tend to really bug me tho..cuz she was like obsessed with him..and followed him everywhere

but after i will i started getting used to it.....

well let us say that among lead ladies after jassi ,barbie in mg annoyed me the most. these women seemed to fake strength and confuse strong will with rudeness and concietedness. on top of it all the idea of every tom, dick and harry falling for them made the whole situation even worse. i simply hate barbie in mg and smpathised with dom si through out the series(miraculously he too turned from aggresive personality to wimp after he fell for barbie). in comparison donyouji maintains his strength, pride and power thru out the hyd series despite loving makino crazily. makino too comes across as a sweet yet strong person.she rarely plays the poverty card and she never tries to change domyouji but accepts him as is. this goes too show how director and actors can make a huge difference to a show(both mg and hyd are interpretations of same story).
xiang qin on the other hand is silly and obsessed ,however probably lack of mother's presence is the cause of her unrefined stand. i find it almost interesting , how well she understands zs and how she almost ends up being his inspiration and strength . she helps him with his company designing the game, making a career choice, morally supporting him when he is down with his father's sickness, or is angry at his parents for thier manipulation. eventually it is her determinedness that saves the jiang company.
well from what i gather in sequel zs is still cold and quiet (somebody should tell indian directors to get inspired becoz people don't change overnight despite thier feelings for someone). however now that xq is married , her level of expectations have gone up which what causes trouble. she belives that zs does not care for her , zs believes that he has expressed his love by marrying her and that should be enuf. she wants him to shout out his love from rooftops, zs does not want to do it since it makes no sense to him. i guess that is how most real life marraiges are.

actually there are nine kiss scenes (there was a big issue about this in the one of the variety show, will try finding video for you)
the accidental kiss during tutoring
the angry kiss after the fight at the graduation
the compassionate kiss in the hospital
the kiss in the rain
the kiss at wedding
the smooch at the office of hui lan
apart from these there is a fleeting kiss at wedding video, a kiss when they fall in water after the wedding and one more kiss tucked in somewhere.
anyways the issue has persisted in the sequel when the actor(joe)demanded more kisses on the honeymoon episode.apparently he was given free rein after the consent of ariel but he hesitated going beyond a certain limit because the scene had become too hot(or something like that). in manga almost every volume has atleast one kiss, so well we are going to see a lot more of those in near future. 😉

well my guess is one during tutoring( this was was not even kiss but sleepy ariel ending up falling on joe )and the smooch at director bai's office (this was the oddest kiss of all , ariel seemed completely unprepared and surprised). the angry kiss, the kiss at hospital and the kiss in the rain are in the original script. the wedding had to have a kiss so well . but then who knows

Originally posted by: pj04

i have to agree with you taheera, but iswak grows on you. i did not like it much at first but i rewatched some of my favorite episodes a number of times and it was soon one of my favorites. in fact one of the best things about the show (and i missed out on it in my first viewing) is gradual change in zhi shu's attitude towards xq. the subtlety of change is admirable(at least the director thought about it). in first two episodes zs treats her as a nuisance , after he sees her working hard...he begins to mellow down slowly. if you notice every episode had zhi shu mellowing down more and more until it becomes borderline caring, in later episodes he does not like others saying anything about her.there is a subtle change in his tone, way he looks at her and finally his attitude and smile (goes from sarcastic sneer to that of accepting patience). even when he messes up with her mind with all those romantic innuendoes, the progression is from being simply devilish to almost sincere (his threatening of accosting her in episode 3 when she tries stealing his stuff and his hint at how he might have considered dancing with her since she is so cute in christmas episode).

as far as xiang qin goes i have to agree she was odd with her stalking and overboard stupidity but i find her character still one of the best in generally overboard taiwanese shows. hanakimi has rexie who made these odd constipated faces (i can hardly understand how jian fell for her), meteor garden has barbie who wears her poverty like a badge of honor and comes out looking almost as, if not more conceited than f4. rainie in dby seems to have no free will and is puppet in hands of ahmon and his seduction. xiang qin does grow up in later episodes where she decides to date ah jin or stays back at home on christmas. also she would have wisened up quick but zhi shu never lets her give up. in fact everytime she decides to walk out , he does something unexpectedly sweet to give her hope for example in episode 3 , he could have kept quite but he challenges ah jin's presumption that he will never like her. that way given that the story spans 5 years and the couple live in close proximity and are often left to thier own devices, i can see how they would end up appreciating each other.our whole premise of arranged marraiges is based on such presumption. xiang qin is pretty sure that she is bound to fail yet she cannot stop trying, on the other hand zhi shu who has everything so easilly might be envious of the fact that she atleast has a aim that she has to work for. philosphicaly for a logical person , dreams and faith/hope are as seductive as beauty or intelligence. if you are a science fiction buff like me, aliens often are impressed by the relentless spirit of human heart. of course the acting of joe and jirro makes it worth watching, about ariel i am not too sure . in all honesty i sympathise with zhi shu who is saddled with photography crazy mother and now a crazed xq. however , probably only xq can stand his mean/cold behaviour and manipulations and still love him whole heartedly .

excellent analysis puja! hi btw!!! i lovve wat u do for the asian forums here...

AHHHHHHHH IM SOO HAPPY !!! FINALLY ISWAK.... !! the bestest taiwanese serial ever!!!! i know there are many ppl here who are die-hard fans of DBY... but i much rather like ISWAK.. it was the first taiwanese drama i completed (well.. my friend started me with hana kimi but it was wayyy too overboard) and then SOMEHOW... i found ISWAK...and everrr since thennn OMG.. my obsession with asian dramas .... has crossed limits...(i stay up ALL NITE WITH EYES GLUED TO VIDEOS WHEN I HAVE EXAMS THE NEXT MORN!!!! AM I THE ONLY WEIRDO HERE WITH NO SENSE OF SELF CONTROL??!)

well... the thing i like about ISWAK is that unlike other dramas.. the characters were develped a LOT.. as in each character has soo much depth into them..(be it jiro and his dreams of being a chef and love for xiang chi.. the mom ... yu-shu the bro....dad etc and obvio zhi shu and xiang chi) In DBY... in my eyes.. rainie and ahmon's love was veryy shallow..(no offense guys... please dont kill me)... i kinda felt that watever they developed for each other was only cause of physical attraction and seduction... but ISWAK... i looovvee how the journey of zhi shu's love is portrayed.... for an all-perfect guy like him to actually be able to stand xiang chi ...that is sumthn to see!!! altho i too sumtimes thot that xiang chi went a lil too overboard with her love for him....(as in she had no dignity for herself) she had to (btw arie l did a fantastic job portraying her)... because only some one her extreme and stupid wud change zhi shu... if any sensible and practical girl wud have been in her place they wud have given up long back and zhi-shu wud never have changed. the two wud have gone seperate ways.. and zhi shu wud have succeeded once again in alienating himself... soo i feel that xiang shi's stupidity was needed... she was a whole different world for zhi shu to figure out and thats wat made him like her.. she gave a whole new perspective of life to him (if she was sensible like others...she wud never stand out and make zhu-shu intrigued)
Zhi shu's character too... everything in life came sooo easy to him... except being human and having feelings. In fact in the manga..(which will probably be shown in ISWAK 2) he doesnt even noe wat he feels is jealousy when he sees xiang chi with someone else... jiro's character has to tell him that! soo he dint noe how it was to struggle and not get what he wants... thats y he leaves his home to go struggle in the outside world.. and the first time he felt he really wanted smthn for himself(xiang chi) she was going to be someone else's (jiro's) and that was when he felt human.. with emotions.. with sadness.. pain and longing and jealosy... (joe cheng portrays his character soo well.. i never feel they are 2 different personalities!- the emotions zhi shu feels for the first time are portrayed sooo well by joe!!! )

Zhi Shu dint noe how to feel.. and xiang chi on the other hand... noes nothing except how to feel(she does everything with her heart...except in the end ..going to jiro) ...so they obviously fill in for each other when it comes to dealing with life... but when it comes to dealing with each other.. they are 2 COMPLETELY different ppl with very different expectations from the each other and how they deal with each other is just what is going to make ISWAK 2 soo intriguing...

dying for ISWAK 2 to come out!

overall.. there are times when u can fast fwd scenes... the drama goes slow in some parts BUT ITS STILL EXCELLENT!! with excellent music, direction and cast and other stufff... IT IS A MUST WATCH (bear with it for a while in the beginning tho).. i specailly recommend not skipping any scenes between zhi-shu and xiang chi tho.. every scene has smthn to tell abt their characters!

SORRY TO COMPLETELY BORE U GUYS!!!!!! but i hope it helps understand the characters better...so u noe why each character is doing what he/she is doing !!