SQUARE PEGS

i should say that normally, i don't like movies with...what's the politically correct term...mentally-challenged (?) people cuz the actors/actresses that portray them make them so...ridiculously stupid and annoying. however, i thot roger kwok did a GREAT job. he was so darn cute and sweet. i ended up rooting for him so bad. *kekeke* [just fyi, i saw a clip of it in cantonese, and it was much better than the voice in viet. the voice in viet got kind of annoying, but roger's real voice was much better. i don't know how i would feel about it after watching the whole series tho.] plus, i never like the "mentally-challenged" because they're never a main part of the story. in this case, roger was the protangonist. plus, i usually don't even like roger. for me to praise him means A LOT.

jessica was good too. nothing to out of the ordinary tho. her typical clever, strong-willed role. but her and roger's relationship was oh-so-cute. my heart couldn't help but ache for them near the end [*hehe* don't want to give anything away] i've heard ppl say that her character was unbelievably forgiving to her stepmom and stepsis, but it was logical to me. i mean, why bother brooding over something that's already done. might as well accept it and move on. not like she didn't get anything out of it anyways.

altho i thot it was pretty good, i definitely don't think it deserved all the hype it got. the 2 leads may have deserved their awards, but apart from that, it's was pretty mediocre. the main relationship [i don't want to say the main story since it really isn't entirely the main story] was good, but the rest of the story [i.e. the subplots] kind of fell to pieces. i mean, it wasn't bad, just not too...interesting. good (sort of) in that it gave us a break from jessica and roger (but i liked them), but other than that, they didn't do much for me.

actually, i didn't like winnie either (boi quan). her relationship with roger and her motivation go thru all that just didn't quite click for me. i definitely wouldn't have minded if she ended up alone. plus, she annoyed the hell out of me at the beginning. so pushy.

oh, and the ending was sucky. justified, as usual, but sucky. written into a corner again. the typical ending for situations like this. i just wish they would be more creative. doesn't have to be entirely happy. [aside: the only drama, i think, i've ever watched with what i felt was an unjustified, unhappy ending is "lofty waters verdant bow". GRR!!] anyway, by the end, i was totally rooting for roger and jess, and definitely did not want roger to recover his memories. but, for the sake of the rest of the story, he had to. too bad. got pretty bland after that. missed duong. he so cute  

i really don't know what to say about this series. i think i watched it too fast (started sat afternoon/evening and finished sunday night) so i couldn't really "absorb" it.

there are rumors of a sequel. i don't think it's worth a sequel. plus, i don't know how they're gonna sort everything out. the ending was somewhat messy. it was kinda like, "ok. everyone's good for now. let's end it before it gets worse". so if they do come out with square pegs 2, it'd be interesting to see.

bottom line: didn't live up to all the hype, but definitely good.   i think i'll go watch it again. *hehe*

][ EDIT ][
i just watched the ending again with my mom. i take it back. it is pretty darn good still think not worth the hype. and still think they could've ended it better. may have left some "unrequited" (?) but more closure. unfortunately, closure would not make a sequel possible. tricky lil buggers!

and again i say: roger did SUCH a good job as duong. it was all so good until he stopped being duong. jus fell to pieces from there. and he has such a cute smile. :pleased: i can't believe i've never noticed! but i think it's one of those onscreen-only things.

and to sum things up some more (i just have so much to say about this drama), here's a list of likes and dislikes [and neutrals]:

LIKES
phung and duong (jessica and roger)
duong and "bao bao" (roger and yuen wah) - they are SO funny together!
phung and her dad (jessica and..?) - her dad's awesome. so funny
phung at the very beginning - i liked how she was all patient with duong and how she was so witty and clever. kinda lost some of that as the drama went on. she stopped being "ga` mo? sa('t" *hehehe*

DISLIKES
boi quan (winnie) - see above
dinh and dinh dinh (john and natalie) - i just felt like their story was so pointless. it wasn't incredibly moving and it really had nothing to do with the rest of the story and it happened so fast.
kim chi and thay lo (? and ?) - same as above
THE END!! - i don't want to spoil it, but it sucks in all around.

NEUTRALS
bao ke ton and lang thai diep (raymond and leila) - leila was pretty cute and semi good in the series [not bad, but not outstanding] and raymonds was ok, but their relationship as a whole didn't really work for me. i didn't really feel for them, but i don't wanna put them under "dislike" because i was pretty darn sad when thai diep packed up and went home.

so i suppose the number of my likes and dislikes balance out, but let me just say this: i like the likes more than i dislike the dislikes.