[C-Variety] We Are In Love (Season 2 Episode 1) not a recap!

I guess you can say I never caught the variety show ‘bug’ – I don’t mind the game show ones but of course it needs a favourite to pull me in. I know the marketing guys are trying to sell this show as some sort of ‘Love Manual’ – for people to learn how to love their partners, be in relationships or whatever. Hrm, it’s a variety show guys. Don’t be preachy with me now. I didn’t follow the first season of We are in love (我们相爱吧) aka the Chinese version of We Got Married but when I saw that Mr Chen Bo Lin is going to be in it, of course I need to watch it!!!

 

Let’s take a look at the 3 couples:

Chen Bo Lin x Song Ji Hyo aka Orange Juice (cheng zhi) couple

I know some of us are tiring of Chinese/Korean collaborations in everything, not to mention there seems to be a pretty strong CP going on there for Song Ji Hyo already so there’s going to be resistance. I was surprised Bolin signed up for this because I don’t know, I just didn’t think he was the type of person who would. Oh wells, I love the opportunity to see him in closer to ‘real’ life situations. As for Ji Hyo, excuse me for my ignorance since I don’t know much about her except that she is on Running Man. 🙂 They’ve already done a photoshoot for Marie Claire Taiwan and they look rather cute!

Shawn Yue x Zhou Dong Yu aka Universe (yu zhou) couple

I know an age gap in relationships doesn’t matter so much anymore (Shawn is 34 while Dong Yu is 24), afterall Nicky Wu just married Liu Shi Shi and he’s like 16 years older. But this is definitely an odd pairing because Dong Yu looks about 17. I just thought this pairing is rather random. How well known is Shawn in China anyway? However, I am curious about how this couple will interact because I don’t mind Shawn Yue. He kinda has the ‘playboy’ image though so we’ll see. Again, I don’t know a lot about Zhou Dong Yu so I can’t say much there.

Wei Da Xun x Li Qin aka Fresh (qing xin) couple

I know nothing about Wei Da Xun except what baidu is telling me – the first Chinese actor to be signed by JYP Entertainment? As for Li Qin, I’ve only seen one of her dramas before and I think she’s quite beautiful. So I’ll definitely keep an open mind about this pair. At least on paper they’re similarly aged (He’s 26 and she’s 25) and both from China so no language barrier?!?

 

Episode 1

The producers were so cruel – they showed Shawn x Dong Yu first, then Da Xun x Li Qin and then Bolin x Ji Hyo last. Not to mention they had segments of ‘real life people’ versions inserted as well. But I’m not going to be so cruel so I’ll talk about the Orange Juice couple first!!

 

In a cafe in Seoul, Ji Hyo orders a cafe and receives an envelope welcoming her onto the show. The envelope also contains 5 photos, where one of them will be her potential boyfriend.

The first photo is of Kenji Wu, and Ji Hyo knows who he is. She looked at a couple of the others and didn’t know them, but all of them are Chinese. (Looks like it’s Kenji, Li Yi Feng, Bolin, Wallace Huo and Lay?! Whoa he’s really young!!! lol) As Ji Hyo hasn’t dated a foreigner before she is worried there will be cultural differences. But she would like someone outgoing, active… someone younger than her?! (aka fresh meat) LOL.

 

In a hotel room, our ‘fresh meat’ Bolin also receives an envelope with 5 photos of his potential girlfriend, all Korean. He comments that he would like someone cheerful, comfortable with themselves and kind.

 

At a traditional Korean building, Ji Hyo arrives first with her gifts. The place is empty though, so she gets comfortable. She starts to look around, draws on the walls and finally decides to brush up on her Chinese. Well, it made her sleepy (because that’s what studying does to you!!!)…

Meanwhile Bolin is in a car talking to his manager about the gifts he bought. (So glad Li ge gets a cameo in this hahaha) He bought her a pair of gloves, a travel adapter, speaker, stethoscope, cassette tape (What?!?!) of Teresa Teng songs and a suitcase. I like the suitcase!!

 

He begins to sketch what his girlfriend will look like… since she’s wearing a hat and wearing some kind of turtleneck hiding half of her face, she looks more like his manager!

Doesn't he look good in a suit? /random
Doesn’t he look good in a suit? /random

When Bolin finally arrives, he finds a pair of woman’s shoes at the front but as he carefully opens the door… the room is empty! They placed the couple in separate rooms and they cannot tell each other their names before their ‘official’ meeting.

 

Ji Hyo says annyeonghaseyo over the wall dividing them and as he replies the same, she comments he has a great voice. (We know, girl!!!!) They find a love shaped hole in the wall, where they can pass gifts to each other.

 

With his broken Korean, he mentions it’s cold and Ji Hyo immediately took a heat pack from her… back (?!?!?! where was she keeping this?!) and handed it over to him. In return, he gives her a coffee (Americano) and she loves it! They both love their Americanos.

 

For Ji Hyo, the most important first question… is asking how old Bolin is! She is shocked to hear 32 and just replied “Noona! Me…Noona!” While Bolin replies that it’s ok… Ji Hyo thinks it might not be although followed by a bunch of giggles.

I don’t know who thought of all these gifts but Bolin gives her some more odd ones, including a stethoscope so she can actually listen to his heartbeat. (Is this romantic guys?! It could be, depends on the person right?!?!) Pineapple cakes – which is a must buy for anyone going to Taiwan obviously – although I never understood their appeal, I guess I’m just weird… and a robot named Robi! Although when it was attempting to do a push up, it failed and started saying it’s tired LOL. After watching the other couples though I think Bolin did prepare all those gifts himself?! Like everyone else (including Ji Hyo) just gives ONE thing and he bought like 10. Bolin – you’re winning!!!! Miles ahead.

On the other hand, Ji Hyo gives him a candle which is one of his favourite things. She also gives him a pic of herself when she was a child, which then he immediately guessed correctly her true identity. When she asks for his photo in return though, he didn’t have one and started guessing from the ones that were given. Although her 1st guess is correct, he wouldn’t confirm / deny so she got angry and bit his hand!!!!!

Suddenly, the lights were turned off… and our couple ‘shakes hands’ via their shadows, and even started a bit of a dance.

Finally… they get to meet! It’s a bit awkward at first but they quickly decided it’s too cold and are off to eat. Seems like eating is a bit of a common interest in our OJ couple?!?!

There’s also a message from the RM cast wishing them well. 🙂 Gosh these two are so cute already how can their appearance be so short in the first episode!

 

Onto our Universe couple…

In our little prep talk, Shawn says he hasn’t had a girlfriend in two years (does that mean his last gf was Kary Ng?!?! LOL) and he came on this show because he wants to get married and start a family. Awwww. Not sure Dong Yu will be ‘the one’ for him but maybe he can better showcase his eligibility to girls watching the show? In Beijing, one of his besties Eddie Peng is also there to discuss his potential ‘girlfriend’!!!! Can I say I love this bromance more?!?! They met on the set of Tomorrow (愛情白皮書) in 2002 which was Eddie’s first acting gig.

So Shawn had to look at the photos of 5 potential girlfriends, pick the one he likes most and use her picture as the profile pic in WeChat. The first girl is Bea Hayden – both men were impressed and Eddie rates their compatibility at 80/100?!

 

The second one is Song Ji Hyo and Shawn looks rather happy about that! There could be language barrier though but Eddie reassures him love can overcome it… for which Shawn says:

Just like the two of us, right?! The fifth photo wouldn’t be you right?!?

Eddie wonders why they didn’t include his photo as well. HAHAHA.

 

The third photo is of He Sui – with both of them recognising her as a famous Victoria Secret model. Since their friend Siwon was paired up with another supermodel Liu Wen in season 1, it was a possibility.

 

The fourth photo is of Zhou Dong Yu. Whilst Eddie approves, Shawn mentions she’s more like a sister, and thinks the producers won’t be so cruel. hrm….

Apparently he couldn’t decide and just picked one pic blindly… and it happened to be Ji Hyo. Coincidence? Well, he keeps talking about the language barrier but I don’t think he’d mind one bit if it was really her!

 

On the other hand, Dong Yu introduces herself as wanting a partner to share her feelings, someone to love and be loved… (insert other typical reasons). She also has to look at 5 photos and pick one she will use as the WeChat profile pic.

 

The first photo she sees is Da Ren ge Chen Bo Lin and she says she loves his films and dramas. Don’t we all! The second photo is of Shawn, she does get a bit fangirly but she calls him “Teacher Yue”!!!! (Is that hot? It could be…) The third photo is of Eddie Peng – another fangirl moment where she just giggles – she’s cute this one. Eventually, she picked Eddie. Oops. This drama writes itself, two best friends fighting over a girl…

They didn’t show who the rest of the photos were of!!! Damn it.

 

Before their official meeting, our couple starts messaging each other. They both realised the profile pic the other person chose is not them. Oh wells, at least they’re even!!!! They sent 3 photos of their body parts… and they’re not getting any close to finding out who their partner is.

Shawn's reaction when he realises he's not pairing up with Ji Hyo lol.
Shawn’s reaction when he realises he’s not pairing up with Ji Hyo lol.

Finally, Shawn arrived at the location first and tasked with facing off in 3 x one on ones in basketball. An opportunity to show off his skills to his new ‘girlfriend’ no doubt as she watches from afar. (He still has that basketball team right?) When he won the 3 games, he finally found out he’ll be paired up with Dong Yu.

 

The 1st thing he asked was of course… how old was she LOL. That’s the question on everyone’s minds right. Both are feeling rather awkward now! His gift to her is a scarf (*cough*boring*cough*) while she gives him a white shirt, saying that if a man can wear a white shirt well (or be bald), then he’s good looking. Shawn confesses he has a lot of white shirts, so at least it’s useful?!

Next, they have to decide how they’ll call each other. They decided on Uncle 6 (since his name “Le” in Cantonese sounds like 6)…and little tadpole (because of her eyes). They’re probably too polite at this stage to say no to the other, since both names seems to just inflate the awkwardness! Him being wary of the age difference, and Dong Yu is quite self conscious about her small eyes as well.

 

Since we’re at a basketball court, they have to play a game. If she gets the ball in he will grant her a wish. She got 2 of them in and she probably would’ve got the 3rd one in if he didn’t sabotage her! For the first wish, she asked him to sing… (anyone who watched the movie Love in the Buff will remember this) But hang on, what happened to the other wish?!

Their first ‘date’ was not really a date?! I know they try to insert some more meaningful promotions in here, but when they did some voice acting for a silent film (to try to promote the preservation of old films etc…), this whole segment was a bit boring, sorry. No, I didn’t even screencap anything from there.

Hopefully, Uncle 6 and Little Tadpole will have better interactions in the next episode.

 

And finally… the Fresh couple

Our ‘boyfriend’ Da Xun is almost 30 years old and hopes to meet someone he can settle down with. He receives a mission card to go on the tram to meet his girl. He prepared a gift – kumamon. Surprisingly, Xu Lu appeared on the tram. Since she was already a guest in season 1, he was wondering why she’s here. But she convinces him she’s the guest and starts asking him questions like how many girlfriends he had before (3) and when was the last time he had a gf (2 years ago)…

 

Since we know Xu Lu is not his real girlfriend, tbh the next part of her testing and teasing him on how to be a ‘good boyfriend’ was a bit draggy. Gees, we just want to see our couple’s first meeting!!!

 

Eventually, Da Xun finds out he has to go to Canton Tower, where his girlfriend will meet him on the ferris wheel. As it rains, Da Xun has to search for his gf some more (gosh, how long do we have to wait?!?!?!) and even when he found her and walks inside the pod, she still has her back to him so he couldn’t see her face! ARGH. How much torture must this guy go through?!

As Da Xun rattles off a bunch of stats about himself (age, height, weight, education…) and eventually, we get some more slow-mo of our cp finally seeing each other’s face… except they discovered they met before at a friend’s wedding! It looks like they sat at the same table but didn’t speak to each other?

Out of the 3 couples, Da Xun and Li Qin are on their first proper dinner date to get to know each other. He gives her the kumamon, but not just any soft toy since he recorded a message with it. It says, “I hope you’ll like my owner, even though he’s ugly, he’s very cute, very warm.” LOL.

She gives him a gift in return, which turns out to be a joke book – don’t think he needs that as Da Xun is quite a funny guy as it is. Just when the ice seems to break for this couple, Li Qin asks whether he will joke a lot around his girlfriend… and he replied that he never had a girlfriend.

 

Now why would you say that Da Xun! We all know that’s a lie! Even if you said it because you think girls don’t like hearing about their boyfriend’s past, but still! That’s just awkward. Look at that bone structure. I will never believe he never had a girlfriend LOL.

 

That’s it for our Fresh couple for episode 1, despite that awkward note I think they had the most chance to find their feet around each other. I’m looking forward to next week since Da Xun is kinda adorkable! 😀

 

**Recapping is definitely not my forte so I’m not sure I can keep up with this every week. I started this post on Tuesday I think and didn’t even finish it until the next Monday!!! Hopefully, We are in love is interesting enough to keep my interest tho! (With Bolin, I’m fairly certain I’ll be watching at the very least) But I’m also curious about how the other two couples will fare.

Comments

12 responses to “[C-Variety] We Are In Love (Season 2 Episode 1) not a recap!”

  1. Kappy A Avatar

    Ha! My hunch is correct, Li Qin and Wei Da Xun is my kind of OTP. But.. I’m not watching! HAR-HAR! Can’t trick me no more show!

    Jia You, Kat!

    1. kat Avatar
      kat

      Why are they your kind of OTP? Just curious 🙂 I’m not sure I like the direction they’re heading in ep 2 tho… :S

  2. Kate - skimmedmilkdrama Avatar

    Hehe, great recap! All the couples seem to be pretty awkward as of now but I think Song Jihyo x Chen Bolin is starting off well. I loved that Robi failing part hahaha.

    ps: you are actually faster than me already, I planned to recap this too and I started last wednesday but it’s still not done now even when the new ep is out 😛

    1. kat Avatar
      kat

      Yeah I guess Ji Hyo understands how variety show works, it’s not awkward because she tries to break the ice and actually be a couple. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing!

      I’m waiting to read your recap!!! 😀

  3. Anna Avatar

    I loveee the Monday Couple on Running Man, so I was actually kinda skeptical about the Bolin pairing before watching. Ji Hyo and him are definitely super adorable though (even more so in ep 2), and seem quite compatible. They’re always bringing him up and teasing her about it on Running Man haha.

    Oy, Shawn…I love him!! Highly doubt he actually has trouble with the ladies IRL lol. I’m not actually watching his segment bc the girl just doesn’t really appeal to me. The previews make them look so awkward. And “Uncle 6” is an awful nickname!

    1. kat Avatar
      kat

      They are a cute couple and just look great together!! Loool about the teasing, now I see why Bolin did this. His name is going to pop out all the time in RM.

      Ikr… Uncle 6 just reminds me of Run Run Shaw LOOOOL. I’m beginning to like them in ep 2 though…

  4. love1985tv Avatar
    love1985tv

    Love these recap! Please continue to do them.

    1. kat Avatar
      kat

      Thanks for your comment!

  5. miri Avatar
    miri

    Love the recap for mandarin challenged person like me. Please please continue to do them! Love them. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

    1. kat Avatar
      kat

      Thank you for your comment! Hopefully the ep2 recap will be up tomorrow…

  6. Cherriz Avatar
    Cherriz

    Are these shows real? You see ruby lin joined the show and off she goes and marries someone else?

    1. kat Avatar

      Hmmm… define ‘real’. They’re supposed to be, at least the guests are supposed to be single at the time of making the show. But that doesn’t guarantee the ‘couple’ will keep their ‘relationship’ afterwards. Wallce and Ruby started dating this year anyway, after she already finished the show.

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