我並不是一個等待提領的箱子，而是一個可以裝載許多故事的包包.
~ 程又青 《我可能不会愛你》
Translation: I’m not a piece of luggage waiting to be picked up [by a man]. Rather, I’m a bag that can be filled with many stories.
Upon a friend’s recommendation, I have started watching the Taiwanese idol drama 《我可能不会愛你》 (English title: In Time With You) from which the above Chinese quote is taken from. The story revolves round a male and female protagonist who have been friends since high school but are now 30 years old.
OK, we all know how this is going to end but I’m enjoying the journey to which the director and the actors are taking us on. 程又青 (played by 林依晨 Ariel Lin) is a spunky, attractive marketing manager of a shoe company who, though beautiful, is also beset by many insecurities faced by single women around the same age. Upon hitting the big 30, she begins to feel old when women younger than her start calling her 又青姐 (“Big Sister”). Like most singletons, she is also looking for love though she is not desperate.
In one scene, she tries to make a mental checklist of how many of the men she knows she could possibly have a relationship with. After a process of elimination, the only one left was the male protagonist 李大仁 (played by Chen Bolin 陳柏霖). Of course, at this point she can’t quite imagine that situation – he’s her best friend after all, the one whom she calls every time she needs a shoulder to cry on, or when she needs a dining companion. He’s the same guy who rushes to Taichung from Taipei just because her heart has been broken by some conniving creep.
I think this drama resonates most with single women and I’m pretty sure it’s viewership comprises mostly this demographic group. For who else but us can identify best with the character? The worry about not having anyone to be with when one is old and greying, the worry about no one even noticing you’re missing when you are sick and dying holed up in some flat, the reasoning to yourself as to why you haven’t been able to find anyone all this while. What is it about you, you ask? Is it because you’re unattractive? Is it because you’re too stubborn, bad-tempered?
A single girlfriend of mine said while she enjoys watching the drama, it can make her quite depressed too because it spells out everything she worries but doesn’t want to think about (it’s like being in self-denial mode). Unlike many other Taiwanese idol dramas, the situations played out in this one are very real and believable. Many of us would have encountered one or more of the situations depicted.
Acclaimed director 瞿友寧 (Qu Youning) manages to bring out the best in his actors with their natural and believable performances. 程又青 is a very likeable character who has many facets – the confident and capable career woman, the insecure single woman she reveals only to herself and 李大仁, the sassy woman who flirts with men, the doting sister to her siblings, and the little girl to her nosy but hilarious mother. The character 李大仁 can also be seen in many friends we know – single, male, unassuming, reasonably attractive, has a stable job as a manager overseeing an airline’s ground staff at the airport, has fallen in and out of love a few times. A regular guy.
So yes, like 程又青, I want to be someone who makes my own stories – as many as possible in fact! And while we have our insecurities, we carry on living life in the best way we can. I’m staying tuned to see what stories 程又青 has stored.