Love, Now


Love, Now is a 2012 to 2013 Taiwanese modern romance comedy drama television series created and developed by SETTV. It stars Annie Chen and George Hu as the main leads, with :zh:竇智孔|Bobby Dou, :zh:張懷秋|Harry Chang from Taiwanese band Da Mouth and :zh:李維維|Vivi Lee as the supporting leads. The drama is about regular everyday life, especially finding love while juggling a busy career, and going through and overcoming problems together.
Written and produced from the same team as Sanlih's 2011 to 2012 hit romance drama "Inborn Pair". Filming began on September 16, 2012 and finished on March 3, 2013. It began airing on SETTV :zh:東森綜合台|ETTV on October 31, 2012 weekly from Monday to Thursday. Each episode has a 45-minute running time. The final episode aired on March 5, 2013 with 72 episodes total, 8 less than the originally intended 80 episodes. This is the first Sanlih drama that has overseas filming.

Synopsis

Yang Yi Ru is a workaholic who never had time to take a break. Her family and friends decided to pull a prank on her to slow her down. They conned her into believing she only had six months to live, then packed her off to a vacation spot to clear her mind. She spent her first day on a sunny beach lamenting to a stranger that she wished she had the time to meet Mr. Right, get married, and have kids. Unbeknownst to her, the stranger was a man from her past who was in love with her when they met years ago. He proposed to her the next day and she married him, but when the prank was revealed, her new husband felt cheated and unleashed his wrath on her.

Plot summary

Lan Shi-de is a tall, handsome and successful young man who manages his family bathroom fixture business, but he is also cold, impatient, and hot-tempered. He hates being deceived, because he was betrayed by former employees in the past, so he always makes sure there is retribution to anyone who crosses him. The only soft spot in his life is his family and the pretty girl who lent him a pen during his final college exam. He cannot forget the girl that lent him a pen and has been searching for her for 6 years. Not knowing her name or who she is the only memory he has of her: a fuzzy image in a picture he keeps on his desk at home and the pen he never got the chance to return to her.
Yang Yi-ru is a hardworking workaholic who basically runs the entire advertising company she works for, due to her boss and co-workers always depending on her for everything. To make matters worse, her boss is a womanizer who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend, whom her father and younger sister treat like a member of the family. Her boss and family con her into taking an actual vacation, by faking her medical test results to say she has cancer and only six months to live. They pack her off on a trip to sunny Boracay, Philippines, telling her to take some time to relax.
Shi-de also happens to be on a business trip in Boracay, and saves Yi-ru when she is in a daze and almost gets run over by a van. He thanks the heavens for finally being able to meet her again, the girl that lent him a pen all those years ago. Seeing how distressed Yi-ru is, he lets her know that she can confide to him about her problems. She spills out to Shi-de about her regrets on not being able to meet someone she will love, get married, have kids and live a happy old life with her husband. When he hears she only has 6 months left to live, he proposes marriage to her immediately. Yi-ru thinks Shi-de’s proposal is out of kindness to make a dying woman happy. Unbeknownst to her, they had actually met in college and that he has been in love with her all these years. Shi-de decides to put his business trip on hold and stay by Yi-ru’s side. He gives her the most romantic and beautiful wedding reception by the beach. He also tries to fulfill her dying wishes.
Touched by all that her new "pretend" husband has done for her to make her happy, she is overcome with emotion and sleeps with him, making their marriage feel real. When Yi-ru finds out her illness was a prank by her family and boss she leaves for Taiwan immediately, without saying goodbye to Shi-de. Not wanting to lose her again, Shi-de returns to Taiwan and vows to find her, but when he finds her and finds out her illness was a lie, he feels cheated and unleashes his wrath on Yi-ru, making her life miserable because he thinks she had tricked him into dropping his lawsuit against the company she works for. He gives her the advertising account for his company to use as a way to bully her.
When their misunderstanding is finally cleared up and thinking all is fine now, he tries to pursue her again because he is still madly in love with her. Yi-ru being able to see Shi-de’s vindictive side during his wrath on her wants nothing to do with him after their business relationship ends. Knowing how he can’t lose her again he tries hard on changing his perspective on people to win her back. Desperate for Yi-ru to accept his love for her he uses their business relationship and signs up for cooking class with her father just to be able to have a chance to see her. He even ask for her boss's help to better understand Yi-ru's personality, but Yi-ru remains unfazed by all that he has done and tells him to stop wasting his time on her. She even rejects his offering to start all over and be friends so that they can get to know each other better.
During a business outing at an orphanage Yi-ru accidentally spies on Shi-de playing with a bunch of kids and finds out that he is a major sponsor at the orphanage. Being able to see a softer and gentler side of him she starts falling for him and accepts his love for her. They get married and go through family and personal issues together, both realizing one must cherish the present.

Cast

Main cast

Produced from the same team that produced SETTV 2011 to 2012 hit Taiwan romance drama "Inborn Pair". Hoping to strike double rating success with their "Inborn Pair" leads, Annie Chen and Chris Wang was then split up to film two different new romance dramas to be aired back to back. Annie Chen was paired up with George Hu who was personally invited by Sanlih to film "Love, Now" after spending the past year filming dramas in Mainland China. In an interview with China's LETV he stated that he had agreed to take on the lead role during early development of the project, when the title, story and plot was still not developed yet, in order to re-establish his presence in Taiwan since he had not appeared in a Taiwan television drama for over a year and was afraid Taiwanese audiences would forget him. While Chris Wang was paired up with Ann Hsu to film "Love Me or Leave Me". Both dramas started filming at the same time.
Interiors of the Lan family home, Yang family home, offices of Hao Sheng and Feng Hua are studio built sets at SETTV headquarters. The exterior of the Lan's bathroom fixture office Hao Sheng is an office tower located at Tiding Boulevard, Zhongshan District of Taipei. The exterior of Feng Hua where Yang Yi-ru worked is an office building located at Tiding Boulevard, Neihu District of Taipei. The exterior and lobby of the Lan family residence was filmed at "Future Hill" residential complex located at Wenhuaer Rd, Linkou District of New Taipei City. The exterior and courtyard of the Yang family residence was filmed at a residential complex located at Yanshou St, Songshan District of Taipei. The residence of Sun Qi-ming is actually the office of an landscaping and interior design company called "Lake Forest Design" located at Kangning Road, Neihu District of Taipei. Other major filming locations include "Min-Sheng General Hospital" where He Cai-rong works as a doctor, "A House" cafe where Zheng Yu-xiang operates his cafe and bike messenger business, "Aqua Kiss 2-Surfer" where the main characters frequented to chat and have a drink, and "Fushin Hotel" room 1108 . Hsuan Chuang University and Yuen Ze University where used as the school Lan Si-da and Yang Yi-ru attended University, Boracay Philippines scenes were filmed between October 3 till October 13 of 2012. The bathroom scene of Lan Shi-da talking to the toilet bowl and shower kiss scene in episode 3 and 4 was actually filmed at "Fushin Hotel" in Taipei instead of Alta Vista De Boracay.

''Taipei, Taiwan''

The pairing of George Hu and Annie Chen was a success. Three month after "Love, Now" finished airing Sanlih decided to pair them up again in 2013's "Love Around" which was aired every Sunday night on Sanlih's other channel TTV.

Broadcast

Episode ratings

Episode description

Awards