C-dramas are bringing us male leads that are super smart and highly attractive. Despite their socializing issues, they still manage to provide the romance that draws many of us to Asian dramas. Both Bo Jiyan (Wallace Huo) in Love Me If You Dare and Ji Bai (Wang Kai) in When A Snail Falls In Love are very good at their jobs, a little awkward with relationships and all the way adorable.
Jiyan’s interpersonal skills rank at -32 on a scale of 1 to 10. He’s a criminal psychologist who specializes in catching serial killers and even has had a run-in with one himself. He sees significance in seemingly irrelevant clues that others miss at crime scenes. He uses his powers of logic to predict the motivations of criminals and catch them, all the while making police officers look at idiots.
At the same time, he has some adorable traits that make him human. His relationships with his sidekicks are adorable. They include his particularly rambunctious pet turtle, Chen Mo (uncredited in the drama), his human friend Fu Ziyu (Andrew Lin) and his eventual girlfriend Jian Yao (Ma Sichun). While Chen Mo makes few appearances, they are always memorable. Apparently, Jiyan lets Chen Mo roam on his bed while he sleeps, but Chen Mo often ends up in other places too. In one episode, you can hear Chen Mo knocking over stuff, so Jiyan puts Chen Mo on a punishment by confining the turtle to a room (sad).
Fu Ziyu is Jiyan’s connection to people. Far more sociable, he is understands his strange friend the best. He, coincidentally, is also smart and attractive: a computer genius who also seems to be independently wealthy and has an affection for extreme sports. Jian Yao, while not a genius like the other two, brings some much-needed humanity and emotion to their world. The fact that Jiyan has close relationships with them, despite making everyone else in law enforcement feel inferior, shows that he does have a heart. Jiyan will occasionally crack a joke, but when you mess with his people, he is all business.
Ji Bai may not be a genius like Jiyan, but he has more social skills. He is respected by the members of his squad and jokes with his second-in-command. He’s also fashionable and jet-setting. He does the impossible as a cop (see the episode with the grappling hook), and knows how to solve a case using evidence and interrogate suspects. Yet, it seems that he is all cop all the time. So intense! This can put a damper on his relationships, especially with his love interest, Xu Xu (Wang Zi Wen). Initially, he takes the “I’m going to pick on you” route, which turns into romantic feelings. However, he tends to rely on their boss-not boss relationship to express his concern. This makes him s kinda socially awkward also. Like Jiyan, he shows his emotions when his people get hurt.
Both Jiyan and Ji Bai represent an increasingly popular kind of male lead, defined by their intelligence. They both have emotions, they just don’t show them, at least until they run across their respective love interests or when their people are threatened. They’ll engage in action, but the main focus of their dramas is suspense and mystery. All of this makes them super in a different kind of way.
High Yellow - Asian Popular Culture 