The Taiwanese drama It Started with a Kiss premiered on the CTA network, airing between September 25th, 2005 – February 12th, 2006. It is also based on a popular Japanese manga that received an anime adaptation in 2008, Itazura na Kiss. We take a brief look at the drama and what we’re in for in this 20 episode live-action adaptation.
This post was originally written in July 2008 from the original CEN.TAKU.ME blog and from an attempted series of “Real TV Shows From the East You Should Watch” of live-action Asian drama shows to check out in addition to our anime reviews.
Synopsis:
The story of It Started with a Kiss starts off with a girl named Yuan Xiang Qin (played by Ariel Lin) handing a letter to Jiang Zhi Shu (played by Joe Cheng), the most popular student in school. He notices her holding out the letter as he passes by, but he doesn’t acknowledge her. Stunned, Xiang Qin thinks of Zhi Shu as a jerk and attempts to cut off ties with him by ignoring him, or even moving far away from him, if she has to.
Later, an earthquake destroys her home, displacing her and her father, forcing them to find another place to live. Ah Li, an old buddy of Xiang Qin’s father, offers them their house as a permanent living home. Unknowingly to Xiang Qin, the family they move in with happens to be the house of Jiang Zhi Shu!
The series starts pretty well and gets better around Episode 5. Some parts can be slow and noticeably begin tapering off around the 14th episode. Despite the late-show pacing, there are still key points to Xiang Qin and Zhi Shu’s rocky relationship, which is very important to the storyline. The acting is great but some parts of it can be cheesy.
In the years since the original publication of this post, I’m excited to share that the YouTube channel GTV Drama has all 20 episodes of It Started With A Kiss legally to watch for free!
There is also a second season, They Kissed Again! which gives the show an additional 20 episodes. Having re-shared this post–and nearly 20 years since the original airing–it’s time to give this show another watch-over.
Watch It Started With a Kiss (惡作劇之吻/恶作剧之吻) via GTV’s playlist on YouTube:
➡ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk2gvyPpHLRf0uRz8Z4Th7GOCR6ePCYa5
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