Love or Bread is the latest Taiwanese drama starring on-screen couple Joe Cheng and Ariel Lin of It Started With A Kiss and They Kiss Again fame.

Joe Cheng is Cai Jin Lai or Frank as he prefers to be called in the drama. Frank is a slacker kind of dude who would rather bum around than work for a living. His weakness are expensive signature items, which gets him into trouble because of his huge debts.

Meanwhile, Ariel Lin plays Zeng Shan Mei, who’s the hardworking breadwinner of her family. Shan Mei juggles two jobs just to provide for her extended family.

The Taste of Bread by Ariel Lin (from the Love or Bread OST)

I’m not a big fan of Taiwanese dramas because of their usual over the top acting and quixotic plots but I’m watching Love or Bread just because I loved Joe Cheng and Ariel Lin in ISWAK. They both have an undeniable chemistry which just radiates onscreen.

In this drama, Joe and Ariel play the complete opposite of their characters in ISWAK. Whereas in ISWAK, Joe was the silent, reliable genius Jiang Zhi Shu, in Love or Bread, his character is loud, lazy and kind of a turn off actually. I remember reading an interview with Joe Cheng where he said that his real life character was closer to that of Frank’s. I hope he was just referring to the regular type of guy persona and not the lazy part.

On the other hand, Ariel’s character here is much much more mature than Yuan Xiang Qin in ISWAK, who was innocent and naive, sometimes to the point of stupidity. In Love or Bread, Shan Mei is a bit feisty, which makes her a proper match against Frank.

As complete opposites, Frank and Shan Mei naturally hate each other but circumstances push them to live together in the same house. Will they be able to overcome their differences and fall in love?

Love or Bread airs on ABS-CBN starting this afternoon.

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