Absolute Boyfriend (Taiwanese TV series)

Absolute Boyfriend (simplified Chinese: 绝对达令; traditional Chinese: 絕對達令, alternatively titled My Perfect Darling[1]) is a Taiwanese romance drama television series based on the manga Absolute Boyfriend by Yuu Watase. Jiro Wang, member of Taiwanese boy band Fahrenheit played Night Tenjo's role while South Korean actress Ku Hye-sun played Riiko Izawa.[2][3][4]

Absolute Boyfriend
Promotional poster for Absolute Boyfroend
Also known as	絕對達令
Genre	Romance
Based on	Absolute Boyfriend by Yuu Watase
Directed by	Liu jun Jie (劉俊傑)
Starring	Jiro Wang Ku Hye-sun Kun Da
Opening theme	"Mr. Perfect" by Fahrenheit
Ending theme	"假装我们没爱过" (Pretend We Have Never Loved) by Jiro Wang
Country of origin	Taiwan
Original language(s)	Mandarin
No. of episodes	13 (Original) 20 (International)
Production
Producer(s)	Wang Xin Gui (王信貴)
Production location(s)	Taiwan
Running time	90 minutes (incl. advertisements) (Original) 60 minutes (incl. advertisements) (International)
Production company(s)	GTV
Release
Original network	FTV, GTV
Picture format	NTSC
First shown in	Taiwan
Original release	8 April (2012-04-08) – 1 July 2012 (2012-07-01)
Chronology
Preceded by	Skip Beat!
Followed by	Once Upon a Love
Related shows	Zettai Kareshi (Japan) My Absolute Boyfriend (South Korea)
External links
GTV official website

Absolute Boyfriend
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	絕對達令
Simplified Chinese	绝对达令
Transcriptions
Japanese name
Kana	絶対彼氏
Transcriptions Romanization Zettai Kareshi

Plot

Guan Xiaofei, an ordinary office worker, is disheartened when she once again gets rejected by a man she loves, Shi Lun. While walking through a park, Xiaofei picks up a cellphone dropped by an eccentric salesman, Lei Wuwu. In return for retrieving the phone, Wuwu gives Xiaofei a website address dedicated to the "Absolute Darling" project. Still skeptical, Xiaofei decides to fill up her order anyway and requests her own "darling", codenamed "Nightly 01" with hundreds of wish fulfillments. Xiaofei is surprised when Kronos Heaven, the company that Wuwu works for, delivers Nightly 01 the next day, and is even more flabbergasted when Nightly 01 turns out be a hyper-realistic, human-like male sex robot whose power activation requires a kiss. Despite his function as a sex robot, however, Xiaofei refuses the offer for sex and instead wants the robot, whom she names "Wan Naite", to be her boyfriend.

However, Xiaofei is informed that after three days of trial period that she has to buy the robot for NT$100,000,000. An attempt to search for work at a club is fruitless when Naite reacts violently to seeing Xiaofei being harassed, so instead Naite applies for a job at Xiaofei's office. His unusual attachment to Xiaofei becomes a sensation at the office and attracts the attention of Xiaofei's friend, Luo Meijia, who is revealed to be the one stopping Xiaofei from having a boyfriend due to an old incident at work where Xiaofei humiliated Meijia at the workplace. At a company retreat, Meijia tries to sabotage Xiaofei and attracts Naite's attention, but her plans are unsuccessful and she herself later quits the office in humiliation when everyone discovers her true nature. At the same time, Naite also incites jealousy on the part of Yan Zongshi, a childhood friend of Xiaofei who has long been in love with her.

Wuwu later tells Xiaofei that she does not need to pay for the original price, but instead she merely has to pay for Naite's service costs as well as recording all emotions to be displayed in Naite's emotion ring: calm (white), happy (red), pleasure (pink), upset (blue), sad (black), and an increased libido (yellow). To earn more money, Naite works at a club servicing female customers, though this only makes Xiaofei jealous. One of Naite's customers is Meijia, who kisses him, causing his allegiance to switch to her due to his simple programming. Despite this, though, the fact that he still remembers Xiaofei makes Wuwu realize that there is still hope for him to return to Xiaofei, who then goes through a swimming challenge to finally be able to kiss Naite back, a task that she is successful with.

Agitated with the hard road for libido, Wuwu arranges for Xiaofei and Naite to have a honeymoon at a private island, to no avail due to Zongshi's appearance. Kronos Heaven's leader, Jiang Baiqi, also sends another model, Nightly 02 under the name of his brother and Xiaofei's childhood friend, Jiang Junshu, to steal Naite's place in Xiaofei's heart, which ends in Naite's pyrrhic victory, resulting in him having to be sent to Kronos Heaven to be scrapped. Nevertheless, Naite works his way to Xiaofei and defeats a doppelganger sent in his place for Xiaofei. Realizing that he has grown beyond his programming, Baiqi decides to let him go.

However, it is revealed that due to developing his own will, Naite is slowly dying from battery failure. Despite this, he does not tell Xiaofei and continues to make her happy in the days before his "death", all the while asking Zongshi to take care of Xiaofei once he is not around. In the final episode, Xiaofei and Naite arranges for a wedding. However, Naite and Xiaofei hold a dress rehearsal with just the two of them the night before the planned wedding, during which Naite finally shuts down, much to Xiaofei's grief. On the day of the funeral, Wuwu and Zongshi go to the church to find Naite already packaged to return to Kronos Heaven to be preserved by Baiqi until technology can improve to possibly revive him once more. Upon finding out Naite has 10 seconds left of charge, Xiaofei shares some last words with him in hopes he can still hear her.

Cast

Main article: Absolute Boyfriend § Characters

Note: Characters' names displayed as "in-drama Taiwanese name / original Japanese name"

Actor	Character
Jiro Wang	Wan Naite (萬奈特) / Night Tenjo
Ku Hye-sun Chien Shih-Yin (young)	Guan Xiaofei (官筱菲) / Riiko Izawa
Hsieh Kun Da	Yan Zongshi (嚴宗史) / Soushi Asamoto
Uei Hsun-Na	Lei Wuwu (雷霧霧) / Gaku Namikiri
Cherry Hsia	Luo Meijia (羅美佳) / Mika Ito
Tsai Han-Tsen	Fang Zhixi (方智希) / Satori Miyabe
Im Jun-yeong	SKY
Bi Xiao-Hai	Jiang Baiqi (江白奇) / Yuki Shirasaki
Shiou Chieh-Kai	Jiang Junshu (江俊樹) / Toshiki Shirasaki
David Chen	Shi Lun (石綸) / Ishizeki

Production

It was announced at a press conference on October 5, 2010 that a live-action adaptation of Absolute Boyfriend will be filmed,[5]starring singer-actor Wu Chun as "Night" and South Korean actress Ku Hye-sun as "Riiko".[6] On May 3, 2011, Jiro Wang replaced fellow Fahrenheit band member Wu Chun as the male lead of the drama series.[7] The series premiered on April 1, 2012 on FTV.

Broadcast

Channel	Country	Debut date	Finale date	Broadcast date & time	Info
FTV	Taiwan	8 April 2012	1 July 2012	Sundays, 10.00pm
GTV	Taiwan	14 April 2012	7 July 2012	Saturdays, 10.30pm
MediaCorp Channel U	Singapore	8 April 2012	1 July 2012	Sundays, 9.30pm
ABS-CBN	Philippines	24 June 2013	16 August 2013	Monday-Friday, 5:00pm
Channel 7	Thailand	4 May 2016	23 June 2016	Wednesday-Friday, 1.10am

This is the first overseas drama to air in Singapore first before its premiere in Taiwan, although the Singapore broadcast didn't include bloopers/behind the scenes.

Reception

Formosa Television (FTV) (民視) Ratings

Episode	Original Broadcast Date	Average	Rank	Remarks
1	8 April 2012	1.00	5	This includes bloopers.
2	15 April 2012	0.91	5
3	22 April 2012	0.92	5
4	29 April 2012	0.76	3
5	6 May 2012	0.67	3
6	13 May 2012	0.67	3
7	20 May 2012	0.64	3
8	27 May 2012	0.70	2
9	3 June 2012	0.58	4
10	10 June 2012	0.60	3
11	17 June 2012	0.81	2
12	24 June 2012	0.66	3
13	1 July 2012	0.86	3
Average		0.75	-

Source：China Times

Ratings (Philippines)

TV Ratings airing in Philippines

Date	Episode	Nationwide (Kantar Media)	Mega Manila (AGB Nielsen)
June 24, 2013	01	8.9%	8.3%
June 25, 2013	02	10.4%	8.7%
June 26, 2013	03	10.8%	8.3%
June 27, 2013	04	10.8%	8.4%
June 28, 2013	05	11.5%	7.9%
July 1, 2013	06	9.9%	7.7%
July 2, 2013	07	11.5%	7.0%
July 3, 2013	08	12.2%	8.7%
July 4, 2013	09	11.7%	8.6%
July 5, 2013	10	10.9%	8.1%
July 8, 2013	11	10.7%	7.6%
July 9, 2013	12	9.5%	8.1%
July 10, 2013	13	11.1%	7.1%
July 11, 2013	14	11.7%	7.1%
July 12, 2013	15	11.2%	7.8%
July 15, 2013	16	12.0%	7.8%
July 16, 2013	17	12.5%	8.0%
July 17, 2013	18	11.1%	8.9%
July 18, 2013	19	9.9%	7.3%
July 19, 2013	20	12.3%	9.4%
July 23, 2013	21	12.4%	10.2%
July 24, 2013	22	11.5%	7.8%
July 25, 2013	23	10.6%	6.1%
July 26, 2013	24	12.3%	8.5%
July 29, 2013	25	10.3%	9.6%
July 30, 2013	26	9.8%	7.0%
July 31, 2013	27	12.5%	9.7%
August 1, 2013	28	11.2%	8.0%
August 2, 2013	29	11.4%	9.3%
August 5, 2013	30	11.1%	9.9%
August 6, 2013	31	12.1%	7.7%
August 7, 2013	32	11.9%	8.7%
August 8, 2013	33	11.6%	7.3%
August 9, 2013	34	11.3%	7.0%
August 12, 2013	35	14.0%	11.0%
August 13, 2013	36	11.6%	9.4%
August 14, 2013	37	11.1%	9.7%
August 15, 2013	38	9.8%	8.0%
August 16, 2013	39	11.7%	10.4%
Average		11.5%	8.6%

References

1. "絶対彼氏～My Perfect Darling～｜オフィシャルサイト". Cinemart (in Japanese). Retrieved 2019-11-22.
2. Lee, Gyeong-Ho (8 March 2012). "Ku Hye Sun appearing in pink pajamas in a Taiwanese drama series Absolute Darling". Star News. Archived from the original on 2014-12-21. Retrieved 2012-05-01.
3. Sunwoo, Carla (10 March 2012). "Ku Hye-sun to star in magic world with custom-order boyfriends". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 2012-05-01.
4. Choi, Eun-hwa (24 April 2012). "Author of Absolute Boyfriend Comic Applauds Gu Hye Sun′s Acting". enewsWorld. Retrieved 2012-05-01.
5. "吳尊當機器人男友 與具惠善譜戀曲". The Epoch Times (in Chinese). 6 October 2010. Retrieved 2010-12-22.
6. "吳尊具惠善《絕對達令》現場照公開 吳尊王子很帥". CRI Online (in Chinese). 22 October 2010. Retrieved 2010-12-22.
7. "汪東城難甩背後靈 聞吳尊一派恍神" Archived 2011-05-05 at the Wayback Machine. Apple Daily (in Chinese). 3 May 2011. Retrieved 2011-05-03.

External links

• GTV official homepage (in Chinese)
• FTV official homepage (in Chinese)