KO One

KO One
Promotional poster for KO One
Also known as	終極一班 Zhōng Jí Yī Bān
Genre	School, Comedy, Fantasy, Action, Romance, Wuxia
Written by	Qi Xi Lin (齊鍚麟) / Lan Jin Xiang (藍今翔)
Directed by	Liao Fei Hong (廫猆鴻)
Starring	Jiro Wang Calvin Chen Aaron Yan Stephanie Lee Melody Sunnie Huang Danson Tang
Opening theme	"終極一班" (Extreme Class) by Tank
Ending theme	"給我你的愛" (Give Me Your Love) by Tank
Country of origin	Republic of China (Taiwan)
Original language(s)	Mandarin
No. of episodes	21 (list of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	Chen Zi Han (陳芷涵) / Wang Xin Gue (王信貴) / Liu Xing (劉行)
Location(s)	Taipei, Taiwan
Running time	90 mins
Production company(s)	Comic International Productions
Release
Original network	Gala Television (GTV)
Original release	26 November 2005 (2005-11-26) – 27 May 2006 (2006-05-27)
Chronology
Followed by	The X-Family
Related shows	KO One Return KO One Re-act
External links
GTV official homepage	www.gtv.com.tw/Program/S051420051126P/

KO One (traditional Chinese: 終極一班; simplified Chinese: 终极一班; pinyin: zhōng jí yī bān; literally: "The Extreme Class") is a 2005 Taiwanese drama starring Jiro Wang, Calvin Chen, Aaron Yan and Danson Tang. It was produced by Comic International Productions (可米國際影視事業股份有限公司)^[1] and was first broadcast in Taiwan on cable TV Gala Television (GTV) Variety Show/CH 28 (八大綜合台) on 26 November 2005 to 27 May 2006.

Before this drama was aired there was not much interests in it, due to the storyline and unfamiliar cast. Despite the new encounters, the ratings of KO One exceeded expectations. Although the ratings were not high, it brought fame to three of the four leads (Jiro Wang, Calvin Chen, Aaron Yan), who are part of the then newly formed Taiwanese boy band called Fahrenheit. This drama also brought fame to the Taiwanese artist, Tank who wrote and sang the opening and ending theme songs. The KO One original soundtrack was the best selling soundtrack of 2013, selling more than 60,000 copies in Taiwan within the first month of release.^[2]

On December 26, 2012, a new series is released at the same time on GTV, named KO One Return, which continues the story of KO One

Synopsis

Zhong Ji Yi Ban is a class in Ba Le High School designed especially for the delinquents and rejects that other high schools would not accept. Even so, everyone in the class is loyal to the leader, Wang Da Dong (Jiro Wang), who is KO.3, and would die for friends. Another KO. 3, Wang Ya Se, also called Ya Se Wang (Calvin Chen), and KO.4, Ding Xiao Yu (Aaron Yan) soon join the class and out of some fortuitous events, their lives become tied together and they become best buddies. Another student, Lei Ke Si (Danson Tang), who had been gone for a whole semester, rejoins the class. Although Lei Ke Si seems like a weak kid with only good intentions, Ya Se suspects Lei Ke Si is KO.2 because legends say that KO.1 and KO.2 are capable of concealing their true identities.

At the same time, incidents start to occur and the culprit always leads to Ya Se. But Ya Se is being framed by Lei Ke Si, who is actually the real culprit. Lei Ke Si makes Ya Se look bad so that Da Dong won't believe him when he says that Lei Ke Si is KO.2 . Soon, An Qi, who is Da Dong and Lei Ke Si's childhood crush, appears. This forces Lei Ke Si to reveal his true identity and fight with Da Dong (for An Qi). After Lei Ke Se leaves the class, Xiao Yu starts to crush on An Qi. Both Da Dong and Xiao Yu fight over An Qi, but Da Dong doesn't realize his crush on the teacher of KO One, Tian Xin (Melody) until An Qi tells him. Soon, An Qi returns to America and strange things started to happen. Two more new girl-students join the class, and one of them (Cai Wu Xiong) has a crush on Ya Se. Although he is cold and refuses to accept her due to her behavior as a gorilla, he eventually changes and falls in love with her. At the end, Lei Ke Si returns to tell the gang how to defeat their enemy Hei Long. In the final battle, Da Dong, Ya Se, Xiao Yu and Lei Ke Si combine their powers and finally defeat the evil roaming around them, but the fight triggers a big explosion that causes both forces to lose their powers.

Characters

Main characters

Wang Da Dong (汪大東)

The ring leader of the school gang "Zhong Ji Yi Ban" (終極一班 / Ultimate Class). Self-confident and stubborn. Acts as an obedient child in front of his parents, and has attempted to keep his parents in the dark about his school life. Everybody in Zhong Ji Yi Ban listens to what he says.

Da Dong is number three on the KO Rank and has the battle level of 9000.

Although Da Dong seems harsh and cold, he is actually a good person at heart and shows his caring side whenever his friends need help.

He carries the "Long Wen Ao" (龍紋鏊 / Dragon Tattooed Pan) as his primary weapon. A unique aspect of this weapon is that it can vary its master's fighting count according to the opponent's fighting count; it becomes stronger when fighting strong opponents and remain normal when facing weaker ones (遇強則強、遇弱則弱).

Wang Ya Se (王亞瑟)

The son of the gangster leader of "Tu Long Bang" (土龍幫).

Rich, powerful, self-centered, and his concerns are his looks.

Like Da Dong, he has a 3rd position on the KO Rank, his battle level being 9000. Because he and Da Dong shared the third position, he joined Zhong Ji Yi Ban intending to challenge him, but before they could fight, they became best buddies.

His primary weapon is the Shi Zhong Jian (石中劍 / Sword in the Stone) - a spiritual dagger created by the wizard Merlin and used by King Arthur. When he removes the stone from the dagger, the sword essence will possess Ya Se, allowing him to instantly gain evil powers at the expense of losing control over his own actions.

Ding Xiao Yu (丁小雨)

Xiao Yu is an exchange student from "Tuo Nan High School" (拓南高中), known as the 4th ranked fighter on the KO Rank, his fighting count being 8500. He is prone to giving others cold looks if they are not willing to leave him alone.

He doesn't like violence, but if anyone hits his head, he will definitely fight back.

He uses his powerful fists as weapons and has the battle level of 8500. Xiao Yu's left fist is said to have the power of an atomic bomb, while his right fist has ten times the power of his left fist. However, if he uses the right hand, he will become unable to use more power within three hours and might risk losing his own life.

Huang An Qi (黃安琪)

An Qi is daughter of a famous politician, and is also a childhood friend of Da Dong and Lei Ke Si. She has been in love with Da Dong for a really long time, but never knew how he felt, nor the fact that Lei Ke Si was in love with her as well. She moved to America five years ago, but during that time she has written over five hundred letters to Da Dong - two letters per week. She never got any response from Da Dong for any of her letters, but he has secretly been collecting and memorizing them.

Her love for Da Dong is the reason to why Lei Ke Si, their best friend, holds such anger against Da Dong. When Lei Ke Si finally reveals his identity as KO 2 and gets Da Dong into a hospital, she decides to return to America in order to forget about everything she feels about Da Dong, because she believes it is her love that has caused the rivalry between him and his best friend.But at last because Da Dong told her that he memorize the letters and keep them An Qi stayed in Taiwan.

Tian Xin (田欣)

The homeroom teacher of Zhong Ji Yi Ban (終極一班). Because of her little brother's past and 'incident', she went to college to become a teacher, in hopes to get bad students back on the right track and make them good again.

As a person, she is very fun-loving and likes to babble a lot when she gets angry.

At first, Da Dong did not like her at all because of her position as a teacher, but was eventually touched by her kindness and decided to let her become their homeroom teacher and help them get into college.

Sha Jie (煞姊)

Number 13th on the KO Rank.

Sha Jie is the leader in the girl-gang of the class. For a girl, she is extremely mean and fierce.

She has been in love with Da Dong since before the start of the series, but he hasn't shown any sign of liking her back, at all.

Lei Ke Si (雷克斯)

Da Dong's childhood friend whom Da Dong has absolute trust in. Lei Ke Si has liked An Qi since they were kids, but because she was in love with Da Dong, he collected a strong anger and has been trying to take vengeance on his best friend.

In school, he is known as Da Dong's brain.

Because of his disguise as a weak kid with good intentions, nobody knows Lei Ke Si is actually KO 2 - the next strongest fighter on the KO Rank, and his battle level being 10000.

His weapon is "Ah Rui Xi Zhi Shou" (阿瑞斯之手 / Ares' Hand), a metal glove reclaimed from the realm of darkness.

Episode guide

KO Rank

Groups

Cast

Main cast

• Jiro Wang (汪東城) as Wang Da Dong (汪大東)
• Calvin Chen (陳奕儒) as Wang Ya Se (王亞瑟)
• Aaron Yan (炎亞綸) as Ding Xiao Yu (丁小雨)
• Stephanie Lee (李妹研) as Huang An Qi (黃安琪)
• Melody (殷悦) as Tian Xin (田欣)
• Sunnie Huang (黄小柔) as Sha Jie (煞姊)
• Danson Tang (唐禹哲) as Lei Ke Si (雷克斯)

Extended cast

Production credits and trivia

• Producer: Chen Zi Han (陳芷涵) / Wang Xin Gue (王信貴) / Liu Xing (劉行)
• Director: Liao Fei Hong (廫猆鴻)
• Screenwriter: Qi Xi Lin (齊鍚麟) / Lan Jin Xiang (藍今翔)
• Da Dong has the best potential to be KO.1 among all the KO fighters.
• It is rumoured that the descendant of Guo Jing is the legendary KO.1 Tian Hong Guang and his sister Tian Xin
• The director had a hard time choreography the moves with the actors.
• it is said by the director that he intended to make the newly KO.9 part of the story of the last few episode but due to clash of timing, the latter was credited as guest starring in the end.

External links

• (in Chinese) GTV KO One official homepage
• (in Japanese) KO One - Japanese website
• (in Chinese) TVMao - Ep 1-10 synopsis
• (in Chinese) KO One Quiz

References