爱在日月潭 – Love At Sun Moon Lake

Cast:
林心如 Ruby Lin as 安安 An An
柯叔元 Ke Shu Yuan as 江中鹤 Jiang Zhong He
高潔 Gao Jie as 方蘋 Fang Ping
文章 Wen Zhang as 孟廷 Meng Ting
蔣欣 Jiang Xin as 江荷 Jiang He
赵静 Zhao Jing as 孟母 Meng Mu

Genre:
Drama

Plot:
Five years ago, Mr. Meng divorces his wife and begins living with another woman. His ex-wife pressures Mr. Meng into committing suicide over business problems, creating a legacy of revenge and hatred. Mrs. Meng’s son, Meng Ting, learns of his father’s suicide and decides to find out if it was truly his mother who forced his father to kill himself. All this time, the woman that stole his father has plotting revenge against Mrs. Meng.

At the same time, An An, a native Taiwanese orphan, applies for a position as the General Manager’s secretary. The General Manager of Mrs. Meng’s hotel just happens to be Meng Ting. The beginning of a tragic love story begins. In order to save her orphanage, she agrees to become Meng Ting’s girlfriend.

What happens when Meng Ting hopes to break the chain of revenge and hatred by working alongside the woman who stole his father’s heart? Does An An truly love Meng Ting or is it some sort of responsibility? What happens when a budding artist Jiang Zhong He meets An An and falls in love with her?

Review:
Let me be very up front with this. The only reason I started watching this drama was because of Ruby Lin. I can’t say she’s the best actress ever but she is really beautiful and I love her innocent look.

I really enjoyed how the drama started out but somewhere along the way I became disgusted with the storyline. Since I don’t really want to spoil the story, I will just say that I really hate Jiang Zhong He and I really hate his character being with An An. I almost stopped watching the drama because I could already see how the drama would end, but I managed to finish the whole thing. Normally Chinese dramas really impress me in their production quality and acting skills and this drama was no exception. The production was very well made and the acting was very solid on all levels. The only flaw was the story line. If you would like to see my opinions on how the story should have continued, feel free to read into the spoiler section after my rating.

The drama does get a little repetitive, however, and sometimes I just feel like punching characters for being so stubborn or so unrealistically emotional. The only portions of the drama that kept me going were the scenes with An An. I love her character although sometimes the script writers really make her someone I don’t like. She is a really smart and hard working character and also has the sacrificial trait. She is very loyal however sometimes I hate how her character is having a so called ‘affair.’ Normally I like my main characters to be flawed, but not in a way that makes them being unloyal.

If you are trying to watch this drama for Ruby Lin, it’s probably worth watching just one time through, but if you are actually looking for a drama with a creative and enjoyable plot line, look elsewhere.

Rating:
3.8/5.0

BEWARE: SPOILERS BEWARE
Alright, since there were parts of this drama that I hated so much, I’m just going to go ahead and tell you what I thought should have happened to make a much more dramatic drama haha.

1. I really believed that the drama was showing how Meng Ting and An An both had a moment of weakness and became swayed or tempted by other women/men, but they would both eventually come back to each other and discover that they had grown used to each other and that they loved each other more than they thought. It seemed that the drama would really take this direction, but when An An and Jiang Zhong He really got things going I got into a really really bad mood and thought the scriptwriters totally tricked the audience. It just makes the whole theme of the drama really bad.

2. I would have liked to see Meng Ting eventually marry An An and that they would raise Meng Ting and Jiang He’s child loyally.

3. I really would have liked the mother to become less crazy, but she seemed to get even crazier near the end of the drama until like the last episode.

4. I would have liked Jiang Zhong He to get along with his girl next door and just disappear from teh drama since his character was so damn annoying and over obsessive.

5. They should have made An An more resilient from temptation.

There are probably more things I can’t think of right now but you get the point. 🙂

Read Full Post »

丑女也疯狂 Chou Nu Ye Feng Kuang – Ugly Girl

Cast:
Jiang Xin as Ye Zi
Johnny Chen as He Tian Ming
Qiao Zhen Yu as Feng Zi Jian
Zhou Li as Liu Xin Ting
Zhang Jia Nan as Qin Li Juan

Genre:
Romance

Plot:
Ye Zi, played by actress Jiang Xin, is a girl who’s face is terribly marred and often called ‘Ugly Girl’ by all the neighbors and her friends. The people who know her well, however, such as her best friend Tian Ming, see past her ugly physical appearance and understand her kind heart.

Tian Ming is the rebellious son of a large advertising company’s director and aspires to be a writer and not a businessman. He is forced into a marriage with his childhood friend Li Juan.

Ye Zi and her mother actually came to the city because her mother remarried with a kind man. He also had a daughter already named Liu Xin Ting. Zi Jian is an intelligent and filial boy who was raised by his handicapped single mother. He travels to the city in search of his biological father and instead meets Liu Xin Ting and helps her solve some of her personal problems. Because of certain circumstances, Liu Xin Ting hates Ye Zi and her mother.

The story begins when Ye Zi is about to be married, but who would really marry such an ugly girl? It must be a scam.

Circumstances lead Ye Zi to receive a complete facial plastic makeover, turning her into a beautiful girl. How will this change the relationship of these five people? Will Ye Zi find anyone who will see her behind her plastic face? Will dark secrets from the past come to surface about Zi Jian’s parents? Will Tian Ming find his heart is in another place?

Review:
This drama first caught my eye when I found it was about plastic surgery. Another one of my quirks is I love ugly girls getting makeovers and becoming pretty. I couldn’t help myself but watch this drama and I have to say it was decent. I really enjoyed Ye Zi’s performance. Liu Xin Ting was just pure evil but I could totally understand how she felt. Li Juan was a good actress as well and I think a lot of the flaws in this drama came from the male cast. The actor for Tian Ming really began to annoy me. His indecision over Li Juan really got to the point where I wanted to punch him.

The story plot of the drama was really nice. I felt that Ye Zi and Zi Jian had really good chemistry and Liu Xin Ting played a very nice villain character. The main female leads that always make sacrifices never ceases to make me get all emotional and I really enjoyed the plot regarding Ye Zi.

After finishing this drama, I have to stress that there are some really annoying and boring scenes, mostly with Tian Ming and Li Juan, but other than that this was a very nice drama. One of my largest dislikes is that the ending really was to my liking. I totally did not see that coming, probably because of the poor acting on behalf of the male cast.

Rating:
4.0/5.0

Read Full Post »