another sweet relationship update

i just finished sweet relationship.

here are some final thoughts:

first, i take what i said about megan lai back. her character becomes progressively annoying. i still like her as an auxiliary actress though.

second, it seems like every drama always likes to throw in a new character during the last quarter of the show. the character is not really a main character because he/she is not in most of the drama, but he/she has a lot of air time during at least a few episodes. many dramas follow this general storyline: first quarter only the audience knows the two lead characters are meant to be, in the second quarter one lead falls for the other, at the end of the third quarter the other lead finally starts to show hints of reciprocating, at which point this random last quarter character comes in to drag the drama through the last quarter and into the last episode. sweet relationship is no exception. the last quarter character is played by gu xuan chun, a japanese guy whose chinese is really hard to understand and who is really gross and who eats especially gross. i think his character is actually supposed to be attractive, i just find him incredibly gross, especially in this drama. he was in both the rose and they kiss again, so i guess qu you ning really likes him.

third, qu you ning really likes to have cute chubby little boys in this dramas!

fourth, still not a huge patty hou fan, but again, i loved vic's acting in this.

fifth, the storyline wasn't that exciting, but the drama was very well made. many really good and/or really cute scenes.

finally, the dramas always have previews for the next episode at the end of each episode. i always hate watching the previews because they give entirely too much away. yet, i still watch them because i can't stand not watching every second of the videos; it would feel incomplete; what if i missed something? however, even with the extensive previewing, the ending (of the last episode) was sufficiently surprising (well not surprising, but not in the preview) and cute/not a complete let down.

sweet relationship update

i have now finished episode 3 of sweet relationship. doesn't seem very far, but i'm now twice as far as i was since my last post.

i have decided that i LOVE vic in this drama! he's so grumpy all the time, and i have realized he is really good at being angry. and everything about him and how he acts in the drama! which is strange because seeing him being himself in interviews (etc) i feel like since his meteor garden days, he has become more and more like--the only way i can describe it is--monkey+girl. i just feel like he's been castrated and is now working in the Forbidden City, or something. but really, in the drama, he's great. it just shows again how great qu you ning is as a director. i once read this article that asked qu you ning about his casting cai yi zhen (wu xiong) in they kiss again, since she was not well received in her previous drama, summer x summer (i didn't think it was so bad; i actually quite enjoyed that drama and didn't mind her character.). qu you ning said something like, she just needs good direction. and if no one else can make cai yi zhen shine, qu you ning can! (well i don't know, not enough of they kiss again has aired yet.) but really, qu you ning is so good at making his characters both special and very real. some of his very classic characters: kui (the rose), baihe (the rose), zhishu (iswak), xiangqin (iswak), and even zhishu's mom (i LOVE her!). they are totally ridiculous, but so real to me. in qu you ning's dramas, each character, each drama is special. think about it, kui is nothing like zhishu, both played by joe cheng. (but think about mike he's dramas...i feel like he always plays the same character. that's what most idol dramas are like, which is fine, people are soooo typecast.) and vic in sweet relationship is totally different from his real life monkey+girl aura (thank god). i really can't describe it, he's great. of course not all credit goes to the director. i feel like vic is generally pretty good at playing a character that is not monkey+girl. his acting is pretty good in this, which contrasts patty hou's acting. it's her first drama, and i wouldn't say she's bad (it's sufficient for an idol drama), but i feel like vic can act way better than her. for instance, in this last episode, they were both sick, but vic's sneezes were way more convincing.

one complaint: even though this whole drama is supposed to be about food, i don't feel like my senses are overloaded with lots of food. unlike nodame cantabile, in which i got to hear lots of good music every episode, here i don't feel like there is an abundance of good food. (soups are pretty boring.)

sweet relationship

i have watched 1.5 episodes of sweet relationship, but i am going to prematurely give some of my thoughts on the drama. this is not binding, since, keep in mind, i have only seen 1.5 episodes.

the drama starts at this really nice french restaurant, where this rich/important old guy is cooking dinner for his daughter's graduation/birthday (i couldn't tell which). you first meet vic as he is storming into the restaurant. you learn that vic is the head chef, and vic is mad that someone else is making subpar food in his kitchen. vic sees this pot of soup that the old guy had made and immediately dumps the whole thing down the drain, despite many protests and people trying to restrain him. at that moment, when the soup was going down the drain, i knew i was going to continue watching this drama (within the first 20 minutes of the first episode!).

vic's character is so classic idol drama: talented guy who will not tolerate other people's mediocrity and is always yelling at people. hey, a lot like chiaki from nodame cantabile!! he is (rightfully) elitist like zhi shu in iswak. and i like his personality, the way he thinks, and what he believes is wrong and right. and he is always so right. i won't say that vic is the most attractive guy, especially in this drama, but i do think his look fits well with the character. his attractiveness comes from his mad elitist cooking skills, and not from the strange elf ears that stick out from his chef's hat...

i don't know how i feel about patty hou (the daughter, who will obviously become the heroine). this is her first idol drama, and first acting experience? (i think.) she's totally cute/pretty, but a little generic. i feel like she doesn't have her own look. like ariel, ella, even rainie, they are not objectively the most beautiful, but they are not generic and they totally win you over. (see, this is also why i think vic as the chef works well. and why we all love joe cheng!)

usually i don't care that much about the auxillary characters, but for some reason i have always liked megan lai. at first i thought her character would be the evil/jealous type, but so far (1.5 episodes) she seems cool, and even cute sometimes. i hate when there is an auxillary character that is evil/jealous. it's just an easy way for the drama to cause problems between the leads. and then i am constantly nervous about what that evil/jealous character is going to do next. i'd rather the problems be more spontaneous so that i'm not biting my nails the whole time.

finally, i found out that the director for sweet relationship (qu you ning) also directed iswak! now that i know, i can't believe i didn't realize it earlier. one thing that i noticed about qu you ning's dramas is that every so often he likes to film a scene where the camera is moving around a bit (hard to describe, hope you get it), which seems unusual for the average idol drama. the camera moves around as if the scene has ghost/ufo music to it! and there has already been at least one scene like this in sweet relationship. qu you ning's dramas are always just ever so slightly more raw, so that, every once in a while, i feel like i've actually walked in on some real live (awkward) situation. he has a mix of sugary packaged drama idol scenes and real people doing real things scenes. qu you ning has directed: the rose, it started with a kiss, sweet relationship, and they kiss again. the rose and iswak are two of my favorite dramas, and i am currently watching sweet relationship and they kiss again. qu you ning's dramas are always very well cast (so i have faith in vic, even though he wasn't my favorite male lead before.) and the dramas always have very good characters--characters that make you OBSESSED about the drama. the rose, for example, has an auxillary character, kui. he has long hair, wears frilly girl bath robes, and is in love with his sister. BUT, no one who has watched the rose can help but fall hopelessly in love with kui. when watching these dramas, i get the feeling that qu you ning loves making dramas. this is an art to him and he takes care to make each one special. [on the other hand, dramas directed by lin he long (devil beside you, corner with love, why why love, romantic princess, etc.) are thoroughly entertaining, but very predictable and generic. i like his dramas too. they are sure to be good quality idol dramas, but that is all they are: idol dramas.]

o yeah, and the drama is basically about eating.

so, i am very much looking forward to watching the rest of sweet relationship, and have high hopes for it (definitely a bad idea; i am setting myself up for a let down...). so far the drama is setting up to be a pretty generic idol drama, but i believe in qu you ning! i'll let you know when i finish!