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!