"Miracle... Another word for hard work" – A To the beautiful you Review

Originalname:	아름다운 그대에게 / Areumdawun Geodaeege
Also known as:	To the Beautiful You / Hana Kimi / For You in Full Blossom
Release Date:	15. August - 04. October 2012
Director:	Jeon Ki-Sang
Writer:	Hisaya Nakajo (Manga), Lee Young-Chul
Cast:	Lee Minho, Sulli, Lee Hyun-Woo, Kim Ji-Won, Kang Ha-Neul, Ki Tae-Young, Hwang Kwanghee

Plot

The story is about the South Korean girl Goo Jae Hee (also named „Jay“), who lives in the United States, going to South Korea, after seeing the success of Kang Tae Joon in the olympic high jump finals and having a crush on him (love at first „TV screen“ sight… maybe?).
With a new, short haircut Jae Hee manages to sneak into the all boys Genie Physical Education High School, to follow the high jump Idol, who is injured by now (Doesn’t this make her into a hardcore stalker? Well I guess… it doesn’t matter, since Minho must be used to it as a SHINee member).
After getting into the school, she almost gets beaten up by another student (but is saved by her dorm leader) and meets the hardcore mushroom-haircut-boy Cha Eun Kyul, who will (after a few episodes passes) have his inner struggle and doubts of being gay, because he falls in love with Goo Jae Hee (and fortunately he will also have a new hairstyle – yay!). I think it’s not necessary to explain, how their relationship will work out (if there are some of you, who still want to know, here’s a short summary: He’ll confess his love in a very cute way, but he will be rejected and very heartbroken, then he’ll find out about her true identity, get mad and in the end they’ll remain friends … but they obviously won’t get together!).
Of course, just like fate, Jae Hee and Tae Joon also have to share a room – without Tae Joons approval at first. However, after a soccer game and after the school doctor Jang Min-Woo finding out about Jae Hees true identity, she gains Tae Joons approval and they get into a almost “master-and-slave-relationship” – with Tae Joon as master, of course (NOT in the perverted way *cough*).
The master-and-slave relationship later turns into a friendship, because of their “urge” (well, it’s not really an urge at the beginning, but it ends up in being one later on) to help each other out in critical situations like finding each other in locked rooms, restoring family bounds and saving each other from getting physically hurt. Naturally, their relationship doesn’t remain on a friendship level, because both of them develop romantic feelings for each other – ending up hiding their true feelings (Jae Hee, because she doesn’t want to leave and shock him and Tae Joon, mostly because he wants to keep her by his side).
Of course, it’s not only the “hiding-obstacle”, which makes their romantic relationship harder, but there are also other people involved, who hold romantic feelings for either Tae Joon or Jae Hee or those, who don’t want to accept their relationship.
Beside Eun Kyul (who doesn’t really intentionally disturbs their relationship) there is Tae Joons childhood friend Seol Hanna – the nations little sister. She loves Tae Joon since her childhood and does everything to get his attention. Since it’s not enough for her, to be Tae Joons childhood friend or to get his full attention, she also gets suspicious and kind of jealous of Jae Hees good relationship with Tae Joon and routs in Jae Hees personal things. Therefore, it’s no wonder that she later on finds out about Jae Hees true identity and starts to want to destroy Tae Joons and Jae Hees relationship by making up a love relationship between her and Tae Joon. Of course, the relationship is broken off later on, because Hanna realizes, that she can’t change Tae Joons heart and his feelings for Jae Hee.
On the other side (since it’s not enough to have only one person to be against their relationship and aiming for one part of the couple…), there is also Jae Hees childhood friend and her first love as well: John Kim aka Kim Jung-Hoon. He’s a famous photographer and since he has a job and an event to attend in South Korea, he sticks close to Jae Hee and doesn’t miss any opportunity to tease her or to make Tae Joon jealous, because his feelings for Tae Hee. In the end, he backs off too, because he gets rejected and because he can see, that there’s already another person in Jae Hees heart.

Last but not least, there is also Daniel Dawson – a doctor and Jae Hees older brother. He first doesn’t know about Jae Hees lifestyle in South Korea and they meet up with Jae Hee disguised herself as a girl by wearing a wig and Hannas school uniform. Therefore, it’s no surprise, that Daniel wants Jae Hee to leave Genie High and South Korea after finding out about the true circumstances and then letting her stay, because he sees her urge to stay and her sorrow, when he tried to drag her along.
However, it’s natural that not only their secret feelings and their way of getting together are the only things, which concern the whole drama (even though, it is one of the main thing in the drama beside of hiding Jae Hees true identity…), but also other, mostly private problems of the characters.
One of them is Tae Joons broken relationship with his father: Tae Joon blames him for not being by his mother’s side, when she was terrible sick and died due to liver cancer in the hospital. Their relationship seems to get better, after his Father tells him the truth about his mother knowing about her deadly illness and that she hid it in front of Tae Joon, because he had his Olympics coming up. If they really get into the “family thing” again is something I can’t answer, because it’s left open, how it’ll work out.
Another problem and also something, which is shown till almost the end of the drama, is the rivalry between Tae Joon and another excellent high jumper in Genie High: Min Hyun-Jae. He has the pressure from home but also from himself to succeed over Tae Joon – what makes him utterly desperate. His desperation reaches the climax, when he cuts Tae Joons bicycle breaks. Nevertheless, it ends up with Jae Hee riding the bicycle, her getting rescued by Eun Kyul and Tae Joon forgiving Hyun-Jae (and of course… they end up being some kind of friends).
In the end, after getting rid of all those problems, Tae Joon confesses his love for Jae Hee and reveals – after Eun Kyul accidentally finds out – that he knew about Jae Hees true identity from the beginning. They get together, but soon have to face one last problem: Due to an accident and a rumor, Jae Hees true identity is revealed to the whole school, which leads her to leave Genie High right at the date of the High Jump Nationals – of course not without the promise, that Tae Joon will come and meet her.
However, the promise is fulfilled after a year, when Jae Hee’s sitting in the garden and suddenly finds Tae Joon standing right in front of her.

Conclusion

As a SHAWOL (SHINee Fan) I just had to watch this drama and after watching it, I have to say: I have at least three complaints to make.
The first of them is: WHY THE HELL ISN’T IT SHOWN THAT THE DOCTOR (Jang Min-Woo) IS GAY, JUST LIKE IN THE ORIGINAL? Well… maybe the director thinks, it is indirectly shown, that he’s gay, but to me he’s only a fashion freak who behaves a little bit gay. Really… I actually don’t like this bromance and yaoi or shonen-ai stuff, but I honestly have to say, that it would have been a lot funnier, if Min-Woo would have been obviously gay.
The next thing is the “I-am-a-childhood-friend-and-I-love-you-so-I-want-to-destroy-or-at-least-shatter-the-other-romantic-relationships-you-have”-thing. Seriously, it’s typical in a drama and it’s ok if there is one character, which tries to do this, but… TWO??? I mean… Johnny is nice, but to me, he’s not more. He’s not really very much entertaining and only provokes Tae Joon a bit (and secretly takes a lot pictures of Jae Hee … kind of weird, but I think she wouldn’t have any problems to search for any good Facebook profile pictures, since his pictures of her are really beautiful…). Didn’t they have any other ideas to add or what? They could have really added a few funny scenes with the doctor with some guys or whatever instead of this – if they had made him gay! But nooooo… Instead of adding a bit more humor, they added another “villain” of the relationship of Tae Joon and Jae He.

The last complaint is the one, which irritated me the most during the drama, because I just couldn’t get it off my mind: THE ENGLISH!
Really… what the hell was that? In the beginning, we see Jae Hee with her American, blonde friend, who perfectly speaks English and Jae Hee herself doesn’t say a word. The first word in English of Jae Hee we hear is, when she cuts her hair. After her friend telling her, that she doesn’t have to do that, she simply answers: “I gotta do this.”
Ok. I can live with that, but how about a few episodes later, when we see Jae Hee on a track field in America and the blonde girl talking and then asking her how she feels, Jae Hee answers: “Good.”
Ok… I just hope their conversation isn’t always like that.
However, the thing, which kicked me off the edge, was the conversation between Jae Hee and her brother Daniel during the first meeting. He speaks fluently English during the conversation and she answers and talks to him in … wait a minute… KOREAN?! For real?! I mean... couldn’t they just have talked in Korean from the beginning, since Julien Kang (the actor who plays Daniel) speaks Korean fluently?! Seriously, when I saw and heard that, I was like: Head-meets-desk. Really… that was just too much for me to take, since it would have been so much better if Daniel and Jae Hee had spoken the same language, but since it’s done… it’s done and there’s no chance to change it.

Well, after saying my complaints I’d also like to say the positive things in my eyes.
Minho of course was just shining brightly and handsome as ever (I think it’s my SHAWOL side talking right now… haha) and did a good job in his first role – the same goes for Sulli.
Also, another thing was the length of the drama. It was just perfect and it didn’t seem too long or too short for me (another way of saying it: there wasn’t any artificial extension and they didn’t jump from one thing to another randomly).
All in all, I would say, that he drama was quite entertaining and worth looking. However... I wouldn’t watch it again voluntarily; because once you saw it... you saw it.

“You can like a lot of people but you can love only one” - A Hi My Sweetheart Review

Originalname:	海派甜心 | Hai Pai Tian Xin
Also known as:	Shanghai Sweetheart, Shanghai School Sweetheart, Shanghai Honey
Release Date:	1. November 2009 - 31. January 2010
Director:	Lin Helong
Writer:	Yang Bifeng, Jiang Hua, Chen Hongjie, Luo Xini
Cast:	Show Lo, Rainie Yang, Lee Wei, Maggie Wu, Fang Fang, Xiang Yu Jie

Plot

Xue Hai is the only son of a rich family in Taiwan. He was raised very secure by his older sisters (his parents passed away). When he turned 20 he wants to go to college away from his family.

He has his difficulties to fit in because he never attended an open school and to hide his identity he signed in as Lin Da Lang. He gets the target of bulling for Chen Bao Zhu (wow, a girl is a delinquent?). But he wants to be friends with her because he finds out that she is from Taiwan too and also likes Pink Panther.

So Da Lang tries to become friends with her but he gets soon to know why everyone on campus thinks she is a bad person. Bao Zhu should be a thief and an evil heartbreaker but Da Lang thinks this is a misunderstanding and tries against his classmates’ warning to be friends with her.

When they have to handle the paper out which they’ve been working on, Bao Zhu gets blamed for copying the work of another group. Da Lang is the only one who believes that Bao Zhu is innocent and finds out that his roommates steal his work and gave it to the other group. (giant puppy beats them up ö,ö ) Da Lang could manage that the other group say the truth and the teacher apologizes to Bao Zhu. But she is still mad at Da Lang and he tells her that he still cares about her and what he likes about her. She is touched and kisses him. Finally he feels the fireworks, the electro shock. (I guess they are now together?)

Bao Zhu competes in a sweetheart contest where she has to be gentle, sweet and show dance skills. Da Lang, who should play the piano for Mo Li’s dance and incredibly failed, was very surprised and thinks she did it for him because he wished she would be more gentle. She wins the competition and He Yan Feng (the second love interest – ladies and gentleman) sees that Bao Zhu is happy with Da Lang and goes back to Taiwan.

After two years relationship Da Lang gives his Pink Panther as gift to Bao Zhu.

But it comes out that Bao Zhu’s mother wants her daughter to marry a rich boy so she should break up with Da Lang. Da Lang decides to reveal his true identity and to propose to her but when they should meet Bao Zhu gets involved into a car accident and so her mother tells Da Lang that she left the country to marry somebody. Da Lang swears never to fall in love again.

After three years Bao Zhu becomes a radio DJ and searches for Da Lang in the hope he listens her radio show. And what happened to Da Lang? He became as Xue Hai (Remember? That’s his real name) a multi millionaire and a jerk.

What to do to get the girl you want? Let’s buy her work place and be the new boss. That’s what does Xue Hai. He buys the radio station and becomes the new boss of Bao Zhu. When they first meet she thinks it’s Da Lang but he doesn’t want her to know that yet because he wants revenge (yeah... of course... and elephants can fly). He wants to win her heart as Xue Hai and then dump her. So, he tries to seduce her but everything he tries as a rich Casanova fails. She gets even more annoyed and slowly she is turning to Yan Feng who always supported her.

But because she gets again involved in a car accident he recognizes that he still loves her. But if he wants to get her, she has to forget Da Lang. So he appears again as Da Lang, tells her how hurt he was then and that he is now married. Bao Zhu tries to forget Da Lang. But because Mo Li comes to Taiwan and Yan Feng finds out who he really is, everything comes out.

Bao Zhu is really angry and quits. She wants to leave the country but the night before her departure the radio station is set on fire in which she recorded some shows for future. Xue Hai saves her but he gets knocked out. After he wakes up from his unconsciousness he doesn’t remember at all.

Bao Zhu tries everything so that he remembers but he doesn’t want to. After he got kidnapped with Bao Zhu, he gets his memories back (he gets hit with a stone on his head... you know, for kids!)

He gets knocked out again, was brought to the hospital and everything seems fine... Everything? No, he still “doesn’t remember” Bao Zhu. Of course he does. He lies (again) that she can be happy with Ponytail (Yan Feng). But Xe Hai gets drunk, writes a mail to Bao Zhu, wakes in the morning up, sneeks in into her house, deletes the mail and pretends nothing happened. The thing is... she already read the mail and so after spending the whole day together she tells him that she knows he hasn’t forgotten her and she proposes. So they end up together.

Conclusion

This.... was.... long... I finally did it! I finished “Hi My Sweetheart”. Don’t understand me wrong. The drama wasn’t that bad. It was just way too long.

So, I’ll start with what I liked. The story was nice. It shows how two totally different persons come together. They don’t like each other at the beginning, but somehow they end up together. It shows the good times and the hardships they have to handle. Okay, Fortuna was really mean to this both. Maybe one of them messed it really up in his other life. I mean she gets involved in a car accident, not once but twice (!!!); he loses his memory and they nearly died in a burning house. I don’t want to talk about the stone... But you know... For kids! Destiny is really a b**** sometimes.

But here is the problem. Did all this really have to happen? Ok, the first accident was important. Otherwise the following wouldn’t make sense. But the kidnapping and losing memory? Or the stalker? It looks like the writers throw everything that could happen in one’s life time (or twenty lifetimes)... For me it wasn’t necessary.

The main cast was really good. I loved Show Lo who played Da Lang and Xue Hai. Da Lang was just dorky but adorable. He was really cute. And Xue Hai? I think he would fit well into the F4 ;)
Funny thing was, you could really see how Show Lo switched between the rolls. When he played Da Lang he ran dorky (you know, the legs spread wide) and he sometimes looked really funny because he made a underbite. And as Xua Hai he could walk normal, was self confident and he hasn’t  got an underbite.

Rainie Yang played Bao Zhu and I liked her work too. She was cool when she played the mean and misunderstood Bao Zhu at school and then afterwards the sweet, matured Sweetheart.

Then there were Lee Wei who played Yan Feng and Maggie Wu who played Mo Li. Well, they had actually the same character. They were incredibly nice and supporting... As time goes by it gets annoying. But well, a drama needs a second love interest and here we got two of them.

And there were of course annoying characters. For me the most annoying characters were the three from the ice cream parlour, especially the girl... Always: Yan Feng here, Yan Feng there... Yeah, we got it. You love Yan Feng... And I have to say, the acting of the three wasn’t that really good, too.

And now let’s talk about the music. I loved the Pink Panther Theme. It reminded me of my childhood. And the idea about Pink Panther could be the connection between them, I liked it.
They had also a few good songs which matched with the scenes but the Drama overused it. Sometimes you really wished they would play a total new song.

Yeah, like a said, it wasn’t bad. Show Lo and Rainie Yang did a really good job. It’s worth watching it because of them. But the story was just too long.