“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.