Perfect Couple was my treat to myself after having a really tough month of March at work since I needed a brainless, cheesy drama. For the most part, the first (maybe 20 episodes) satisfied that requirement and if I knew what was coming, should have stopped right there. From 20 onward, it turned into one of those dramas that make me wonder if a second writer wrote the second half of the drama because it's totally different in tone and execution from the first half.
The Plot
The story revolves around the (somewhat deliberate) mistaken identity that happens between Yu Qi Ling and Jiang Xiao Xuan. Xiao Xuan was to be married to Jin Yuan Bao by the Empress Dowager's decree. But due to the fact that she had never met Yuan Bao and has another man that she loves, Xiao Xuan runs off before the wedding. Qi Ling saw it as her chance to take Xiao Xuan's place so she can get close to Yuan Bao and see if he's her adoptive mother's biological son. Whew! That's a mouthful. Once Qi Ling took Xiao Xuan's place and married Yuan Bao, the two of them fall in love for reals and drama happens.
Because in China, fireflies are green (radioactive?).
Cast and Characters
Tiffany Tang plays Yu Qi Ling, an independent and somewhat bro-ish, not-that-intelligent woman. She went off without her adoptive mother's knowledge to look for her mother's long lost son. And because of bro-ishness and lack of intelligence, the best plan she could come up with was to marry Jin Yuan Bao to find out if he's her...adoptive step-brother?
I started off initially liking Yu Qi Ling's character. She obviously has flaws, being bro-ish and impatient. Yet she kicks ass with kungfu and is shown to be better at physicality than the main male lead. It's somewhat of a gender swap in storytelling to have the woman protect the man and that's enjoyable. But then when the second part of the drama kicks in, her stupidity and selfishness just becomes unbearable. Instead of character growth, she just regressed into being more bro-ish and more stupid. And the writers also forgot that she has martial arts in the second half and she stops kicking ass.
Angela Gong plays Jiang Xiao Xuan, the well-mannered daughter of a prime minister that was ordered to marry the main male lead but ran away to pursue her own life. I'm a fan of this character in general and it's just bad writing in the end that gives her nothing to do in the second half of the drama. Props to Angela Gong for playing a well-mannered lady that's actually kind of well-mannered and dignified-seeming. I've seen way too many dramas where the rich lady acts like a spoiled 12 year old.
And in general, I enjoy the sisterhood that develops between Qi Ling and Xiao Xuan and, probably due to bad writing in the second half, became kind of ignored for the sake of melodrama elsewhere. There's never any sort of romantic competition between the two females. Each of them are very secure in their knowledge of which man each of them loves and there's never any jealousy and mistaken belief that the other woman is out to get her man. I'm very glad the drama skips that cliche and makes them very good friends as opposed to romantic rivals.
Wallace Huo plays Jin Yuan Bao, the rich main lead that's supposed to be very smart and detective-y, but seemingly unable to detect that his wife is not who she said she is. I guess maybe it's a love-is-blind thing, but come on!
Maybe hit in the head too many times caused brain damaged?
This is shallow and the internet fans of this guy will think it's blasphemy, but I think Wallace Huo isn't hot enough to pull off the too-cool-for-life type of character. I mean, I can at least see why people find him attractive (unlike, say George Clooney) since he has supermodel-like bone structure. But I think he looks much better when he's more expressive instead of being too-cool (first half of drama) or making frowny faces (second half of drama). That said, he looks very good as a "disheveled" hobo and/or when he's spitting up blood. Does that make me a weirdo?
Too illustrated:
Cleanest-looking hobo in the world.
and
Not from this drama, but probably one about him losing a paintball match.
Like, he stays so classy, clean, and elegant-looking while being a hobo/spitting up blood. So, good job, actor guy.
Overall, I thought the idea of the character is fine. He's obviously filled with flaws, the most obvious being his inflated sense of self. The good thing is that the drama makes fun of it and the other characters constantly call him out on it. He acts like a know-it-all, but he doesn't always know-it-all (thank goodness!). And for the most part, his character grows...kind of...maybe?
Huang Ming plays Gu Chang Feng, the maybe-incompetent doctor of the Jin mansion. He's generally the comic relief of the group, being the bookworm-ish character that other characters mock. And I find him inoffensive. So probably as a pair of characters, I like Xiao Xuan and Chang Feng more because they cause the least offense towards the second half of the drama.
There are other people in this drama, but I'm a little bit tired of talking about the cast already so let's get to the criticisms!
The Bad
The Writing (second half)
The story was developed by Tong Hua, who wrote the (in my opinion) inferior "time travel and fall in love with a Qing Dynasty prince" drama, Scarlet Heart. So when the story fell apart in the second half, I was like "of course". In the second half, just about everything is terrible. There are way too many misunderstandings between the main couple when they already declared that they would die for one another in the first half. At that point, how could one still think the other was playing with his/her heart? At that point, how many times could one of them chase after the other to try to win that person back? And at that point, how could their communication still be so terrible and how can they think noble idiocy would be the best course of action to "save the other person from more pain?"? They make up and break up more time than I can think of in the second half and it's just terribly repetitive.
They somehow made Qi Ling, who was fairly likable in the first half, totally unbearable in the second. She initially wants Yuan Bao to reunite with his birth mother but as she observes the interaction and obvious love between Yuan Bao and Mother Jin, she realizes that it's not in Yuan Bao's best interest to reveal things to him and that Mother Jin isn't as evil and heartless as she imagined. I think that's a fairly mature and interesting story choice and they should have stuck more with that from the first half. But in the second half, because reasons (I can't even remember, because it's not very good), she just maliciously lets out that Yuan Bao isn't Mother Jin's biological son and that Mother Jin is totally evil (she's not). She then goes on to call Yuan Bao heartless for not immediately going over to his birth mom's side after that reveal. Does she have no empathy at all? It makes total sense as a human being to not immediately leave the mom that raised him his whole life for a woman that he just found out was the birth mom. It would, in fact, be heartless had he immediately left Mother Jin for his birth mother.
Towards the end, it seems like everyone's brain stopped functioning. The main premise is that Qi Ling pretended to be Xiao Xuan to marry Yuan Bao, which, because the marriage was bestowed by the Empress Dowager, is a Big Deal if other people were to find out. Yet once the four main leads were all aware of their real identities, they started calling the two women by their real names. They do this despite knowing that there's a mole inside their mansion actively working against them. And sure enough, just about everyone that shouldn't find out about their real identities find out about it.
Mother Jin finds out that the Housekeeper was evil this whole time...but does nothing about it because she hoped things would work out for the best? Housekeeper ends up staging a coupe inside the Jin mansion and it's mentioned that there are many servants still loyal to the Jin family...yet none of them notifies the authority about this? And while the Housekeeper is torturing Yuan Bao and keeping Qi Ling captive, Xiao Xuan and Chang Feng are just hanging out in their own part of the mansion...hoping that things would turn out for the best? The end reveal is that Yuan Bao never trusted the Housekeeper to begin with and knew that he committed various murder and evil plots along with the Second Prince to try to take the throne. Yet he kept all that to himself because...he likes to see how it would play out for the sake of drama?
There are just so many plot holes at the end that, even though I was in it for brainless entertainment, I could notice all the holes. When Yuan Bao went off to be a hobo, Mother Jin says that she will send out her men to secretly watch over him. But where were these men when the Housekeeper went off to murder Yuan Bao? Qi Ling knows martial arts and is actually pretty good at it. Yet she's constantly being overpowered by others. At various points, she's restrained by lackeys, which, fine. But then it shows Xiao Xuan, a rich lady that knows no martial arts, also being restrained by lackeys. Yet Xiao Xuan is able to struggle out of their grasps and run away while the many times Qi Ling is restrained, she could only call Yuan Bao's name. Oh, lordy! Come on, this woman knows martial arts but is constantly at the mercy of others at the the end!
Everyone - even the doofus that doesn't know martial arts - has a sword...except for the woman that actually knows martial arts!
And the worst, most offensive part of the drama was the end. It seems like a happy ending for all and the main leads marry who they're supposed to marry. But Yuan Bao gets up the next morning after the wedding to find that Qi Ling had left him. Her note explains that she's angry with him for not letting her in on his plan to expose the Second Prince. Therefore to make him suffer, she's going to go off for an indeterminate amount of time. That's fucked up (should have cleared it up before the wedding?) and childish, but fine, whatever. Except the text tells us that six months - friggin' six months! - passed before Qi Ling shows up dressed as a man and whoring at the local brothel. Yuan Bao and Qi Ling meet and all is forgiven and they make out inside the brothel.
Is that supposed to be romantic?
If I were Yuan Bao, I would never speak to this wife of mine ever again. Just get some concubines or something. Instead of talking out their issues, Qi Ling thought the best course of action was to stomp off somewhere to pout for six months. I can get being mad at your spouse. But to just leave and not let him know how long she's be gone is such a dick move. Fuck that shit, man! The writer thought that it would make her character all cute and quirky to pull shit like that. Instead, it just makes her come off as willful and selfish. As egotistical as Yuan Bao may be, he deserves a better spouse, honestly.
The Lighting
This started off as cheesy fun at first. The forest at night is lit up with the light of five full moons, by the looks of it. When the main leads kiss, there's always a very bright spotlight right behind them. But then it became very distracting and just a weird set choice after awhile. Almost every time the Housekeeper character is talking, there's a bright light right behind his head, making his ears all orange and glow-y. The bright light just highlights every imperfection. I actually thought the hair was very well done for most of the characters. But the bright light makes all the weaves super obvious whereas a less harsh lighting would have hid all that. And then there's the say-it-don't-spray-it.
Dang.
Poor Chang Feng!
Holy crap!
I get that it's probably just impossible to talk without some spit flying. Then you add having to emote and stuff and it's difficult to keep everything dry. But the super bright lighting makes it very comically obvious. I hope whoever was in charge of lighting was dragged off and shot (this being China) afterwards.
The Set Design
I mean, look at this.
It looks like a room of a eight year old girl, not a 20 year old man. The Jin mansion looks super nouveau riche instead of being dignified.
At least it's mainly a comedy, so I can accept the cheesiness. But, honestly, who was the set designer?
The Editing
China sucks at editing. But it's like the editor gave up at about the same time as the writer. Towards the end, there would be a scenery shot, typically done to establish place and time. Then it would cut to an interior shot. Except the scenery shot would clearly be in day time and the interior shot would clearly be at night, with one of the characters even saying something to the extent of "why did you wake me up so late in the middle of the night?". Like, the fuck?
After all that, the Good
The Writing (the first half)
The first half of the drama reminds me of an inferior Stealing Dragon, Exchanging Phoenix. Mistaken identities and people who are not who they say they are generally make for good comedy and this drama certainly tries. I would say they level of comedy is nowhere near as quality as Stealing Dragon, Exchanging Phoenix. In fact, a lot of it's on the immature side, which could be okay if done well.
Qi Ling's motivations are questionable and selfish from beginning to end. But at least somewhere in the middle, she thought about putting Yuan Bao's interests above her own selfish (and a little self-righteous) ones.
I thought the initial romance between Qi Ling and Yuan Bao to be cute. Despite claiming to be quite the ladies' man, Yuan Bao seems to have no idea how to woo a woman, which became evident when Chang Feng comes to him for dating advise ("ignore the woman and show the other women in her presence a lot of attention to make her jealous"). It led to a somewhat amusing dinner scene with the four of them where Chang Feng kept feeding Qi Ling and Yuan Bao instead of paying any attention to a confused Xiao Xuan. Upon noticing that Qi Ling spends a lot of time in the Housekeeper's company, Yuan Bao demands that Qi Ling writes down a schedule of who she talks to and what she does each day. In general, having the main male lead act the fool to chase after the main female lead is a good mix since, all too often, it's the woman trying her darnest to get the man's attention.
The Cheese
Again, first half, the cheesiness was bearable. Everything is very colorful and everything very well lit. It fits the tone of it being a very cheesy comedy and it does it well. If only the drama had realized it's a cheesy romantic comedy and stayed that way!
The Actors
Despite all my complaints, I find all the actors in this drama raging from bearable to very likable. No one stands out as terrible in any way. Special props go out to Huang Ming for playing the bookworm, naive Chang Feng convincingly. As I often say, Chinese drama is typically terrible at portraying the naive, innocent male character (I'm thinking of China's Greatest Actor as I type). Huang Ming does a fairly good job of being cheerful and happy without being cringe-inducing.
Look at that derpy face!
It's just a shame the writing in the second half made everything so terrible because this could have been a good drama had it either 1) just ended at the halfway mark when Mother Jin found out about Qi Ling's real identity and decided to just cover for her son and daughter-in-law because she sees how much they love each other or 2) had better writers that didn't go insane after the halfway mark.
Ending Song
I've decided that most drama's opening theme song is just kind of "eh" while the ending/insert songs are better. Della Ding and Wallace Huo's opening theme song is a little too "county" and overly cutesy for me. But I thought Li Qi's ending song "Perfect Couple" was quite alright.
Click to view
And because I'm slow, it took me until the last episode to realize the word play in drama's name. The word for word translation of the name is "Gold Jade Perfect Relationship", which I only realize is a play on the name of Jin (gold) Yuan Bao and Yu (Jade) Qi Ling. It's not even a very clever play on words or anything, but I'm just slow. So, whew, that's over with!