Thoughts on currently airing "Love Destiny"
Happy belated Chinese New Year! Since I spent the weekend with family, I am now spending this week catching up on all the new episodes that I missed. Luckily, Die Sterntaler has been on a break for the past two weeks so I'm all caught up there, but the newly aired cdramas Love Destiny and Swordman (the most recent remake of Xiao Ao Jiang Hu) are both on 2-episode-per-day releases, so I'm bound to be behind. Here's a quick bunch of thoughts on the former -- the latter probably warrants a post of its own.
Love Destiny started airing just yesterday -- it's a modern cdrama, produced by China Syndication, which also produced My Daughter and Waking Love Up, both of which I really enjoyed and which fall on the higher end of production value when it comes to modern cdramas. Right now the only way I can describe Love Destiny is that it's like Yu-Gi-Oh!, except about cooking instead of dueling. In the first episode, we have the Tang couple re-opening their family restaurant, except one of their former fellow apprentices comes up to challenge them, so they decide to settle everything with a cooking contest. Yes, a cooking contest. The winner is victorious because he was full of lovey, caring feelings while making his noodles, whereas the loser was full of hate and cared more about making a profit than making good food, so of course he lost.
As lame and overly dramatic as this all sounds, I'm actually quite enjoying LD, although a word of caution -- don't watch this when you're hungry. There's just way too much food presented. And I'm actually not that big a fan of this following promotional poster, since it makes it seem like people are going to have their necks snapped, but maybe that's just the unromantic in me.
(L-R) Tian Xin (Re Yizha), Tang Li (Chen He), Tang Zheng (Melvin Sia), Cheng Xi (Qi Wei), Cheng Chaoqun (Zhang Danfeng), Tang Tang (Lou Yixiao)
Here's something much more romantic -- the drama's opening theme, sung by Qi Wei and Aska Yang (whose voice I love love love). I actually subbed this MV, which means I listened to it maybe around 50 times when doing the timing, translating, and encoding, but I'm still not sick of it. That's how lovely it is.
Personally, I don't think the first episode was particularly strong, mostly because they had to introduce a bunch of characters, who turn out to be the older generation, and then we get the younger generation, most of whom are played by the same actors, so everything becomes a little jumbled and confusing. Apparently Chinese netizens had a bunch of trouble keeping everything straight. I myself had to keep track of all the relationships in a Notepad document just to make sense of what was going on. Here's what I have:
This is Cheng Xi, played by Qi Wei. She was the baby girl who was supposed to grow up in the Tang family but ended up being raised by the Cheng family. Her adoptive parents aren't that fond of her (especially her adoptive mom), since they see her as an orphan of an unknown background, but her grandparents (i.e. Cheng Shi's dad and mom) and her older brother dote on her.
This is Tang Zheng, played by Melvin Sia. He was the baby boy who was supposed to grow up in the Cheng family but ended up being raised by the Tang family. He's a culinary genius and is also the adorkable, bumbling, awkward, and kind older brother, a role which I adore. I'm already shipping him majorly hard with Cheng Xi.
Our OTP first meet at the airport. She's coming back from overseas studies, whereas Tang Zheng is picking up his little sister Tang Tang. He mistakes Cheng Xi for Tang Tang, because they're wearing the same thing and even have the same luggage. He picks her up from behind and swings her around, and then when they both fall over on the ground, he realizes that she's not his little sister. She accuses him of being a pervert, but then Tang Tang shows up and everyone laughs upon seeing that the two girls are dressed so similarly. Tang Zheng offers to drive Cheng Xi back home, as an apology for his earlier behavior, and pretty soon our OTP is checking out one another.
Unfortunately, Cheng Xi's older brother Cheng Chaoqun, played by Zhang Danfeng, wants to marry Cheng Xi, since they're not blood-related siblings. Cheng Xi has always seen him as just an older brother, so she's busy soaking up the affections of the adorkable Tang Zheng. I really like Zhang Danfeng, and his character currently is the perfect gentleman, always watching out for his little sister and pulling out her chair for her and defending her in arguments and such. But he's supposed to become an asshole later once she rejects him in favor of Tang Zheng.
But who better to redeem an asshole than the sweet Tang Tang, played by Lou Yixiao? She develops a crush on Chaoqun, since he's hot and successful and everything, but it takes a while for him to warm up to her. As of episode 4, they've only said about two sentences to each other, so here's another photo of them, looking adorably angsty, to show you why you should root for this pairing:
We also have Tang Li, played by Chen He, and Tian Xin, played by Re Yizha. Unfortunately, Tang Li's dad (Tang Guanzhong) and Tian Xin's dad (Tian Zaitian) are pretty much sworn rivals -- they were the two former fellow apprentices who had a cooking contest in episode one -- so this relationship is bound to hit some bumps in the road once it gets going. Tian Xin is also somewhat ill, and in the drama world, this means she most likely has a terminal illness, so that's double angst there.
Like I said before, Love Destiny is like Yu-Gi-Oh!: Generation Cooking, because only four episodes have been released and already we've had one super-dramatic impromptu cooking contest, one super-dramatic official cooking contest, and several super-dramatic tasting contests. Episode four ends right in the middle of a super-dramatic meal, where the Tang family has been asked to prepare lunch for the Cheng family, to see if the two families can strike up a business deal. Tang Li gets an anonymous call that someone has put poison in one of the food items, and since no one knows what to do, Cheng Xi decides to taste all of the food they've prepared to see which one's been tampered with and thus can't be served. The entire Tang family helps her, since they can't have her be the lone poison detector. Where is the poison lurking? Tune in next time! (Actually, the previews reveal everything, so there's no suspense whatsoever, but I'm still excited to see how everything turns out.)
The one strange thing about LD is that sometimes I feel like I'm watching an unfinished release, since there are occasionally little snippets cut out, so that family arguments end abruptly and people who were sitting are suddenly standing, etc. It's nothing major, but it can throw me off, which is always a little weird. But, on a whole, I'm enjoying this one.
Love Destiny started airing just yesterday -- it's a modern cdrama, produced by China Syndication, which also produced My Daughter and Waking Love Up, both of which I really enjoyed and which fall on the higher end of production value when it comes to modern cdramas. Right now the only way I can describe Love Destiny is that it's like Yu-Gi-Oh!, except about cooking instead of dueling. In the first episode, we have the Tang couple re-opening their family restaurant, except one of their former fellow apprentices comes up to challenge them, so they decide to settle everything with a cooking contest. Yes, a cooking contest. The winner is victorious because he was full of lovey, caring feelings while making his noodles, whereas the loser was full of hate and cared more about making a profit than making good food, so of course he lost.
As lame and overly dramatic as this all sounds, I'm actually quite enjoying LD, although a word of caution -- don't watch this when you're hungry. There's just way too much food presented. And I'm actually not that big a fan of this following promotional poster, since it makes it seem like people are going to have their necks snapped, but maybe that's just the unromantic in me.
(L-R) Tian Xin (Re Yizha), Tang Li (Chen He), Tang Zheng (Melvin Sia), Cheng Xi (Qi Wei), Cheng Chaoqun (Zhang Danfeng), Tang Tang (Lou Yixiao)
Here's something much more romantic -- the drama's opening theme, sung by Qi Wei and Aska Yang (whose voice I love love love). I actually subbed this MV, which means I listened to it maybe around 50 times when doing the timing, translating, and encoding, but I'm still not sick of it. That's how lovely it is.
Click to viewPersonally, I don't think the first episode was particularly strong, mostly because they had to introduce a bunch of characters, who turn out to be the older generation, and then we get the younger generation, most of whom are played by the same actors, so everything becomes a little jumbled and confusing. Apparently Chinese netizens had a bunch of trouble keeping everything straight. I myself had to keep track of all the relationships in a Notepad document just to make sense of what was going on. Here's what I have:
- Cheng Shi (Melvin Sia) and Fang Juan (Qi Wei) are running away from Cheng Shi's parents, who disapprove of their relationship. They run into Tang Guanzhong (Chen He) and Wan Huixiang (Lou Yixiao), who help them escape. The two couples become good friends and plan to run a restaurant together.
- The two women, Fang Juan and Wan Huixiang, are both pregnant and give birth one day apart from each other. Fang Juan has a boy, and Wan Huixiang has a girl. Fang Juan owns a necklace (that I think is a Cheng family heirloom?), and she gives it to the baby girl.
- 100 days later, Wan Huixiang takes the baby boy to go shopping, while Fang Juan keeps the baby girl with her at home. Cheng Shi's father turns up and demands that Cheng Shi and the child return with him. Because the baby girl is wearing the necklace, presumably he thinks the girl is Cheng Shi's daughter.
- Cheng Shi gives the baby girl to Tang Guanzhong (who is her actual father) and then runs off with Fang Juan. Tang Guanzhong drives off with the baby girl while being pursued and then gets into an accident. Cheng Shi and Fang Juan witness the accident and accidentally fall off a cliff to their deaths.
- Cheng Shi's father has the baby girl taken away from the accident and gives her to his daughter (Cheng Shi's younger sister) to raise, since he thinks the baby girl is his granddaughter. I'm guessing he either leaves a decoy dead baby girl for Tang Guanzhong and Wan Huixiang to find or just makes it seem like the baby girl disappeared.
- The baby girl grows up in the Cheng family and becomes Cheng Xi (Qi Wei). She has an older adoptive brother named Cheng Chaoqun (Zhang Danfeng). Their last names are still Cheng, because the family wants to keep the name (probably for business matters).
- The baby boy, who had been taken shopping with Wan Huixiang earlier, grows up in the Tang family and becomes Tang Zheng (Melvin Sia). He gets two younger siblings later, fraternal twins Tang Li (Chen He) and Tang Tang (Lou Yixiao).
This is Cheng Xi, played by Qi Wei. She was the baby girl who was supposed to grow up in the Tang family but ended up being raised by the Cheng family. Her adoptive parents aren't that fond of her (especially her adoptive mom), since they see her as an orphan of an unknown background, but her grandparents (i.e. Cheng Shi's dad and mom) and her older brother dote on her.
This is Tang Zheng, played by Melvin Sia. He was the baby boy who was supposed to grow up in the Cheng family but ended up being raised by the Tang family. He's a culinary genius and is also the adorkable, bumbling, awkward, and kind older brother, a role which I adore. I'm already shipping him majorly hard with Cheng Xi.
Our OTP first meet at the airport. She's coming back from overseas studies, whereas Tang Zheng is picking up his little sister Tang Tang. He mistakes Cheng Xi for Tang Tang, because they're wearing the same thing and even have the same luggage. He picks her up from behind and swings her around, and then when they both fall over on the ground, he realizes that she's not his little sister. She accuses him of being a pervert, but then Tang Tang shows up and everyone laughs upon seeing that the two girls are dressed so similarly. Tang Zheng offers to drive Cheng Xi back home, as an apology for his earlier behavior, and pretty soon our OTP is checking out one another.
Unfortunately, Cheng Xi's older brother Cheng Chaoqun, played by Zhang Danfeng, wants to marry Cheng Xi, since they're not blood-related siblings. Cheng Xi has always seen him as just an older brother, so she's busy soaking up the affections of the adorkable Tang Zheng. I really like Zhang Danfeng, and his character currently is the perfect gentleman, always watching out for his little sister and pulling out her chair for her and defending her in arguments and such. But he's supposed to become an asshole later once she rejects him in favor of Tang Zheng.
But who better to redeem an asshole than the sweet Tang Tang, played by Lou Yixiao? She develops a crush on Chaoqun, since he's hot and successful and everything, but it takes a while for him to warm up to her. As of episode 4, they've only said about two sentences to each other, so here's another photo of them, looking adorably angsty, to show you why you should root for this pairing:
We also have Tang Li, played by Chen He, and Tian Xin, played by Re Yizha. Unfortunately, Tang Li's dad (Tang Guanzhong) and Tian Xin's dad (Tian Zaitian) are pretty much sworn rivals -- they were the two former fellow apprentices who had a cooking contest in episode one -- so this relationship is bound to hit some bumps in the road once it gets going. Tian Xin is also somewhat ill, and in the drama world, this means she most likely has a terminal illness, so that's double angst there.
Like I said before, Love Destiny is like Yu-Gi-Oh!: Generation Cooking, because only four episodes have been released and already we've had one super-dramatic impromptu cooking contest, one super-dramatic official cooking contest, and several super-dramatic tasting contests. Episode four ends right in the middle of a super-dramatic meal, where the Tang family has been asked to prepare lunch for the Cheng family, to see if the two families can strike up a business deal. Tang Li gets an anonymous call that someone has put poison in one of the food items, and since no one knows what to do, Cheng Xi decides to taste all of the food they've prepared to see which one's been tampered with and thus can't be served. The entire Tang family helps her, since they can't have her be the lone poison detector. Where is the poison lurking? Tune in next time! (Actually, the previews reveal everything, so there's no suspense whatsoever, but I'm still excited to see how everything turns out.)
The one strange thing about LD is that sometimes I feel like I'm watching an unfinished release, since there are occasionally little snippets cut out, so that family arguments end abruptly and people who were sitting are suddenly standing, etc. It's nothing major, but it can throw me off, which is always a little weird. But, on a whole, I'm enjoying this one.