Title: 幸福最晴天 Xìngfú Zuì Qíngtiān
English Title:
- Sunny Happiness
- Being the Most Sunny
Language: Mandarin Chinese
Year: 2011
Episode: 16
Cast:
- 賀軍翔 Hè Jūn Xiáng (Mike He)
- 張鈞甯 Zhāng Jūn Níng (Janine Chang)
- 李易峰 Li Yì Fēng
- 周子涵 Zhōu Zi Hán
- 李今銘 Li Jīn Míng
- 鄭偉 Zhèng Wěi
SYNOPSIS
Fang Yong Yong has lived in an orphanage when she was younger and she has continuously supported the institution. She is devastated when she finds out that the orphanage was bought out by a huge corporation who plans to put up a shopping center instead.
She works as a cleaner at a huge hotel. Capable and hardworking, Yong Yong is always given the most difficult tasks at work, including cleaning the office of the hotel president.
Xiang Yun Jie is a workaholic who has exceptionally high standards and little patience for mistakes. He is divorced from his first wife who did not tell him that they have a son. When he finds out that he has an eight-year-old son, he tries to fight for legal custody. His lawyer advises him to enter in a contract marriage in order to have better chances of getting awarded custody by the family courts.
Yun Jie proposes a business arrangement with his employee Yong Yong. They will enter into a contract marriage and will get divorced a year later.
REVIEW
Sunny Happiness may not be a drama for everyone because quite frankly, it is a very laid back drama with understated characters and relatively slow plot development. It could have been a much better drama as a whole if it has around ten to fifteen episodes, rather than twenty-five episodes.
Fang Yong Yong is a very interesting female lead character because she is not an unfortunate heroine that needs the hero to save her. Her family set-up is similar to fairy tale classic Cinderella's but her stepmother and two stepsisters treat her as truly part of the family. She works as a cleaning lady but she takes pride on her work. She's a nice person but she doesn't hesitate to speak out her opinions.
Fang Yong Yong: In your eyes, other than yourself, are you able to see others? Surely you are not thinking that everything that happens in this universe is linked to you? (You are) such a self-centered person.
Yong Yong's relationship with Xiang Yun Jie is also fascinating. When they met the first few times, they were mostly at odds with each other but they didn't fight like cats and dogs. They also communicated well with each other so any differing points of view are raised immediately and any misunderstandings are cleared as soon as it rises.
From acquaintances, they became close friends right away. It isn't clear when they grew to love each other romantically, just that their relationship naturally progressed that way. I think it's a pity that as viewers, we didn't get these moments of realization from the characters about their feelings.
Anyway, I love the drama's use of parallel scenes in order to tell its story. Similar events are utilized to showcase the lead characters' deepening feelings for each other, such as when they got married early on purely as a business arrangement and then when they got married later on with their full emotional commitment.
I also appreciate that Sunny Happiness did away with most dramas' predilection with the 'first love lasts forever' theme. Yun Jie and Yong Yong are not each other's first love, but what they had together is a great love that is right for them. They may have met each other after being in serious relationships with other people but they have met at the right time and they are in the right frame of mind to make a relationship work with each other that will hopefully last a lifetime.
On a decidedly superficial level, am I the only one bothered by actor Mike He's eyebrows in this drama? He has colored his hair medium brown but his eyebrows are black. I suppose it isn't a requirement that the hair color should match the eyebrow color but it would have been better if the colors are complementary or close enough that everything works well together.
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幸福最晴天 Sunny Happiness
