Chinese Drama: Love & Life & Lie (遇見愛情的利先生)
Total Episodes: 38
Airs: 2 episodes/day
Synopsis:
Despite her top scores in school, our heroine Liu Xin Tong chose to give up her chance for a collage degree when it become obvious that her single mother could never afford to send her. Without a degree or a decent work resume to her name, the naturally upbeat Xin Tong does her best at working various part time jobs.
Out delivering pizzas, Xing Tong’s trademark short temper flares up when she meets a spoiled rich princess (second female lead, Ji Zhi Zhen) who is determined to make her apologize for something she didn’t do. In the chaos of the two girls’ argument, Xing Tong accidentally pushes Zhi Zhen into the pool and wisely decides to take off before she could end up in more trouble.
Pained once she realized she had left without collecting the rather sizable pizza money, Xin Tong hesitantly approaches the man (hero, Li Yao Nan) that she had seen standing with the rich spoiled princess and tried to get him to pay the bill instead. A bit intimated by Xin Tong’s mighty fist (our heroine is quite good at martial arts) but unwilling to pay up, Yao Nan runs away wondering if Xin Tong could even be considered a woman.
Returning to Zhi Zhen’s house the next day hoping to find a way to collect her overdue pizza money, our heroine ended up saving Zhi Zhen’s father from a knife wielding robber. Feeling immensely grateful to Xin Tong especially since our heroine was hurt while fighting off the robber by herself, Daddy Ji (female second lead’s father) rushes Xin Tong to the hospital and thank Mama Liu (heroine’s mother) profusely. At first too worried about her daughter’s injury to pay much attention to Daddy Ji, Mama Liu finally looks up and is shocked to realized Daddy Ji is the man she has been secretly searching for the last 21 years.
Turns out, Xin Tong and Zhi Zhen were accidentally switched at birth. Mama Liu had found out the mistake after seeing a golden locket on baby Xin Tong but apparently the Ji family never discovered the hospital error. While Mama Liu had raised Xin Tong with love but she has never given up on searching for her daughter. Desperate to see her daughter but not wanting to destroy the pampered life style Zhi Zhen enjoys, Mama Liu begs Daddy Ji to hire her as a live in maid.
Used to doing everything she could to make her mother happy, Xin Tong suppresses her dismay at having to move into the spoiled princess’ house. No less happy to have Xing Tong around, Zhi Zhen’s dislike towards our heroine soon escalates into hatred once it becomes obvious that her long time crush, Yao Nao has taken an unusual interest in our heroine. Unable to control her need to give her real daughter everything she desires, Mama Liu soon finds herself taking Zhi Zhen’s side in everything…even to the point of slapping Xing Tong right in front of Zhi Zhen just to make her happy.
As a playboy who is used to shielding his true feelings from the world with a careless attitude, Yao Nan finds himself enjoying the unending spats with our spunky heroine…that is until he belatedly realize he can’t take his eyes off her anymore.
Ninja’s First Impression:
I checked this one out with an extremely low expectation since C-city romance dramas has always been more of miss than a hit for me. However, this one has turned out to be a pleasant surprise! Now, the plot is pretty predicable and the writer is not shy about using cliches but I find the two leads so cute together that I can pretty much overlook the flaws.
I like the fact that while the writer has stuck with stereotypes when it comes to character creations, the show still managed to give our leads enough depth to make them interesting if not even endearing. For instance, Mama Liu’s change of attitude towards our heroine is a bit over the top…and predicable but despite that I still find myself empathizing with our heroine’s pain and confusion as she tries to make sense of why she had suddenly lost her mother’s love. Plus, it also helps that the hero is constantly getting beat up by the heroine which always garner big bonus points in my book.
All in all, if you don’t mind some cliches this one looks quite promising!