Sorry, this was so late in coming but hopefully, some of you are still curious how the show compared with the novel.  Firstable, let’s go over Here to Heart as a stand-alone drama. To be honest, if I didn’t read the novel beforehand I don’t think I would’ve had the patience to finish watching Here to Heart. The show was painfully draggy at parts and the dull subplots didn’t help either, so I would’ve bailed in a flash if it wasn’t for my curiosity of how the show differs from the novel. To be fair, I actually think the scriptwriter did a decent job in adding some creative details (ie. the puzzle and the heroine’s amnesia. Both were not part of the novel but I thought they were a nice touch.) The problem I think lies in the fact that it was a bit difficult to transplant our two leads’ romance from the novel to TV (I will explain why below) and it was also extremely challenging to make a short novel stretch into a 46 episode drama.

Here are some notable differences between the novel and the show:

1. The hero’s mother never opposed them in the novel. In fact, she was the mysterious person that had the human resource director hire our heroine then subsequently suggested her name as our hero’s executive assistant. Mama Nan never blamed her husband’s death on Wen Nuan and knew that our heroine was the only one for her son.

2. The second male lead, Lin Lu found his own happy ending. In the novel, neither Lin Lu or Yi Xin were as stuck on our two leads as they were in the drama. Both had dreamed once upon a time of spending the rest of their lives with our respective leads, but time eventually convinced them that they were chasing after a pipe dream.

3. Our two leads actually both seriously entertained thoughts of just marrying the person who spent the last ten years by their side but that obviously was never going to work.

4. This one is the most interesting difference between the novel and the show to me. Plus, also why I think the scriptwriter had a difficult time retelling the story onscreen. In the novel, our two leads, Nan Xian and Wen Nuan loved each other…but they also hated one another. The drama threw a lot of obstacles at our two leads, but in the book, they really didn’t need any since they were each other’s biggest obstacles. Our hero was convinced that Wen Nuan gave up on their love so easily because he had spoiled her in their relationship, thus his obsession with creating myriads of situations to force her to fight for him. In the first few years of their separation, Nan Xian had held onto hope that Wen Nuan would come back to him. However, that hope became resentment, then hate when Wen Nuan disappeared without a trace and Nan Xian is left in a dark abyss with seemingly no end in sight. As for our heroine, she did feel guilty for Nan Xian’s father’s death but her own father’s death was in a way caused by our hero as well. Nan Xian had tried to make Wen Nuan jealous by kissing Yi Xin in front her at school. Distraught, the young Wen Nuan had sobbed while she was on the phone with her father. Concerned, Wen Nuan’s father booked the first plane home and that’s how both of our two leads’ father ended up on the same plane. In the end, this was really a youthful romance that broke up because of immaturity from both sides but unfortunately, it then caused the lives of their fathers. With the tragedy of their fathers’ death marking a horrific end to their love, Nan Xian and Wen Nuan both naively believed they could eventually forget each other. However, much to their dismay and eventual desperation, Nan Xian and Wen Nuan find out the hard way that they can’t let go of each other. So, yes, our two leads love each other but they also hated that very fact because they were both prisoners of their love.

5. Yi Xin’s boyfriend, Pan Wei Ning was really no match at all for our hero in the novel. In fact, Yi Xin was quite displeased that Wei Ning’s family disliked her, so Nan Xian made it so Pan Wei Ning’s family kicked him out…that way, Yi Xin doesn’t have to worry about hard to please in-laws anymore. The novel didn’t really give too many details about Yi Xin and Pan Wei Ning’s romance but it was obvious that Yi Xin had long moved on from our hero and was really just playing along to help Nan Xian make Wen Nuan jealous.

6. Our heroine’s sister didn’t work for Lin Lu so that bit of romance with her assistant didn’t happen either. She did have her own happy ending with a boyfriend that didn’t show up until the very end (It was a long distance relationship).

7. One particular scene I loved in the novel was unfortunately left out in the drama. Like I mentioned in #4, our hero was obsessed with making Wen Nuan prove that she will fight for him this time around so he ended up setting up a fake wedding with Yi Xin. (This part was in the drama as well.) Still convinced there is too much pain (mainly from their father’s death) between them to have a happy ending AND mixed in with the fact that our hero had purposefully let her believe the Yi Xin’s baby was his, our heroine is mired in a battle within herself right up to the time of the wedding. In the drama, Wen Nuan eventually heads to the wedding venue but ends up missing the whole thing because of traffic. In the novel, this part was a whole lot more exciting. Wen Nuan never made it to the wedding but it was because she was actually kidnapped by Lin Lu’s uncle in hopes of getting a large sum of ransom.  Overjoyed when she figured out who kidnapped her, Wen Nuan begs her kidnappers to do her a big favor by calling our hero for an even larger sum of money than they could’ve gotten from Lin Lu. Since Lin Lu was out of the country at that point, it wasn’t too difficult to convince the kidnappers to follow Wen Nuan’s suggestion. Gao Fang (hero’s best friend) was the one that picked up the kidnapper’s phone call (made via Wen Nuan’s phone). Yelling out Nan Xian’s name in surprise right in the middle of the wedding once he figured out who was actually on the phone, Gao Fang blurts out “Nan Xian, Wen Nuan didn’t come because she couldn’t even if she wanted to!” Frowning, Nan Xian takes the phone from Gao Fang while the rest of the wedding guest, along with the audience watching the wedding in real time on tv looks on with puzzlement. Listening to the person on the phone for a few moments, Nan Xian says “I understand. Hold on for a minute. Don’t hang up.” Standing still in silence, Nan Xian seems to finally processed what was happening after a few moments. “Bang!” A loud crashing sound strartled everyone as Nan Xian kicked the platform in front of him with such a force that it snapped in half, narrowing missing the priest. So shocked by Nan Xian’s burst of anger Yi Xin jumps back and would’ve fallen if it wasn’t for Pan Wei Ning who had quickly pulled her into his arms. The fall of the platform also dragged with it many of the decorations and flowers, making a lot of female guests scream in surprise creating chaos. Grabbing the ring case from Gao Fang in one move, Nan Xian throws it at Pan Wei Ning and orders “Marry her right now! You have half of an hour. If you haven’t married her by then, I will get rid of that baby of yours!” Marching away, Nan Xian grabs the phone again and says “Yang Wen Zhong (the kidnapper’s name), listen carefully. I will give you whatever you want but on one condition. Wen Nuan’s heart is not very good so please take care of her. If something happens to her then I will hang all 17 members of your family from my company’s rooftop!” Finally realizing he might’ve chewed off more than he bargained for, Yang Wen Zhong angrily turns to Wen Nuan and accuses “You set up a trap for me?!” Walking over to calm the visibly agitated man down, Wen Nuan assures him “Mr. Yang, don’t get too worked up. It wasn’t a trap, plus his rage was not because you kidnapped me.”  Curious, one of the men asks “Then why?” Only giving a mysterious smile in reply, Wen Nuan knows very well that Nan Xian is so angry because he will never find out if she will go and stop his wedding.

8. The ending in the novel is also different than the one in the show. While Wen Nuan did end up taking over Nan Xian’s company after he disappeared but instead of our heroine go searching for Nan Xian, Wen Nuan once again thwarted our hero’s attempt to “teach” her a lesson by forcing him to come back begging for forgiveness once he finds out from a magazine cover that she is pregnant. The show’s ending was probably more the traditional sort but I thought the novel’s ending was quite cute since I think it was the author’s way of telling our hero that he will always be hopeless when it comes to our heroine.

 

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