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Sunny Happiness taiwanese drama review
Completed
Sunny Happiness
4 people found this review helpful
by All_In
Mar 18, 2017
25 of 25 episodes seen
Completed 1
Overall 8.5
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 8.5
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 7.0
Sunny Happiness is a friendship to love / contract marriage T-Drama that starts out with some of the normal cliches and tropes seen in dramas: the meeting of the leads, the animosity, the maid versus the boss etc. However, after the first few episodes, I realized it is how the drama deals with the cliches/contrivances that is interesting. This is a character driven drama, not a plot driven one so if you are looking at this drama thinking a huge # of episodes are going to mess with orphanage issues/ business shenanigans or depressing custody battles, let me put those concerns to rest. But first the cons: Foundation of the breakup: To put Yun Jie (Mike He) in the situation about not knowing about his child, the writers basically throw the mom character under the bus and make her entirely unreasonable. It just makes no sense and the viewer will think he's a jerk and she's horrible... I think the viewer has to let it go or it colors your views from there after. Makjang: This drama was so grounded in how it dealt with so many things that it really didn't need to rely on the cliches, even if it dealt with them better than most dramas. Unfortunately in the last four or so episodes, we see the writers put a few story arcs into the drama that were silly and unfortunate. The Mom: The main focus of the story is on Yong Yong and Yun Jie as it should be. The drama did bring up issues of single parenting, but in the end I think they missed an opportunity to do better in this area and as already mentioned, used this character to heighten drama in contrived ways. Secondary Stories: I think they could have done more with the mom and her guy. I have mixed feelings about the brother (Li Yi Feng). Part of the story is his resentment about his brother, his romance with another gal and a very, very late love triangle. As someone who is not a fan of triangles, I'm happy it was half over before going that way but could have done without it. The Pros: Tone: Anyone familiar with T-dramas knows how they can be over the top. I found this drama refreshing because even though you think after the first episodes it's going to be another one of those dramas, it really isn't. Every plot point is about these two people getting to know each other, like each other and eventually fall in love. My big issue with a lot of T-Dramas is how often the characters have conversations that mean nothing. In SH, almost every conversation has purpose. Chemistry: I think Mike He and Janine Chang have a chemistry that works. This is not a steamy, intense romance. This is a get-to-know you romance. You might not think so because of something that happens in episode 1, but it is. I really do not like instalove romances so this really worked for me. Acting: I was fine with all the actors. I think Mike He is generally a solid but not great actor, but here I think he's done his best work (of what I've seen thus far). His expression when finding out about his son was just spot on. Loved Janine as well. Family: Early in the drama, her family does something silly, and I worried that the writers would have our gal in a Cinderella type situation....No, it is not like that at all. The family members of both leads are not perfect, but there is no over the top shenanigans. (Well, 2nd sister but who doesn't like her?) Writing: I appreciate that the characters are not perfect. Yun Jie is one of the best written male characters I've seen in a T-Drama. He is not perfect, and he's not an over bearing jerk stock character. He is a decent guy with flaws who makes mistakes, often realizes it but stays true to himself. I often have trouble getting through T-dramas because they are too long with not enough story. Again the last four or so episodes had some contrived situations pop up, but I completed this drama in around 4 days. I think I appreciate that even when "big" things happen, the reaction is sometimes so grounded. (An example is how they handled her confronting him about the orphanage. You understand where she is coming from, but he is actually very reasonable in what he says as well. The viewer can understand both sides. ) Basically this is a no drama drama. Also, there is comedy but I would not necessarily call this a rom/com. After all this, I don't really think I'm doing a great job describing it. I think if you are in the mood for a very character driven romance drama, this might fit the bill. (I found it subbed on You Tube). In the end I took a point off for throwing in a silly curveball late in the drama and some noble idiocy. I also took off half a point for the lazy writing in not coming up with a better set up to him not knowing about his child. Overall though, I found this to be one of the better T-Dramas I've seen thus far. Edit: I almost forgot. I don't really remember an OST because I saw on You Tube so the beginning and ending credits are cut off; however, I actually usually hate the background music (horrible piano music quite often) in T-dramas. The music here was much more muted and was in the background where it needed to be though I did notice it a bit more toward the end of the drama. So my score on the music is about the use of background music not OST, if they even had one.
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