Far Away Love (2016)

Story: This is a very basic and often-told story of a rich man falling for a poor woman. In this case, the poor woman is also a single mother with an adolescent son. And of course, this rich man comes with a rich woman who has secretly loved him since childhood but is 'evil' and a mother who thinks any woman not belonging to a wealthy family is out to get her son for his inheritance. There is nothing that stands out in the story line. It has all the expected twists and turns of a Chinese melodrama - family conflicts, angst, poverty, joblessness, love triangles, unexpected revelations re. family ties etc. It has the realistic feeling (from the common dressing of the female lead to the very logic decisions the characters make) of most Chinese family romance melodrama. What makes this drama a little different from the rest is how the heroine doesn't really fall for the hero until much much later (like the last 10 episodes later!). In fact, she was very adverse to the hero and being a practical person, turned the hero down many times. She even encouraged and helped her best friend to be with the hero. In other words, we get a very reluctant heroine and a hero who is relentless (and shameless to some point!) in his pursue. I personally am very traditional in this sense. I love it when men are very active, creative and persistent in pursuing the woman....of course, there's a fine line between romantic and criminal and the hero in this drama kinda hover in the middle of this line. Thank goodness he didn't quite cross over to criminal! But then again.....he did ruthlessly tricked our heroine into marrying him (and she wasn't in love with him then!).....you be the judge of whether it's ethical or love in this matter. I just love it when the man's crazy over the woman while the woman's lukewarm over him! In other words, I like it when the power of the relationship is in the woman's hand and not the man's. If you are like me in this sense, you'll love this drama. What I also really love is the very touching story between the heroine and her best friend. It brought tears to my eyes. There are also no draggy scenes with very minimal repetitive or recalls - which I think, is the strength of this drama. The story progression is good.

Acting/Cast: Acting is good enough, including the kid actor who acted as the teenage son. Park Hae Jin's acting is okay though I can tell he needs more experience working on his facial expressions while working with foreign actors & actresses...or it could be his portrayal of the hero who is 'numb' to feelings- a character who was hurt by love and views marriage as a practical arrangement for his career. He's also a brilliant businessman, often able to overcome whatever tricks his mother (the CEO) and her cohorts planned to keep him in line. In the end, the entire board was supporting him and his ideas, which made his mom admire his ingenuity but also frustrated that she could no longer control him. There are parts where you can see the glint of playfulness and genius behind the hero when he plotted to trick our heroine into accepting him. The heroine is well selected - she's cute (not beautiful per se) and has an air of 'common-ness' in her. She is assertive but kind and often would rather avoid conflict than to explain herself to others. To her, the hero is the biggest conflict she wanted to avoid as she knew he would complicate her simple life. Hence, she did all her best to avoid him - switching jobs and place of residence and even went into hiding!...but our hero's tenacity and persistence finally won him the woman! :)

Music: Nothing that stands out.

Rewatch value: Not too bad, considering there are some scenes I would like re-watch. Those are the ones where the hero pulls out every trick in his book to get the heroine. Pure fun.

Overall: To those of you who are used to the 'polished' look of Korean dramas and the brevity of Japanese dramas, you might find this drama (and any melo Chinese dramas) hard to swallow. The Chinese excel in making 'real' dramas, depicting as close to possible, the reality of life and relationships. There will be no fashion show, ridiculously good looking (and heavily make up) actors and actresses here. Even the so-called HD quality is no HD quality. Extremely 'rustic'. Equal weight is given to addressing family relationships and friendships and work life besides the romance story. For a Chinese melodrama, this is not a bad one to be watching. Overall rating: 7.5/10.

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