I Will Find You a Better Home (2020)

This is a story about the real estate industry in Shanghai, depicting real life stories of the denizens in the city. It’s quite similar to the drama My True Friend which was released in 2019. As much as I like Deng Lun in My True Friend, I find the story in I Will Find You a Better Home more authentic, endearing and realistic, and the characters are better developed and acted. There are many life lessons the viewers can learn from this warm drama – compassion, altruism, empathy, patience, determination, magnanimity, ethics and humility.

Unlike the romance in My True Friend which has come from love-at-first-sight, the romance in this drama is built on trust and understanding. The two main leads Sun Li and Luo Jin are both veteran and excellent actors. Luo Jin plays the Xu Wen Chang character who is a calm, unrestrictive office manager of a large multi-store realtor company. His leadership style is laissez-faire whereby he allows his people a free hand to achieve results in an ethical manner. His subordinates adore him and give him a nickname Gugu, meaning paternal aunty. Xu Wen Chang is kind, sincere and diplomatic. His magnanimity eventually melts away the ice of Fang Si Jin (Sun Li/Betty Sun) who is a co-manager of the same office. When Fang Si Jin is transferred to work there, her goal is to replace him eventually. But after months working with Xu Wen Chang, she finds out all his qualities and gradually falls in love with him. Fang Si Jin is an ambitious real estate agent who would go all the way out to do anything to close the deal. She’s up-tight, suspicious and calculative. But after spending some time under the warm office culture that Xu Wen Chang has inculcated, she starts to change. She sees humans in people and begins to love her subordinates who also come to adore her for her determination and compassion.

Every character has his/her own flaws, story and challenges, and this drama has carefully developed the characters and help them grow to meet and overcome their hurdles. The office culture here is very heart-warming; everyone is watching out for each other’s well-being and they are united like a big family.

This drama is an eye opening for international viewers on how brutal and stressful it is to live in a city like Shanghai. As a realtor, the work is hard and the competition is fierce. But most of all, all denizens in the city work extra-ordinarily hard and they are determined to achieve their goals, overcoming any obstacles that come their way. It also depicts all walks of life in the city – the good, the bad and the ugly. The good ones are beautiful and heart-warming, and the bad ones are ugly, greedy and unethical.

This drama is definitely a wonderful watch, especially if viewers want to better understand life in Shanghai. The depiction is authentic and realistic. It has provided me self-searching calls to look deeper into myself and to want to become a better person for others.

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