Heartstrings

Starring: Aaron Kwok Fu Sing, Gigi Lai, Fennie Yuen.

"Heartstrings" is a very good romance series from TVB.

What to expect: cute hair-baby-faced Aaron (before the change of image into the tanned-six packs-spiky hair Aaron), good songs by Aaron and Gigi, and a touching love triangle.

What not to expect: a medical drama like "Healing Hands", this series is more about personal life rather than the working life of a doctor, so do not expect to see any medical procedures. All you will see is sweating, straining-looking doctors with masks in the operating theatre and hospital scenes with very few patients.

The plot: Aaron and Fennie just graduated from medical school. Aaron was from a poor family while Fennie's dad was a very prominent doctor. I think he was a chief of the hospital or something like that. Fennie's dad did not like Aaron as Aaron's family was poor. However, Aaron and Fennie were very deeply in love and would expect to marry each other. There was one guy who graduated at the same time with them, the villain of the series (I don't know this actor's name but I think he was also in a few ATV series, but his character name was Kit). Kit was very much in love with Fennie. He was always jealous of Aaron because Fennie only loved Aaron and never paid him any attention. Besides which, he was not as good as Aaron in his studies. Therefore, he had all these plans to frame Aaron leading to the medical board withdrawing Aaron's license to practice as a doctor. During this time, Gigi entered the series as a sweet and innocent girl with a serious heart disease.

Death to her seemed to be inevitable due to her poor condition unless she has a heart transplant. Her father was a top surgeon in the hospital. However, he had an affair with her friend. One day, he decided to break up with the poor girl but she did not let him go. While they were struggling, he accidentally killed her, or more correctly, she killed herself. Aaron and the villain knew about this. The villain used this to blackmail Gigi's father to co-operate with him in these illegal business deals and one time, even to kill the witness. The relationship between Fennie and Aaron suffered strains because she started to lose faith in him, especially after his license was withdrawn and he was suspected of killing Gigi's friend. Only Gigi understood Aaron and they became very close. Eventually, they fell in love. The only problem was that Fennie finally understood everything and she still really loved Aaron while Gigi did not have much time to live.

From the plot you could tell that the series was very dramatic, quite a few people were murdered. The events in the series were continuous and were able to engage the audience though they were a little bit unrealistic and over the top sometimes. The acting of the cast was good. I like Fennie in this series, she was really into her role. However, her character was annoying when she started to suspect Aaron like other people. She was supposed to be deeply in love with him for a long time. She, of all the people, should understand him more than anyone, and should have more faith in him. Aaron's character was too nice that sometimes, he was really stupid because he let himself be framed time after time. Gigi played a likeable role so it was easy. She was really sweet-looking in this series so she was an excellent choice for the role. The chemistry between Aaron and Gigi was very good. I think that they are a very compatible couple on screen.

Interesting note: Aaron has a quite distinct way of running, but this is beside the point.

Should you rent it: If you are into romance and a fan of Aaron, Gigi, or Fennie, this is a must-see series for you. As I have mentioned above, the series might be too dramatic and unrealistic at some points, but it is still worth seeing.