Smiling Pasta

"JUST SMILE AND THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN'T OVERCOME" (credit to Xiao Shi) is definitely the most memorable line I remember in all the Taiwan series I have watched, so far.

My favorite scenes: ALL of the 17 episodes! with no exceptions! The story was perfectly made, because there were lots of scenes that made you want to keep watching. I always craved to see the next episode, I wanted to know right away what would happen, meaning there are no boring moments. It's really worth watching!

There are lots of emotions in this series, happy, sad, excitement, feeling in-love, etc., as if you're on a roller coaster. I feel very happy and satisfied with this series even though it has a typical story. A super-famous, handsome singer and a simple, dumb and ordinary girl who eventually fall in love with each other - it's a pretty typical plot for a series. They encounter a lot of conflicts and problems along the way, but the series is a romantic comedy and throws up a lot of scenes that I did not expect to happen. That's the reason I got addicted to it, as it is one of the best ever! I love it!

PERFORMANCE

Cyndi Wang as Xiao Shi (XS) - Turtle Girl of He Qun. I love her character. She was cursed that she will only have a relationship for no longer than 3 months. She is a college student with a simple but a joyful and meaningful life with a loving family (by the way, I really love her family!), a strong personality, and has the courage to face all the challenges she encounters. Sometimes she looks dumb in the way she thinks, but when you get used to it, you will definitely love her. You can see her sincerity in all the things she does. One thing I love about her is she really knows how to make other people happy and eventually makes them realize what is the best thing to do and the real meaning of happiness for others, especially with He Qun.

Cyndi Wang did a great job in her role.

Nicholas Teo as He Qun (HQ) - Jinx of XS. A famous singer, loving son and brother, but wishes to have a good relationship with them. Even though he is famous, he still manages to live a normal life. However, he has no courage to express his true feelings to others, especially to XS. For example, XS wants him to tell her that he likes her, but instead he finds many excuses. But you can see that he really cares for XS, such as when XS had to put on the turtle costume as a punishment, the marathon competition (I love that scene!), and when XS got locked in the school's washroom and got sick. I always like seeing HQ every time he is happy and how he is moved by all the things XS made for him.

By the way, Nicholas is really a good singer and actor too. I love his song "Tears in Polaris" and "Little Turtle".

Gino as Ah Zhe (AZ) - younger brother of HQ (though he looks like the elder), a rebellious but kind-hearted man. He had a misunderstanding with his brother because of what happened in the past and blamed HQ for the death of his girlfriend. Like with his brother, he also has difficulties in expressing his true feelings, but is always concerned about other people's needs and is willing to help in spite of his strong-ego. I always like to see him smile, but he only does it just a few times.

I think Gino really knows how to portray his role.

Joyce Zhao as Rita - childhood friend of HQ and AZ, who's in love with AZ even though she knows that HQ is also in love with her at first. I always got distracted by her outfits and hairstyles, but character-wise, she's good in her role. She only wants to love and be loved, but because of AZ's personality she has a hard time dealing with it. Conflicts of the love relationship between her and AZ were also worth watching.

FAVOURITE MOMENTS

The relationship between He Qun and Xiao Shi was really fun to watch, especially how it developed. According to XS, it was a beautiful accident how they met that led to a "fake engagement". As HQ is a famous celebrity, XS had to face the consequences of being linked to him, since the media was always around them. I love it when everytime HQ faced problems as a celebrity and conflicts in his family, XS was always there to support and help him, give him courage and hope to face the problems bravely, and vice versa. So when XS fell for HQ, XS was brave enough to tell him even though Rita and Ah Zhe were in picture, but HQ was not aware of his feelings toward her, so he didn't know how to handle it.

XS's confession that she liked HQ in school was one of the scenes that I liked the most, and also the press conference when HQ sang "Little Turtle" to XS about his feelings. And when the media was also in the picture, they managed to deal with showing their true feelings with each other. One of their best moments in the series was when finally HQ confessed his true feelings to XS in public (twice!) after she got into an accident at a party, and in the final episode when HQ proposed to XS. That scene was really touching!

Even though I think there's no screen chemistry between them, I still find both of them so cute together. Their childish way of acting and thinking, always arguing with each other, proving who's right or wrong, really made them so fun to watch, including the teasing of Turtle Girl and Jinx nicknames.

Other things I liked about the series included:
- the pop-up "day dreaming" imagination of XS
- the Jinx vs Turtle Girl competition (I couldn't stop laughing throughout this episode!)
- the romantic lines of HQ (good script!)
- the band competition of AZ and HQ in school and the "Bliss Couple" event (the best!)
- when XS found a way to fulfil HQ's dream, which is to sing with his brother on stage singing their own composition (that episode is really a heart-stopping one!), it was nice seeing the brothers resolve their conflict
- XS's turtle dance
- the keychain and the doll
- XS's accident (everybody showed their support by drawing a happy turtle)
- the support of family, friends and fans in XS and HQ's relationship
- XQ's turtle spirit
- the breaking of the 3-month-curse of XS

The relationship of Ah Zhe and Rita is really a hard one. Ah Zhe couldn't manage to overcome the death of their co-member (who was also his girlfriend), so the people around him had a hard time. Blaming his brother made their relationship worse, as he couldn't even trust HQ anymore. It also affected their band's dream to be recognised because AZ didn't want to continue anymore. But the most affected was Rita. She did lots of things to please him so that he would love her in return, but that was a difficult thing to do. But how they reconciled showed the funny side of their characters, I enjoy watching it. AZ and Rita's characters were portrayed really well.

The conflict of the brothers, including their relationship with their father, makes the story really heart-warming to watch. How it began and how they put aside the problems between them was also one of my favorite scenes. I love the character of their mother, who always supports her son and lets her husband know how he should be a good father to them. And the actor who played He Yuan, the father did so well. I love the scene when he tried to change and do things just for the sake of his son's happines, it's fun to watch how a politician can show his funny side.

The family relationship of XS, was one of the best moments of this series, not to mention the Smiling Pasta restaurant. XS is always the precious member of the family, so whenever she encounters problems, especially in her love relationships, they are always there to support her. The encouragement coming from them really makes XS very strong and knowing that she can do it, she is not afraid to show her true feelings that whatever happens, her family will always be there to support her. I always laugh at their funny scenes. When they cook pasta and give a name to it, it looks really delicious. As grandpa says, "cooking pasta should come from the heart!"

Vincent, the manager of HQ, is not the type of manager who is only concerned about profit. He is also a friend to HQ at the same time. He's concerned about HQ's feelings, especially when he had to make decisions regarding his personal-love life and the consequences of being a media personality. I was touched in one of the episodes when HQ was begging to the concert producer to gave him another chance to clear the bad publicity he got into, Vincent overheard it and he cried! You can see that the relationship between them shows that they can really depend on and trust each other. And when HQ had a big international break as an actor, he would do his duty as a manager, but he knows HQ's relationship with XS is more important, so in the end he supports HQ in finding his true happiness.

CONCLUSION

A simple, funny but heart-warming story that you'll unknowingly be hooked to. Showing the relationships between the lead characters and the people around them, family and friends, is what I think made this series very worthwhile to watch. It's one of my favorites!

This is the first series I watched that I finished all the 17 episodes in a very short time! So it is really obvious that I liked it so much that I wanted to finish it right away. I hope there will be a sequel to this series.