Amor de Tarapaca
INTRODUCTION
"Amor de Tarapaca", or "Zi Teng Lian" in Chinese, is a Taiwanese series. It was a Korean-Taiwanese joint production, one of the newer trends at the time. The series discusses love relationships and how young people are affected by the generations before them. Finally, the entire story relates to one family's passion for red wine.
SYNOPSIS
The roots of this story actually go way back to the generation before the main characters in this story. Zhao Erxiang (played by Sun Xing), a wealthy owner of a wine store, Chateau de Bonjour, has an affair with wine master, Li Moyin (Li Meizhen). When Moyin dies of breast cancer, she asks that Erxiang looks over her daughter (who she did not have with Erxiang), Jojo. Quickly, Jojo develops a tight friendship with Erxiang's son, Elvis. This causes great tensions for Erxiang's wife, Zheng Xinyun (Tu Sanna), who is jealous of Erxiang's affair. Xinyun makes Jojo leave the Zhao household. Elvis is extremely upset, and because of this experience, he develops a poor relationship with his mother.
The main part of the story takes place about ten years later, where Elvis is all grown up and known by the name Zhao Yanzu (Han Jae Suk). He is a successful gentleman who still has a resentment towards his family; because of this, Yanzu currently does not work at his father's store, but at a large company named Ashia. Throughout the years, Yanzu has been in search of his childhood friend and love, Jojo.
Meanwhile, at an orphanage are two girls: a 20-year-old named Li Yiqiao (Ruby Lin), and her 21-year-old best friend named Xia Xiangyi ("Melody" Yan Yue). Xiangyi hopes to be adopted into the Zhao family. However, Yanzu keeps Xiangyi from entering the Zhao family by telling her that the Zhao's are not good parents. Yanzu's best friend, Li Jie (Victor Huang) attempts to persaude Yanzu to change his mind, as Li Jie has feelings for Xiangyi.
Through Xiangyi, Yiqiao and Yanzu go through a series of meetings. They both turn out to have a passion for learning about red wine, and the two become friends. Yiqiao soon learns that Yanzu is her childhood friend Elvis, but Yanzu does not know that Yiqiao is Jojo. In order to help Xiangyi enter the Zhao family, Yiqiao allows Xiangyi to borrow her identity. Yiqiao's decision proves to be problematic. Yanzu soon believes that Xiangyi is Jojo, and treats her kindly because of their past. They become lovers, although Yanzu is not truly in love with Xiangyi; instead, he is in love with his image of Jojo. A rivalry develops between Yanzu and Li Jie, who are both pining for Xiangyi. At first, Xiangyi feels grateful towards Yiqiao, but soon is blinded by her ambition to marry a wealthy man like Yanzu. However, Yiqiao and Yanzu's relationship begins to develop, and Yanzu expresses that he likes talking with Yiqiao. When Yiqiao and Erxiang, Yanzu's father, encounter each other, Erxiang quickly learns that Yiqiao is the actual Jojo. Jealous and afraid that Yiqiao will reveal her identity, Xiangyi's friendship with Yiqiao begins to deteriorate. Soon, she forces Yanzu into an engagement with her. At their engagement party, Yiqiao accidentally spills wine on Xiangyi. Angrily, Xiangyi talks rudely to her ex-best friend. Upset at Xiangyi's attitude, Erxiang threatens to reveal that Yiqiao is the real Jojo. Erxiang suddenly has a heart attack; afraid, Xiangyi does not get Erxiang's medicine for him. Because of this, Erxiang dies. Xiangyi attempts to frame Yanzu's mother, Xinyun.
Later on, Yiqiao finally reveals that she is the real Jojo. With this fact, Yanzu realizes he really loves Yiqiao. Unfortunately, Yiqiao already has a boyfriend, Chen Luxi (Shi Yinan), whom she is engaged to. Yanzu's relationship with his family improves; after his father's death, he takes over his father's wine store, Chateau de Bonjour. Yiqiao works alongside him there, and their relationship grows even more. Meanwhile, Luxi starts to drift away as he begins to concentrate more on architecture. Additionally, a colleague at work becomes interested in Luxi, and tells Yiqiao that her lack of knowledge in architecture is harmful to Luxi. Xiangyi recovers from her past selfish acts and realizes that it is Li Jie who loves her most. Yanzu and Xiangyi share a brother-sister-like relationship, as Xiangyi continues to stay in the Zhao family. However, Xiangyi's guilt becomes overwhelming, and she reveals that she did kill Erxiang. This causes angst between her relationship with Li Jie and the Zhao family. Meanwhile, the Yanzu-Yiqiao-Luxi love triangle continues to have its struggles...
PLOT ANALYSIS
Despite the fact that this series does not have any creative plotline, I was rather addicted to this series. I suppose it is because I am the sort who likes watching romance onscreen. Towards the beginning, it was one that made me keep watching, episode after episode. However, it soon become rather painful to watch, because of how slow it moved. By episode 20, I was screaming at the television, Yiqiao, get together with Yanzu already! As all the disc covers show Yanzu and Yiqiao together, it is pretty obvious they will end up together. The draggy scenes in which Yiqiao and Luxi broke up, got together, confessed their love, broke up again, etc. were too much for me.
Once, while reading a review of the TVB series "Golden Faith", the reviewer, Frostbite, referred to something called a "love pentagon". Precisely the same thing happens in this series - both Yanzu and Luxi like Yiqiao, who does not know who she likes; at one point, Yanzu and Xiangyi are lovers while Li Jie likes Xiangyi. The whole matter, especially Yiqiao's indecisiveness, bugged me. Yiqiao held on to Luxi way too long. For about 5/6 of the series, Yiqiao and Luxi are together, while the "main" couple, Yiqiao and Yanzu, only get about five episodes when they are together. It seemed like their relationship was too rushed - sure, they already had feelings for each other before they became a couple, but it was very unbalanced. Everything all gets a little confusing, and a bit boring, towards the end. Don't get me wrong - there are some good scenes, but everything takes too long to happen, and by the time it happens, I was already waiting for the next thing to happen.
ACTING
Acting is rather mediocre in this series, despite a rather acclaimed cast. However, there was a good balance between the four characters that have the most screen time - Yanzu, Yiqiao, Xiangyi, and Luxi. It may have been because none of the four main actors were exceptional, so none of them stole the spotlight. Or, they may have just had a good balance. By balance, I mean that when watching them, I paid equal attention to each of them, and none of them caught my attention in a good or bad way.
Han Jae Suk as Zhao Yanzu - 4/5
Although I did not have the opportunity to hear his real voice, Han Jae Suk did a pretty good job as Yanzu. He did not steal the spotlight (as I mentioned above, the actors had good balance), but he was suitable for his role. In the beginning, I found him a little ugly to play Yanzu, but he became better looking as the series went on. He was especially good at nonverbal acting - his stares, smiles and other expressions were depicted well.
Ruby Lin Xinru as Li Yiqiao - 3/5
I feel that one of Ruby Lin's greatest challenges is her tendency to stick with the same roles - the kind, compassionate (and two-dimensional) type who are as close to perfect as you can get. In order to improve, I feel Ruby must take on different roles, instead of the same, likeable ones that are similar to "Zi Wei" (from "Huan Zhu Ge Ge"). Her portrayal of Yiqiao was definitely adequate - her crying, as always, was good, but it didn't move me in any particular way. However, I might be biased simply because I am tired of Ruby playing the same roles.
Melody Yan Yue as Xia Xiangyi - 3/5
Xiangyi is one of the more complex characters in this series, as she changes from kind and shy to selfish and wicked. Later on, she turns back into a kind person, although a little more mature. I am not sure about Melody's acting background, but she is all right in this series. I think she shows the changes in Xiangyi pretty clearly, but the script helped her in that aspect. The problem is that Melody is rather stiff in her role, and her scenes, especially when she tried to act angry, look unnatural.
Shi Yinan as Chen Luxi - 2/5
This might be because I simply do not like Shi Yinan, but Luxi is so strange in this series. He is definitely the character that bugs me most. Shi Yinan is quite ugly in my opinion. Luxi was supposed to be somewhat likeable, but he made Luxi seem like a temperamental, annoying character.
Sun Xing as Zhao Erxiang - 5/5
One of the strong performances in this series is Sun Xing as Erxiang. I have enjoyed much of Sun Xing's work in the past, and he did not disappoint me. Although I cannot say he stole the show, he was definitely excellent in his part, while still allowing other actors to shine. He really showed the difficult dilemmas Erxiang had - the guilt he felt towards Jojo, how his affair affected his relationship with his wife, etc. Sun Xing really did clearly communicate that Erxiang was a good man, but whose past actions had their consequences. Pity that his character had to die.
Victor Huang as Li Jie - 4/5
Victor Huang's portryal of Li Jie was an above average performance. He showed the angst that Li Jie had about his relationship with Xiangyi, and his feelings for Xiangyi were very believable. His jealousy towards Yanzu was well-depicted, as well as his difficulty to accept Xiangyi later on. His death scene was not very good though, as it looked more like he was waiting for the car to hit him after he pushed Xiangyi out of the way.
INTERESTING SCENE
At one point in the series, Yiqiao is walking with Yanzu and mentions a tall building in America where there is a restaurant at the top. Yanzu replies that this is the N.C. Tower, and that it is in Canada. I found this a rather humorous point in the series, as it is actually called the C.N. Tower. I felt Yanzu was a lot less intelligent after that scene.
DISAPPOINTING SCENE
The most disappointing part had to have been the ending.
SPOILER -- In the end, Yanzu and Yiqiao are ready to get married, but *gasp* Yiqiao finds out she has a tumor that might lead to breast cancer, which her mother died from. Now, this is the stupid part - she hides from Yanzu. I would expect them to have developed some level of communication, considering that they are about to get married. When you might have cancer, you do not run away from your fiance. Anyone who would do that probably should not get married, as marriage is about trust and honesty. Even worse was that they jammed it into the last episode, like a last hurrah gone wrong. Finally, it turns about Yiqiao's tumor is benign, and that all this fine, so what was the point of the whole scenario? To show that Yiqiao is not honest enough with Yanzu? Pointless, pointless, pointless.
TO WATCH OR NOT TO WATCH...
Although I found many parts to criticize, I did enjoy the series on a whole. Looking at it from a critical point of view, however, it definitely has its flaws. If you are a true romantic, you may enjoy the complex relationships in this series, but if you are simply not willing to sit through endless break-ups and make-ups, this series is not for you.
