Under the Canopy of Love

When I first saw the cover and title of this series, I expected a romantic Korean series. I thought the storyline would be about Kevin, a rich man who owns a shopping centre, falling in love with Niki, a poor girl. Of course, third party such as Bosco (a poor guy) and Claire (a rich girl) will also be involved and destroy the relationship between them. However, I guess I expected too much; it turns out to be another cheesy, simple love story from TVB.

Summary

The story is basically about Niki falling in love with Kevin when they were still in their childhood. However, Kevin has left school and they have lost contact with each other. Finally, they meet again in the shopping centre and realize they worked in the same place. This is when they begin to develop their love towards each other. Bosco, who is friends with both of them, falls in love with Niki also but backs off when he realise that they were a couple.

In the shopping centre, rumours start spreading that the Manager's secret son is working in the shopping centre and everyone suspects that it's Kevin. His career raises and he gets promoted by his boss, Claire. Unfortunately, when Kevin's career is going well, problems occur in his relationship with Niki.

Performances

Kevin as Alan
I watched the TVB Anniversary first before this series. When Kevin got the award for best male actor, I thought he must have improved in this series and his character must be different from the usual, normal character he plays, but I was wrong. There is nothing special about this character. This is just a normal character who falls in love with a girl and wants to get promoted in his career. I found Kevin's performance very disappointing and I did not see any improvement in this character. It reminded me of his character in "Trimming Success". Any actor could have played this character. It was not challenging or even outstanding.

Niki as Fiona
This character is kind of different from the others she plays. It's more grown-up and quiet. However, her performance isn't as good as I expected. I find her over-exaggerated sometimes and she tries to act cute as well. Her crying skills have improved though, I could see her tears when she started crying after going to Claire's party and having an argument with Kevin.

Bosco
My favourite character in this series. If it wasn't for him I don't think I would carry on watching this series. He brightens the storyline. He plays a very funny and caring person who puts friends first. I was very pleased with his performance. He portrayed the funny part of his character well. I'm not really a Bosco fan but if you watch this, you might just like him.

Claire
At first I kind of liked her character because she was very independent and she had the power to control people as well in the office. However, I started to dislike her when she tried to break Kevin and Niki up by sending Kevin to another country. I feel she lacks expression when she acts because she seems to only say the lines but doesn't do much acting, especially the part where she looks at Niki and tries to give her that evil look - it just wasn't working.

Conclusion
The scenery of the story is good, sited in a shopping centre and the camera vision is quite refreshing, making the actors and actresses look pretty and with perfect complexions. However, I feel that it lacks chemistry and there was not enough romance in it. Kevin and Niki are cute together but I don't see the chemistry that I thought there would be. There is too much talking in this series and I would prefer if there is more action, like Kevin chasing after Niki in the shopping centre.