Green Forest, My Home

The Actors:
Esther Liu Ping Yan as Sophie
Leon Jay Williams as William Spencer
Ethan Ruan Jing Tian as Jing Yuan Fang (Owen Jing)
Song Zhi Ai as Susan
David Chen Yu Fan as Brian
Lin Ke Wei as Xie You Mei
Kido as Sun Da Jie

The Storyline:

Sophie is a young girl who goes to a special school called Green Light Elementary School. When her fmaily's driver dies, they adopt his now orphaned daughter into her family, changing her name from Luo San to Susan. The two attend the Spencer Royal Academy of music, a strict school where musical talent is honed to its finest. Susan has always been jealous of Sophie's high class identity, and now that she has become the big sister, she takes advantage of Sophie's kindness and bullies her around as much as possible. Suddenly the invisible child, Sophie has no one to comfort her except for Jing Yuan Fang, a schoolmate of hers (who lives across the street) and also went to Green Light, but is now at Spencer's with her. A sweet scene is when he gives her a listening device, consisting of two cups with a string between them, and tells her that even if no one else is there he'll "always listen to her problems and help her out."

Sophie also meets William, whose father is the founder of Spencer. She gives him her textbook in an act of sympathy for the "new kid" not knowing that he is just observing. Touched by the girl, he takes her away from the school where they promptly get lost inside of Green Light Forest. While there, they see the legendary green light and even an old grandmother, perhaps some spirit or diety residing over the forest, who tells them that they are true loves. He must always believe in Sophie, otherwise death will take her away from them. Taking her words seriously, William asks Sophie for her name, but she refuses, choosing instead to tell him that she will always be his princess and shows him her special symbol (a heart over an i). The next day, Yuan Fang leaves for England to study violin and Sophie runs after him in tears, narrowly missing William, who is leaving for Austria. Instead, William hands a letter to Susan and asks her to deliver it to her sister. She tells him that when he returns, he should look for "Susan" because that is the girl that he was with in the forest.

Fast forward 15 or so years and Sophie is now 21. Fresh off the plane from Austria where she attended school, she's back to save her precious Green Light Elementary from being closed down by their sister affiliate, the Spencer Academy. At the airport is also William and Yuan Fang. Yuan Fang is now an internationally recognized violinist called Owen. Owen recognizes Sophie first, seeing the way she has signed her name on her diary (a heart over the "i" in "Sophie") and because she is sleeping, he whips out his violin to wake her up. William also meets Sophie (she hops into his limo as it is leaving the airport to avoid the Arts Manager) but because the name he was told so many years ago was "Susan" he ends up pursuing Susan, who is the Arts Director at Spencer Academy.

Because of his position as the CEO on the education board, William manages to work out a deal with the other CEO, Brian. If Green Light doesn't get first place at the singing competition then he will stand aside and let it be closed down. Sophie becomes the teacher of the students at Green Light (there are like 12 kids there), and Owen decides to help her prepare the kids for the competition. At this point, Sophie still doesn't know who Owen is, but she gladly accepts his help even though they get into ridiculous fights all the time.

Brian approaches Susan, a judge, to ask her to cheat. William and his mother both find out, but because Susan is leading Brian on so that she can betray him at the last minute and award Green Light first prize, both of them now hold her in very high regards. And William fancies himself even more in love with her (but that's because he thinks she is his childhood love).

A misunderstanding at William's house, where Sophie is getting out a precious necklace from the safe box for his mother turns ugly when she loses the key in the yard and is mistaken for a thief. Owen, the special dinner guest arrives just in time to get in a shouting match with William, and Mrs. Spencer ends everything by clearing it all up. Sophie gives William an earful of her own and rushes out the door to retrieve the key. Later, Owen leaves while Sophie slaps a band-aid on Williams face where he got scratched by the keys. He tries to kiss her goodbye, and she leaves. At home, Susan has seen how close Owen and Sophie are getting. Being eternally jealous of Sophie, she blackmails Owen to come teach at Spencer where he will be close to her and far from Sophie - because whatever Sophie has, Susan must steal it from under her nose and gloat about it. He doesn't, of course, because Owen is the handsomest man in the world and does NOT negotiate with terrorists (little bit of humor there).

Owen, knowing the exact identities of Sophie and William, has been keeping it away from the both of them. But feeling guilty, he tries several times to tell them the truth, but Sophie refuses to acknowledge it because she doesn't want to hurt Susan. William takes the words to heart and confronts Susan about it, and she admits to lying about him but says that she has never stated outright that she was the girl he fell in love with years ago.

On the other hand, Owen gives Sophie another Listening Device, and their reunion is happy and adorable. Susan tries to convince Sophie that William isn't THE William from her childhood, but Sophie surprises her with some knowledge. From the moment she laid eyes on him, she has known that he was her William but didn't interfere to spare Susan's feelings. Susan is untouched by the kindness shown and resolves to compete with her sister even harder.

At a press conference, William is about to announce that he intends to marry Sophie when Susan's ex-boyfriend shows up. To save Susan's face, Sophie claims him as her ex-boyfriend and pushes Susan towards William. His mother announces their engagement in all of the frenzy.

Owen brings a makeup/wardrobe crew to Green Light one day where they shine Sophie up in preparation for his concert. William and Sophie get in a tiny banter and both fall into the pool and end up having to change in the same room. The atmosphere is immature, chilly, and silent of course. Owen chooses that moment to declare his undying love for Sophie as Susan fumes under the bright lights and the director of ABC (his sponsor) some sort of European/American guy (with the acting skills of a hunk of melted copper) gets angry and leaves in a huff. That night, at the victory barbecue at Green Light, Sophie finds herself in the office where You Mei is looking over index cards that profess her love for Da Jie. Both are teachers at Green Light. Embarassed, You Mei drops her notes and runs out while Sophie picks them up and reads them. William appears at the door just as she begins and listens as she pours her heart out via index cards. The last line tells him that if he loves her, he should turn the lights out and kiss her. Seeing his chance, William turns off the lights, and as Sophie turns around, he captures her in a breathless kiss. She runs away, scared to face her feelings but returns to him later that night where they kiss again in the rain. Then she patches things up with Owen who is still in love with her.

Susan's ex has come up the mountain to exact revenge (both Owen and William beat him up for the little scene he caused at the announcement of the engagement) so Sophie and William must spend the night in an abandoned trailer.

Although the two are together now, things are still a bit rocky, especially because Brian, who in a twisted show of love for Susan, is determined to split them up so Susan can have him and be happy. His plans fail, but his devotion has touched her and she accepts his feelings. He chips away at her manipulative, icy exterior by becoming her support and helping her learn to forgive her mother, who abandoned her when she was younger. From the night in the trailer with William, Sophie is infected with an odd disease (Not an STD disease, dirty reader, but something she got from a cut). Owen knows how serious this disease is because his own mother died from it when he was younger. William searches for a cure for her, but Sophie, fearing the worst, is trying to spend as much time with everyone as possible. She wraps up 60 Christmas presents and gives them all to William in one day, in case she is not there to give them to him later. Susan sees her wrapping them that night and yells at her for being stupid. Sophie puts up a brave face and says that she knows Susan loves her because they are sisters no matter what. And Susan cries, because she feels the exact same way. This is a great turning point for Susan's character, as she finally redeems all of her bad deeds.

To prevent Sophie from getting any worse, the doctors recommend that she be quarantined at the hospital, but she sneaks out and managed to get William and Owen to consent. If this is her last Christmas, she must spend it with the children at Green Light. She tells them that she isn't well and may have to leave for a long time. As she is putting the star up on the tree, she passes out and falls off the ladder.

[Flash to a year later] William and his mother, along with Susan and her now fiance Brian are at a ceremony honoring Green Light Elementary. There is mention of Sophie who "isn't able to be here today." But don't be discouraged, readers, as Sophie is at Green Light Elementary putting the star up on the tree again (This time with a rope around her waist so she doesn't fall). Owen has returned from England, where he admits that he is currently not with anyone at all, since Fiona (once his girlfriend) is married to some other guy now. But that's okay, because he never loved her anyway. It appears that he is still in love with Sophie, although he supports their relationship 100%. He asks the two when they are finally going to get married and is shocked when they tell him that they already DID, two days ago in fact! He gives them his belated congratulations and they leave for their honeymoon.

THE END

A bit of a choppy ending, I suppose. The writers were trying so hard to keep you suspended until the very last second that they made us miss out on many important things: Sophie recovering from the disease, Owen going back to England, Susan and Brian's engagement, even the gosh darn freaking wedding! I didn't like that ending very much because even though it was happy enough, there are too many holes. Did they suddenly run out of production money and then end up having to cut out all the good parts? Or did the writers just get lazy and go "I really can't stand writing anymore. I think we'll just end it here. Oh yeah, man. This drama just wore me out. I mean 20 gosh darn episodes, wow it's like pricking my fingers with needles. I really can't pick up a pen and draft an acceptable ending for this. Really, I can't. We'll just have to end it as crappily as we possibly can!"

The good thing is that the ending leaves room for another sequel, which I would enjoy very much.

The Talent:

Esther Liu Ping Yan as Sophie:
Still a relatively new actor in the showbiz, Esther impressed me very much with the versatility that she showed in her role as Sophie. Every emotion was fresh and sincere, at least to the person standing on the other side of the screen. Because of her inexperience, sometimes she had trouble with expressions and seemed very wooden. The camera seems to love her very much, though (she's very cute, has great bone structure, and certain shots capture her beautifully). She also seems a bit childish at times, after all she is only 17 while Sophie is 21 years old. At times, when she can't seem to think up the right facial expression for a scene, she switches back to her "fallback face" which is a fierce gaze and occasional pout. It's startling. If she can learn to let go of it, I think her performance in here would draw up a perfect 5 stars.

Overall, I still think that her goods outnumber her bads. This is only her 3rd or 4th drama, and her first one in a leading role and I think she did very good as the passionate, kind-hearted, often times clumsy Sophie. It would help if she stopped trying to go for the cutest way to wrap up every single scene. I like this actress though. I think she's improving at a very fast rate. I mean, just compare how well she did in this drama to the terrible acting in Chinese Paladin. With the speed of her success so far, I think that she is going to be a very big hit soon.

Leon Jay Williams, as William:
I liked him enough. He's pretty handsome, I guess. Although his acting is a bit bland. His scenes were only good if he was with Ethan or Esther. Otherwise he was boring as boring could get. I'd say this guy needs to give more to his impulses. Many times he looked like he was about to burst into a more exciting performance, only to disappoint me and not do anything at all. This guy could be SO good, if only he would actually give it a try. He underacts tremendously, to a point where you're not sure if he's even acting or just reading his lines off of a teleprompt with a frown. I'm going to follow him around a bit, because I think maybe it's because he's not all that fluent in Mandarin yet. He certainly had a lot more presence when delivering his English lines, the millions that there were. That is definitely something I would change if it were up to me. More on the Mandarin, less on the English. He had good gestures and movements (great fight scenes. Not bloody, but still quiter believable). The character of William suited him though, and he looked quite well in dark suits and dress shirts. Also, he's very handsome and the sideburns actually look really good on him.

Ethan Ruan Jing Tian as Owen
Ok, not to be overly excited, but I LOVED this guy. I loved him with a passion. His character was my favorite in this entire story. Just his presence on screen makes you sit up straighter and pay more attention to him. He literally captures all of the spotlight when he shows up and you're disappointed when his scenes are over. He has an unbelievable amount of chemistry with people, especially Esther and Leon. From his few crying scenes to the dopey smiles he sent Esther's way to the amazing way he delivers his lines, you can tell that he knows what he's doing and going for it with all he has.

As a newcomer, he's doing very well and I was really impressed with his performance. It also helps that he looks like temptation with a cherry on top and always has on a blazer and a scarf, which is AMAZING on him. His character is a kindhearted artist who loves passionately and he portrayed this very well, but I feel like he's equally suited for many other things too. I can picture him in a dramatic role, like Eddie Peng in "Scent of Love", or something comedic like Alec Su in "Mischevious Princess", or even something with lots of action since he did so well in his fighting scenes (Think big, like Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber, or Demi Gods and Semi Devils). I really like this guy, so if you don't watch this drama for the amazing storyline, watch it for him. You won't regret it.

Song Zhi Ai as Susan
I wasn't terribly impressed with this actress. I guess she was pretty, but everything about her seemed pretentious. All of her clothes, which were really pretty, (to me, it seemed like a cross of Liu Yi Fei innocence meets western cowboy boots meets stylish fashion model), just didn't suit her. Her performance was just plain boring. She was always so awkward on screen and extremely dull. I really think she would have been more at home playing a dead person or something. This actress probably only got her job because of her pretty face, lonely expressions, and baby girl voice. There is really nothing under that exterior.

Her best scene is probably the one where she runs outside and Brian chases after her and asks her why she doesn't give anyone a chance: not him, not her mother, not Sophie. And she responds and hits him and cries in his arms. I liked that, because we can finally see that she can act if she tries hard enough. I liked the one where she lashes out at Sophie (during the scene where Sophie is wrapping William's Christmas presents) and then went outside to have a good cry over Sophie. Song Zhi Ai proves that she CAN deliver good emotions, but why did she wait until the very last few episodes to put it to work?

David Chen Yu Fan, or Brian
Um, this guy isn't as good as Leon Jay Williams, but he's better than Song Zhi Ai. His level of acting, from a scale of 0 to 10 (0 being a chicken with its head cut off and 10 being Joyce Tang's performance as Kei Hiu Fu in Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre 2000) I'd say this guy is a 5 fast on his way to a 6. It was hard for me to believe that he was in love with Susan because nothing about him ever gave it away. But as the bitter Spencer Academy CEO who was bent on foiling William's plans and closing down Green Light Elementary, he was really convincing. All the same, even when he was still being just a cold antagonist, you could tell that he wasn't evil or anything. His character was never a bad person, per say, just someone who saw things and wanted things done differently, and David Chen did such a great job convincing us from the start that I could never find it in myself to hate him. And that's the difference between him and Song Zhi Ai, who couldn't find it in herself to pull that off until the very last minute.

On appearances, although David has this great masculine quality and has a sort of dark handsomeness, he is all wrong as a CEO. I mean, he looks like a thug. His hair is spiked flat against his forehead and he has a permanent wrinkle between his eyes and a fierce gaze. Why is this guy in Green Forest, My Home and not some Chinese rendition of "The Godfather?" I'm always expecting him to take off his jacket and roll the sleeves of his dress shirt up to his forearms or something. He just looked like a "rough, bad boy" type.

The Other Small Roles:
They were quite boring and I really can't bring myself to waste my time praising them. They did okay in supporting roles, but certainly nothing special enough to actually be pointed out. Although the actress playing You Mei (Lin Ke Wei) was a spitfire and I liked her. Also, William's bodyguard, a middle aged man named Allen (whose real name I don't know) was a really funny guy and I liked his character a lot. Which is surprising because I never pay attention to the older males, because usually most of them never give enough effort for a good job. This guy did though.

The Audio:
The themesong, "Zui Yong Gan De Xing Fu", by Sweety was very upbeat and did great for the fairy-tale theme of Green Forest, My Home... But it wasn't as impressive as William So's "Wu Fa Kai Ko" which was incredible beyond words. Sometimes at night I catch that song running through my head because it's absolutely beautiful. William So, possibly a lesser known artist, is actually very talented. Because of that, the Ending Theme is really nice. The other songs they play are also pretty.

The Recommendation:
I'd be a liar and a hypocrite if I didn't tell you to go out and watch this series right now. It's fun and cute, but it really touches you right in the blood pumper. The Green Light Forest and Elementary school is so amazing. It's like a little fairy-tale, and you can immediately tell why Sophie preferred it to the pish-posh sophistication of Spencer Academy. There's the city, and then there's Green Light, which is a slice of paradise and heaven all in itself. Green Forest, My Home is definitely not anything high budget, but if the scenery doesn't impress you then you are REALLY high maintenance. It's like closing your eyes and stepping into a fairy tale. No joke. The story is VERY very cute, and everything goes great until the very last 4 or 5 episodes when the writers started pushing all the action together. Everything got lost in that last part: the climax, the falling action. Actually, there WAS no falling action; that's how bad it was. But all that aside, this drama is definitely worth your time.

The Gossip:

While filming the series, Esther and Ethan (who about 80% of fans were rooting for even though it was obvious she was going to end up with Leon) actually started dating each other. How cute, right?

Esther was 17 during the filming of this, and Leon Jay Williams was probably about 27. There was a huge age difference, but he did a good job of toning it down and she did well maturing it up a notch. They're pretty cute together, especially during their scenes in the Green Light Forest.

Ethan Ruan Jing Tian in real life is very good friends with Joe Cheng and Mike He, two other successful actors. Perhaps their fame will rub off on him and he'll get more gigs in the acting business. One can always hope!

While filming the scenes where he plays the violin, all the director did was have Ethan practice holding a violin correctly. When it came to playing, he pulled the bow across it and made horrible screeching sounds which they then muted out and inserted in some nice concert music.

Leon Jay Williams did an MV with Coco Lee called Love at 85 Degrees. There were only two people in it, and TRUST me when I say that the only good looking one was him.

Esther Liu is part of the music duo Sweety which sang the themesong for this drama. I didn't even recognize her voice!

And William So, the talented sub theme singer, once appeared in a cameo as the King of the Northern Sea in "The Monkey King Quest for the Sutra 2002." He had blue shades on as part of his costume. It was the crunk.