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Title: Haitan
English title: Beach
Episodes: 20
Production: CCTV
Credits: http://ent.sina.com.cn/v/2003-08-06/1826182101.html
(I'm surprised to see ZJZ's name there, as planning manager or something? )
About 7 people, 4 guys and 3 girls, who had failures and troubles in their respective lives, somehow met at the beach, become friends, start anew in their life and formed a lifeguards group together.
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All 20 episodes streaming: http://www.youku.com/playlist_show/id_3496864.html
MV featuring scenes of this drama, this is the drama's insert song sung by Zhou Xun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMsMf9NdtOc
I just started watching this drama. Simply for LYP and ZX. I thought this drama would be boring. At first I was just skimming looking for LYP and ZX's scenes. But by Ep7, I come to totally love this drama so much! Not just LYP and ZX, but I come to love the other 5 main characters too. That I finally re-watched the first 6 eps without fast-fwding it, and I loved it. The casts' acting are so natural, their chemistry as friends is great, the beach sceneries is beautiful, the directing is excellent, and the plot is good. I actually think this series is very underrated! I can't even find a wiki page abt this drama in Chinese, not to mention English O_O I could only find sina pages. And I've been googling but seem like no one has ever reviewed this drama before, except 2 positive reviews in YesAsia page.
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I only know a little Chinese, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but this is my understanding of the first 7 eps story.
Li Yapeng plays Li Xiao Peng, a businessman in Beijing. Good career and he is getting married soon. But somehow he failed in his career and seem like he's not sure whether he really wants to marry his fiancee or not. He missed his hometown near the beach, and decided to pay a visit. Apparently he doesn't has a good relationship with his father, and when they met, they ended up fighting. (I loved the scene where he walks out of the house angrily, passed an alley, then Zhou Xun riding a bike, bumped him, then they yelled at each other for not being careful^^)
Zhou Xun plays Ah Tung, a single mother with a 6-8 year old boy, living near the beach. But later it is revealed, that the boy is actually her nephew, her older sister's son. Her sister passed away since the boy was a baby, then Ah Tung raised him like her own son. She worked at a gas station in the beginning, but then she opened a food and drinks stall at the beach.
Wang Xue Bing plays Wang Xiao Bing, a guy who just got released from prison. He came back to his house but his father told him off, not to return to his house anymore. He met a woman (played by Kong Lin, Huang Rong in RoCH06) and talked to her, not sure who she is, probably his ex-gf or ex-wife. After hesitating, he decided to go to the beach. When the bus stopped by at Ah Tung's gas station, he seem intrigued by her, and that's where they start to know each other.
There are another 2 guys and 2 girls, but to make it short, the 4 guys finally started living at the beach area due to their own circumstances and formed a lifeguards group under training by a man with military background (this guy is gone at the end of Ep5).
In Ep3, another girl showed up, and in Ep5 another one showed up, and both joined the lifeguards group. Ah Tung was just a close friend of them, and didn't join the group, until Ep7 where Xiao Peng had an idea of building a food and drinks bar right in front of their lifeguards headquarter, for Ah Tung. I really loved this episode, they worked so hard in building it and then they showed it to Ah Tung as a birthday surprise.
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From the MV and official pictures, it seems like Xiao Peng and Ah Tung will be the main couple here, but they haven't gotten involved romantically yet up to Ep7. I think their relationship development is really good. They met the first time when Xiao Peng's taxi stopped by at Ah Tung's gas station to fill up it's gas. Even after XP start living at the beach, he didn't get along that much with Ah Tung, always had this disagreement and arguments. But they forgive and forget, and slowly open up to each other, by ep7 they have become really good friends. I love this certain scene in the beginning of Ep7 where the 4 guys were jogging, and Ah Tung and her nephew riding a bicycle coincidentally passing by and cheered them on. But XP and AT had a bit of argument the day before, so although AT was smiling to the other 3 guys, her smile disappeared when her eyes met Xiao Peng's eyes. And they kinda slow-motioned this part, I like it Later that night, XP came to AT's house and apologized.
Another cool scene in Ep7 was the race between lifeguards groups at the beach. The first guy had to run a certain distance, when he returned to the starting point, the 2nd guy will ride a motorboat to the sea and dived in to find a certain item buried under the sea, handed it over to the 3rd guy and he had to bring the item back to the shore. It was a very exciting scene. The first guy was Xiao Bing, then Xiao Peng ride the motorboat driven by Ah Tung.
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This drama reminds me alot of a 1997 Japanese drama, Beach Boys. The script maybe totally different, but the feel is similar. And the background musics actually sounds very similar.
I love some of the natural laughs done by the actors during some funny scenes. It looked like a blooper, but then maybe the director decided to keep it, as it's more interesting to keep it that way^^
By the end of each episode, there's a bit of behind the scenes moments. From that, I can totally tell that Li Yapeng and Zhou Xun are soooo together already during this drama's filming They were playing a clapping-hands play together during filming break, really cute!
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So, anyway, has anyone watched this series? I'd really like to know more about it since I don't understand the whole dialogues