A ROMANTIC DREAM [Taiwan]

Written by Funn Lim

This review was posted many years ago, exactly when I am not sure but it should be within months from the original broadcast of this series. I am posting it as I have posted it originally.

SPOILERS ... SPOILERS ... SPOILERS

Written By
Based on the novel of the same name by Queen of Tear Jearkers and impossibly corny love stories, Qiong Yau.

Cast
Future biggies of Taiwan TV but this was a very old series and everybody looked young and much bigger in size there, such as Lin Ruiyang, Xiao Qiang, Liu Dekai and of course, Chen Derong.

Important Notice
Frankly, truely, honestly, I did not watch this series. I saw half an hour of it and it was to me a very weepy storyline. And being a modern series written by Qiong Yau, you can only imagine how trivial those love complications can be. But quite a headeach for some young girls if you see it that way.

So Why are you WRITING a review for it? Go away, stop wasting my time!!
I have a friend who knew someone who read the book and am watching the series as it is being broadcasted over my local telly, so I guess you can say I have first hand info. Moreover, have you read my acknowledgement to myself at the top of this OVERVIEW? So what I am going to do here is exactly what I did in Face To Face, I'l write an overview. The on ly difference here is that I can't quite comment on those I didn't see but I will reveal what I know. Satisfied?

Summary and the ENDING...
This is a tale about 2 sisters, one Xiao Qiang a beautiful and talented dancer and one younger sister who just finished her schooling played by Vivian Chen. Both fell for the same family friend, Lin Ruiyang, but Lin Ruiyang had his eyes set on Vivian. However, through reasons that I do not know, the family THOUGHT that he was in love with Xiao Qiang and pusehd for an engagement between them. However, whilst Lin was driving his car with Xiao Qiang in it, they met with an accident due to his fault and Xioa Qiang's career as a dancer was abruptly ended because she was paralysed waist down and had to depend on wheelchairs for the rest of her life to move from point A to point B. Lin, wrecked with guilt married her not for love but for responsibility, but Xiao Qiang didn't know that since they were already engaged. Chenw as so devastated, my friend told me she looked like she was going to kill herself when Liu Dekai, another family friend came andc sung to her the title theme song until she stopped crying. But Chen couldn't go back and face her brother in law that she was madly in love with, and so Liu proposed to her and said that he will ake her far far away. After some serious thinking, she said yes and married Liu and left Taiwan for Paris, or wherever where she was greeted by castles, fine dinner, great gowns and basically a rich rich life. You see, Liu was VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY rich, and had like a castle in every country in the world and some great successful restaurants everywhere. Which explained why he had so much time to play guitar and sing to her when she was depressed. He was so rich he need not work anymore. After some more serious thinking, Chen began to fall for this much older man and they spent years travelling the world, only to have come home to discover that her crippled sister and the man she once loved was divorced because the sister knew he didn't love her and did many things to make him suffer. By that time, and coincidentally, Chen suffered a miscarriage and went into a coma or something like that and at the same time Lin was seriously contemplating getting back with her. But Liu took his old trusted guitar and sang to her until HIS HANDS BLEED and when she woke up, he silently left and wished her and Lin well. But what do you know? She realised she loved Liu and went back to him and her abalone, caviar and wine filled lifestyle instead of going back to her object of teenage-hood infatuation. That I guess was the Romantic Dream part.

The Title Dissected
By what my friend described, I thought the English title was quite apt. You see I guess that Romantic Dream was referring to the relationship between Lin and Chen, and perhaps even Lin and Xiao Qiang. It was all a good dream but in the end everybody had to wake up. Xiao Qiang woke up and realised he didn't love her. Chen woke up and realised the past is the past and better to build a future with a man who would be willing to play the guitar until his HANDS BLED, like you know, BLOOD and then silently left. Some told me that was a very romantic scene. But MUST THEY BE SO GRAPHIC? UNTIL HANDS BLED?

Funniest Scene
This was the 30 minutes I saw of this series. It was the night before the wedding between Chen and Liu, and Chen discovered that her sister's hands was a bit hurt. She quickly wheeled the sister into a rom and interrogated her. There we can see all the crying and dramatic expressions and pitiful glances and head to head hugs...and all because of Xiao Qiang who was crippled insisted on doing some cooking. WHAT WAS THE BIG DEAL? I was laughing like mad. I don't know, Qiong Yau's stories has this effect on me, except maybe HZGG PART I.

Performances
I have written individual evaluation of the main actors in this series in my ALL ABOUT YUE LING : CO-STARS. For this series alone, I have no comment. But based on my 30 minutes of this series, the two actresses was how shall I put it without angering you die hard fans of Chen and Xiao Qiang? Wimpish? Weepy? Weak? Frail? Pitiful? Really nonsense of a character? But then I had only of 30 minutes with this series.

Verdict
No verdict. You watch and why don't you write a detailed one for this series? At least some comments on the performances?

Who would you choose...
A man that you were crazy about when you were still a young girl fresh from school or a man that you married as a way to escape only to discover that he was a much more sensitive and a better man albeit a much older BUT richer man?

And if you still love that childhood object of your lust..sorry.. I meant LOVE, and you knew they divorced, would you leave a man you married for years for an idea or a romantic dream?

YES?!

HOW COULD YOU?! How can you then face your crippled sister whilst openly hug that husband of yours that used to be your sister's husband? Oh, I forgot..there is a thing called airplane and a passport. And also the fact that you have the world to go to. But stilllll.......

What would you do? TELL ME! WHAT-WOULD-YOU-DO!!!
You love the baby sister but everybody thought that you love big sister. On disastrous accident later, big sis is crippled and with a good but misleading consience, you blamed youself foe her condition. NOW TELL ME WHAT WOULD YOU DO? WHAT-WOULD-YOU-DO?!

Lin married that sister because of the notion of responsibility. And what a way to kill a marriage even before it began.. Call me a romantic but I do think people should marry for love. Not lust, I mean lust is like the icing on the cake for the notion of love but people should marry for love. As a girl, just imagine and ask yourself this question. If he is IMPOTENT, would you still marry him, not as a responsibility but because he was the one you would want to spend the rest of your life with? If yes, you may be a bit foolish and in the long run you might be a sexually repressed person but however foolish it was, you got the idea right. If you said No, at least marry for lust, not for responsibility. Because if not, you will destroy about 20 lives, you, your wife and your possible children and grandchildren. Unless you learn to love her.

Qiong Yau : Modern Vs Costume
Either way, her stories are still crappy stuff. Well at least most of them. With the exception of HZGG I which was a departure from her usual I LOVE YOU TILL DEATH AND EVEN BEYOND storylines, that one had a sentimental storyline. But let's just play this game; what if Romantic Dream was set in Qiong Yau's favourite period of time..Qing Dynasty? What if the sisters were of rich but not noble family? Lin was a well to do guy of some royal blood and Liu the brother of the King? No? Could be you know. I predict this wouold be the ending.

Lin and Xiao Qiang will still be married, but she will accept her sister as his second wife (but that will be after episodes and episodes of very interesting "HOW CAN YOU DO THIS TO YOUR OWN SISTER? YOU KNEW HE WAS MY HUSBAND. WHYYYYYYYYYY......." plots, whilst the brother of the King will be a gentleman and bless them both. OR the younger sister and Lin will kill themselves or maybe younger sister will kill herself, and Lin will stay single for the rest of his life to mourn for her death whilst Big sis cries and cries and cries whilst brother of the KIng will live a solitary life travelling the world and still loving a woman who never loved him.

Possible you know. After with Qiang Yau, however extreme her stories may be, she will always find a way to close the story, however ridiculous the ending may be.