Carie Reviews: Easy Fortune Happy Life
Title: Easy Fortune Happy Life
Country of Origin: Taiwan
Stars: Lan Cheng Long, Chen Qiao En, Roy Qiu, Jocelyn Wang, Xui Jie Kai
Sorry I tooooootally phoned in the last post. I loved that drama but I didn't remember it that well but rather than skimming it and writing it well later, I got lazy and just posted. I need to eventually post a Japanese drama since I did end up watching a few of them before discovering the joys of the Korean drama. But I don't remember most of those dramas so I will have to skim or re-watch a few of them. Anyway...
This drama opens with an old man being rushed to the hospital after suffering a heart attack and he is dying. Turns out said old man is Yan Yun Gao (Ding Qiang), head of an herbal medical company Ba Bao Tang (I looked it up). While he dies in a hospital room, his family is delighted to hear of his impending death and squabble over who will gain control of Ba Bao Tang. This pits the Yun Gao's daughter Yan Feng Feng (Wang Juan) and her husband (Dong Zhi Cheng I am not 100% on the character name that dramawiki gives) versus his grandson (the nephew Feng Feng) Yan Da Feng (Lan Cheng Long, you will remember from PS Man). The only one who seems genuinely concerned for his grandfather is Feng Feng's son Yan Yang (Xiu Jie Kai, so freaking adorable) but he stays back and says nothing. The old man can hear them arguing with the doctors and each other against a life saving operation. Among the crowd gathering watching the family drama is Xie Fu An (Chen Qiao En) a country girl with a cast knowledge of traditional Chinese herbal medicines. Fu An sneaks into Yun Gao's room and feeds him some herb that brings up a memory from the old man's youth.
Turns out years ago he was saved by an herbalist named Huang Chun Xiang (the younger version of whom is played by Chen Qiao En) after he is in an accident. Chun Xiang is actually Fu An's grandmother who nursed Yun Gao back to health and fell in love with him. He promised he'd come back for her one day but clearly he never did. So anyway, Yun Gao's life is saved by Fu An, much to the family's dismay, except Yang Yan who is the only decent human being in the Yan family. To be fair though the grandfather was a dick throughout his life and treated them all like crap. At any rate, the old man lives but after hearing that no one will be sad about his death, decides to stop being a dick and repent for all his misdeeds and bring his family together.
The family, on the other hand now need to get back in his good graces since they fucked up royally by not wanting him to live. With his 80th birthday coming up they all see an opportunity to get on his good side by getting him a kick ass gift to hopefully win the old man's favor and eventually inherit the company. Da Feng, with the helpful idea of his gold digging reporter girlfriend Jiang Zhen Zhen (Jocelyn Wang) sets out to get some rare and nationally protected fungus (don't ask me what because I have no idea what it was) that is often poached but is really special in herbal medicine. So Fu An ends up with a piece of the fungus that fell off the back of a poacher's truck. She takes it home la la la. Da Feng and Zu An meet up together again while he is in the woods hunting for the fungus or the poachers I dunno. Well they end up falling into a sink hole together and end up fighting and what not. Eventually they get out and Fu An returns to the home she shares with her grandmother who is older now and played by Tan Ai Zhen and her younger brother Xie Fu Jiu aka Pi Dan (Chen Zi Xian). Anyway gramma is sick and unknown to Fu An and Pi Dan is dying of lung cancer. She is also still waiting for the grandfather to come back for her and clings onto an old watch he gave her as a promise. So because of the illegally harvested fungus thing in the house, the poacher comes back for it and ends up burning down the house. Oh I remember now I think while Fu An and Da Feng are in the hole the house ends up burning down, she rushes to the house where gramma eventually dies of smoke inhalation.
Now with gramma gone and their house torched, Fu An and Pi Dan leave their mountain village in search of Wang Cai aka Da Feng's grandpa. Okay so while they're homeless in the streets of what I assume is Taipei, they meet loan shark with a heart, Han Dong Jie (Roy Qiu, whom you will remember from my bad review of Invincible Shan Bao Mei). So the siblings help him in a fight and he sets them up with an apartment temporarily. Note, Dong Jie is taken by Fu An's innocents and what not because he has been living a hard life and yadda yadda yadda. And I am going to say this now, if you are holding out for Fu An and Dong Jie to hook up, you clearly need to watch more dramas because you don't know anything about how the storylines of these things work.
Meanwhile the search is on for Fu An by the Yan family because the grandfather proclaims that the one who marries her gets Ba Bao Tang because as it just so happens the grandfather owes his life to Chun Xiang because he stole all her medicine recipes and started Ba Bao Tang and never intended to come back for her. So long story short, Da Feng brings her and Pi Dan back to the Yan household and proceeds to fake woo her so he can get the money, company and dump her and live happily ever after with his girlfriend Zhen Zhen.
The grandfather is this time genuine in his want to repay Fu An for the harm he caused her gramma and because she saved his life when his family wouldn't. He also hopes that by bringing her into his house, her kind-heart will melt his selfish family. And she does succeed in undoing the years of greed and resentment that the family and Da Feng have grown to know. Eventually, Da Feng falls in love with Fu An much to the displeasure of Zhen Zhen who has been hired to be Pi Dan's personal tutor. Yan Yang notices there is something fishy going on with Da Feng and Zhen Zhen and begins to "date" her to figure out just what is going on and prevent her from doing anything that would hurt Fu An. Unfortunately she does succeed in leading the siblings to uncover the secrets the Yan family is hiding about their connection to Fu An's family.
After telling the grandfather off Fu An takes Pi Dan and leaves the Yan house and seeks refuge with Dong Jie. Da Feng goes to convince his new bride that his intentions although they began on false pretenses did eventually develop into true feelings but she refuses to believe him and he is left broken hearted. Did I mention they got married? Yeah, Da Feng marries Fu An... So, because of everything the grandfather suffers yet another heart attack however this time his family is concerned for him and want him to live, except for Da Feng who reverts back to his former self and takes back up with Zhen Zhen and since he did marry Fu An is now the head of Ba Bao Tang. To see how everything falls into place at the end please watch this drama.
It took me a long while to watch this drama since I did start it at the end of a I need to watch a ton of drama cycle. I did enjoy it though, I mean in terms of over-the-top dramatic Taiwanese dramas this was fairly mild in terms of cliched plot points. I do love Chen Qiao En and think she is a really great actress and she plays the innocent kind-hearted country girl perfectly and I think she balances dark, angry, hot evil prince Lan Cheng Long perfectly. My favorite character though was clearly Yan Yang played by Xui Jie Kai because he was the only one in the Yan family that was a good person from the start. But I also liked Roy Qiu's character. Partly because after Invincible Shan Bao Mei it was nice to see him play a nice guy and also because he wasn't the typical loan shark. He wasn't all, "Oh I gave you money, failing business owner pay me back or I'mma break your knees and sell your organs." No, he actually helped people earn back the money they owed him.
But either way it was a good drama. It was really funny and dramatic at the same time, I think it had a nice balance to it. So I'm going to give it an 8.5 on the Carie's made up rating scale.
For more information on this drama please look for it on Dramawiki.
To watch this drama please visit:
MySoju.com
Or your favorite trusted drama site that has it...
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