Tong Jia Di and her friend are temping at a department store event. As it turns out, her friend's idea for their booth is to sell IOU certificates. Through a series of only-happens-in-dramas events, the cute young CEO of and son of the family that owns the department store ends up getting an IOU certificate that promises him Jia Di as a girlfriend and the cute younger brother of the CEO and the black sheep of the family gets an IOU certificate that promises him Jia Di as a helping angel who'll follow his orders.
Oh, the sketchy, it writes itself!
Further complications ensue, and Jia Di ends up with a crush on CEO (Huo Yan) but is under the command of his brother Huo Da. Huo Da also has a crush on his childhood friend who is now Huo Yan's second-in-command, Yang Yan Xu, who of course has a crush on CEO. My head spins!
What distinguishes this from the other Taiwan dramas I've been watching is the writing and the acting. I'm particularly glad that this doesn't seem to be manga-based. Anyway, Jia Di is my favorite Taiwan drama heroine so far: her family is deeply in debt, she's twenty and working her ass off to pay things off, her mother runs a fruit cart, her brother dreams of being a model while spending money on stupid things, and she's not afraid to yell at Huo Da (wastrel younger brother of CEO). I could definitely use less of the angelic determination to find satisfaction in things like scrubbing toilets, but by and large, Jia Di reads as a tired young woman who's trying really hard not to be worn out by life, not as an eternally cheerful and self-sacrificing shoujo heroine.
I also like Huo Yan a lot, although he's clearly doomed romantically by dint of being the Nice Guy, and I fully believe in Huo Da's jerkiness.
Unfortunately, in this case, the acting and the writing are actually working against the drama. I believe so much in Jia Di's money issues that every time Huo Da mocks her for being stingy or penny-pinching or a grubby money-lover or tells her she's complaining when she asks him to not take away from her job time, I want to punch him in the face. I do give the actor props in that I only want to strangle Huo Da when he's talking about money to Jia Di; if he weren't so charming, I would want to strangle Huo Da all the time.
Coffee Prince has a very similar set up, yet I don't mind as much because it feels more fantastic and fun. Jia Di's mother in particular is heartbreaking and maddening: she dotes on her younger son and places so much responsibility on Jia Di, and yet it's difficult to be angry at her when she looks so tired all the time. I think we also get a clearer picture of Jia Di's financial situation; we know Eun Chan didn't go to college to support her family, but Jia Di tallies up her family's debts and we see her uncle gambling money away on stocks and get-rich-quick schemes and we see how just getting a wedding invitation makes Jia Di's mother even more bitter because it's just another expense.
I am sure all this is supposed to get me rooting for her fairy-tale ending, but mostly it makes me want to slap Huo Da and Jia Di's brother for being arrogant, spoiled jerks. Instead of cheering for her getting together with one of the two rich brothers, I want her to win the lottery, pay off her family's debts so she can leave with a clear conscience, and go live for herself for a long, long time.
On a side note, it's also frustrating to see fairly well-written characters get into all sorts of misunderstandings based on mixed messages, just-missed meetings, or words taken out of context.
So, is it worth it to keep watching? I really like Jia Di a lot, but I am having major class issues with the story, particularly in the attempts to do the "being poor is just fine because it means you have a better work ethic" with Jia Di when everything else in the narrative points to the contrary. Paradoxically, it's because Jia Di's situation is portrayed with less of the drama shine that makes the class issues that much harder to take.
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