Smiling Pasta

Smiling Pasta

Details

• Title: 微笑 Pasta / Wei Hsiao Pasta (Wei Xiao Pasta)
• Also known as: Smiling Pasta / Smile Pasta / Sonria Pasta
• Genre: Romance / Comedy
• Episodes: 17
• Broadcast network: TTV / SETTV
• Broadcast period: 2006-Jul-16 to 2006-Nov-05
• Air time: Sunday 21:30-23:00 / Saturday 21:00-22:30
• Opening theme song: Cai Hong De Wei Xiao by Cyndi Wang
• Ending theme song: Bei Ji Xing De Yan Lei by Nicholas Teo
• Insert songs: See Smiling Pasta OST

Synopsis

Xiao Shi is a girl who has gone through many short relationships, 17 to be exact, not one lasting more than 3 months hence, she was cursed with a three-month curse. After being dumped by her 17th boyfriend, the world looks grimmer than ever. At that time, a famous idol, He Qun runs past, bumps into Xiao Shi, and they end up "kissing" on the street. Paparazzi swarmed by and to avoid a bad reputation, He Qun's manager declared Xiao Shi as He Qun's girlfriend of one year and fiancée. Thus, a love contract was made. This story is about how the couple learns to like each other after having disagreements in the beginning, as well as fighting the injustices the media throw at them. Will Xiao Shi finally break her 3 month curse?

Cast

• Cyndi Wang as Cheng Xiao Shi 成曉詩
• Nicholas Teo as He Qun 何群
• Gino as He Rui Zhe / Ah Zhe 阿哲
• Joyce Zhao as Rita
• Jian Chang as Cheng Gang 成剛
• Zhao Shun as Cheng Jin 成金
• Wang Juan as Chen Lin Ma Li 成林瑪麗
• Hu Kang Xing (胡康星) as Cheng Ming 成銘
• Sung Chih Ai as Huang Qian Hui 黃千慧
• Wu Zhen Ya (吳震亞) as Lei Long 雷龍
• Shen Meng Sheng as He Meng Yuan 何孟元
• Bao Zheng Fang (鲍正芳) as Bi Li Ling 毕丽铃
• Di Zhi Jie as Vincent
• Doris Lai as Xiao Rou
• Darren as Wei Zai
• Ge Lei as principal
• Hsu Ke as Liang Liang
• Vivienne Lee as Xing Ren Cha 杏仁茶
• Ivy Chen as Tian Xin 田欣 (ep 15)
• Leon Jay Williams as Xia Tian 夏天 (ep 15)
• Pan Yi Jun as Betty (ep 15)
• Fang Zi Xuan as Shi Jing Wen (ep 14)
• Yan Jia Le as Ling Jie 玲姐

Production Credits

• Producer: Hu Han Xing, Wang Li Ming
• Director: Ding Yang Guo, Shen Yi
• Screenwriter: Luo Cai Juan, Jia Fei Yin 珈啡因

Trivia

• The producer said Smiling Pasta is a taiwanese remake of Full House. But with the media playing a larger role.
• Premiere of this drama received a high rating of 5.37

Review by Mei

This drama is lighthearted and very enjoyable. Plus the music is also very happy, which lightens the mood of the drama even more.

First off, there are many similarities to the Korean Drama Full House, featuring Rain and Song Hye Kyo. Both presented a love contract between a famous star and a commoner. The main girl characters are both pure in heart and have good intentions. The media served as the antagonist of both dramas, although more expressed in Smiling Pasta than Full House. The difference is that Xiao Shi wanted to impress her family so she entered the love contract whereas Han Ji Eun needed her "Full House" back. There was a conflict between the two brothers (Young-Jae considered Min-Hyuk his brother) and the girl the main character liked initially left them to be with the other guy. Both dramas explored the central themes very well – love, influence of media, and power of family.

Let's start with Nicholas Teo's performance. He is a big shot star, and he acted so. He can show his mischievous side as well as his caring side. A native Malaysian, even though his Mandarin was very good, you could still get a sense that he was not a native of Taiwan. This served a little problem because his accent and his brother's accent were different even though they came from the same families. I think this part made the drama less credible, but it did not affect the overall quality of the drama.

Cyndi Wang's performance was very convincing as well. She portrayed an innocent girl, although a little unsophisticated at times. She acted very cute and adorable, just as her character ought supposed to be.

The other two characters, Gino and Zhang Hong Qiao complemented the drama very well. Gino was fierce and unforgiving, but also has a caring side for people close to him. And Hong Qiao's character, the "evil other-woman" was carried out flawlessly. She was not too scheming, which was the right amount for the drama, or else it would have changed the feel of the drama.

The songs from the OST mirrored the happy image the drama sought to give. The introduction of the drama illustrated the importance of smiling, one of the central themes of the story. The slow and sometimes somber songs depicted the tragedies in the drama, which was portrayed perfectly. If you like happy music, this is something you should get.

Overall rating: 4.5/5. Definitely worth watching, the performances of the actors will make you want to get to the next episode and finish the whole thing. I know I stayed up until 3 AM to watch it, and even then I forced myself to sleep =].

External Links

• TTV Official Homepage
• SETTV Official Homepage