Smiling Pasta

Details

Title: 微笑 Pasta / Wei Xiao Pasta
Also known as: Smiling Pasta / Smile 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: 彩虹的微笑 (Cai Hong De Wei Xiao) by (Cyndi Wang) (王心凌)
Ending theme song: 北極星的眼淚 (Bei Ji Xing De Yan Lei) by (Nicholas Teo) (張棟樑)
Inserts:

黄昏晓 (Huang Hun Xiao) by (Cyndi Wang) (王心凌)

小烏龜 (Xiao Wu Gui) by (Nicholas Teo) (張棟樑)

就微笑了(Jiu Wei Xiao Le) by (Nicholas Teo) (張棟樑)

I Do (Smiling Pasta OST) by (Cyndi Wang) (王心凌)

Synopsis

Xiao Shi is a girl who has gone through many short relationships, 17 to be exact, not one lasting more than 3 months. 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 one year girlfriend 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
Zhao Hong Qiao as Rita
Jian Chang(檢場) as Cheng Gang / 成剛
Zhao Shun as Cheng Jin / 成金
Wang Juan(王娟) as Chen Lin Ma Li / 成林瑪麗
Hu Kang Xing(胡康星) as Cheng Ming / 成銘
Song Zhi Ai as Huang Qian Hui / 黃千慧
Wu Zhen Ya(吳震亞) as Lei Long / 雷龍
Shen Meng Sheng(沈孟生) 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
Wei Ru as Xiao Rou
Darren as Wei Zai
Vivienne Lee as Xing Ren Cha / 杏仁茶

Trivia

The producer said Smiling Pasta is a taiwanese remake of Full House.

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 =].

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