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*Disclaimer: All pictures come from afairytaleworld.com, dorota-nevergiveup.blogspot.com and Google image search. No copyright intended.
EP 13
This episode picks up with Alice being rushed to the
hospital and treated for major blood loss. The doctor doesn’t have an optimistic
outlook for Alice’s condition. Lisa attempts to offer her own blood for a
transfusion, but, as a parent, she is not able to donate. Fortunately, the
hospital is able to secure blood from a blood bank and the transfusion is a
success, but Alice remains in critical condition. Lisa is questioned by the
police, but is shocked when the suspects are reported to have escaped without a
trace. The police also ask if Alice has any enemies. Lisa immediately thinks of
Alice’s suspicious actions. SJ creeps on Lisa from afar, walking away as soon
as Lisa spots him.
Die Fei goes to Ting Yu’s, but he won’t open the door or
respond to her calls for him. She writes him a note, apologizing for abandoning
the musical and slides it under the door.
The director is at the recording studio listening to Ting Yu’s
and Hai Jie’s recordings for the album, but isn’t happy with Ting Yu’s. He
tells the producer to switch their recordings.
At the hospital, via blood tests, Lisa confirms that Alice
is truly her biological daughter (no surprise there). She visits Alice, who’s
in a coma, telling her she’ll be better soon. However, her condition is still
dismal.
Ting Yu also visits Alice and runs into Die Fei and her
father. They wind up in one of the most awkward elevator rides ever and Die Fei’s
father gives them some alone time when they get to the lobby. Ting Yu asks if
Die Fei is there because she’s sick. He’s relieved to find she’s not, but they’re
still awkward around each other (so cute!). Meanwhile, Lisa makes a call to
open her storage account in the US and Hai Jie rushes over after hearing about
Alice, extremely emotional.
Ting Yu goes back to the recording studio to make some
changes to his track. The director plays along, but still has the producer
switch Ting Yu’s track with Hai Jie’s.
At home, Die Fei is thinking about the competition and her
brief escapade with Ting Yu. She talks with her father and tells him her
relationship with Ting Yu is very complicated. Her father urges her to give Ting
Yu more time to think about/deal with things because he can tell Ting Yu is a
good person. He also tells her he doesn’t care about anything except for how
happy she was on stage and he wants her to have her moment to shine again. He
tells her that she shouldn’t be upset about something she enjoys and that love
can’t be rushed.
Hai Jie stays by Alice’s bedside, telling her of his time in
Japan. He receives a call from the director, but hangs up, opting to stay with
Alice.
The orchestra’s CD is released and Die Fei immediately buys
a copy. While listening to Ting Yu’s track, she notices that it sounds more
like Hai Jie instead. She tries calling and texting Hai Jie, but he doesn’t
respond.
Alice finally wakes up. She and Lisa have a heart-to-heart
and Hai Jie promises to stay by her side every day. SJ finds Lisa and demands
the X-seed in exchange for breaking his contract/engagement with Alice. Lisa
demands he leave them alone once she’s given him the seed.
There is a party held for the release of the orchestra’s
album and Ting Yu is congratulated. However, after hearing his track, he
realizes it’s actually Hai Jie playing. Needless to say, he’s pissed. He bursts
into the director’s office demanding an explanation. The director tries to play
it off like it was a mistake, but Ting Yu is not having it. The director
defends himself saying that he is the reason for Ting Yu’s success. He’s been
bribing producers and creating fake PR for Ting Yu overseas to increase his
popularity. Everything has a price, and right now, consumers seem to like Hai
Jie’s playing more. Since Ting Yu refuses to do the musical without Die Fei,
that means the orchestra will be penalized with fees for breach of contract and
will essentially be finished. He defends his decision to the end, in the name
of protecting Ting Yu and the orchestra. Ting Yu storms out and goes for a
drive.
While in the car, Die Fei’s song comes on the radio and it
seems to calm him. He goes by Die Fei’s shop/home and is ushered in by her
father. He tries to leave, but her father insists he stay, calling Die Fei out.
They awkwardly greet each other and Ting Yu finally asks her to go for a walk and
they have a long talk. She asks about his parents and he admits that he’s never
known his father; the man was simply a means to an end for his mother, who only
wanted a musical protégé. When Ting Yu didn’t live up to her expectations, she
committed suicide. He touches Die Fei’s hair, saying he can’t bear to use the
shampoo she left at his place (he misses her!). She says he’s acting weird and
he asks if she would reject him again if he were just some guy that passed her
by on the street. She hangs her head and says she didn’t reject him. She asks
if he’s having trouble sleeping because of Alice, but he says that Alice has
never been in his heart, only Die Fei has. They kiss and Ting Yu tells her he
is leaving for a while. She congratulates him on his album and he asks her if
she noticed anything strange in his playing. She denies it, afraid to mention
anything to him. He then asks her to promise him two things: don’t give up
music and don’t misunderstand him. She agrees, but isn’t sure what the second
means. He pulls her close again, obviously troubled about something.
Hai Jie and Die Fei meet for coffee and Hai Jie updates her
on Alice’s condition. Die Fei gives him her regards and tells him to stay
hopeful. She also brings her music player and asks Hai Jie to listen to Ting Yu’s
track. He immediately recognizes it as his own playing and jumps to the
conclusion that Ting Yu was responsible. Die Fei tries to defend Ting Yu, but
Hai Jie angrily goes to confront him. He punches Ting Yu demanding to know why
he’d betray him like that. Ting Yu tells Hai Jie to just hit him because Hai
Jie won’t believe him no matter what he says. Hai Jie runs out after saying the
CD will be the greatest shame of Ting Yu’s life.
Hai Jie goes to the director to confront him, as well. The
director tries to bribe Hai Jie for his silence, but Hai Jie tells the director
that everyone has been ruined by his greedy business practices. Hai Jie
threatens to reveal the cover up, but the director isn’t concerned. He is
confident that Hai Jie won’t reveal the truth because the fallout will be too
great for everyone involved. The most that will happen is a few media sources will
report the story, but the hype will soon die out because Hai Jie is a no-body.
Hai Jie agrees to keep silent under the condition that he can resign from the
orchestra. He warns the director that all of his plans will backfire if he
continues manipulating Ting Yu.
The next day, Ting Yu wearily prepares for the press
conference for the album. He shows up late with a bruised lip. While the
director gloats on and on about the success of the album, Ting Yu stews over
Hai Jie’s words and states that the album is one big lie.
EP 14
The director tries to make up excuses about Ting Yu’s
statements, but Ting Yu refuses to back down and tells the press that the piece
was actually played by Hai Jie. The media jumps all over Ting Yu demanding to
know if this has happened before and if he could ever really play the violin. Putting
on a show, the director brings Ting Yu a violin to prove his abilities, but
Ting Yu sneers at him and runs away.
The director hunts him down and demands to know why Ting Yu
would do something like that. Ting Yu just laughs at him and asks if he’s ever
understood what it’s like to be a musician, to be in Ting Yu’s shoes. The
director tells Ting Yu that everything will blow over in about a week and he should
wait it out. Ting Yu heartbreakingly says that he can’t even bear tonight, so
why should he care about what happens in a week. The director, still not owning
up to his mistakes, continues to argue. Ting Yu says the director’s never
understood, they will never agree and the director has never truly cared about
anyone at the orchestra.
Ting Yu stops by the hospital to tell Hai Jie that he will
not do anymore public performances and he hopes Hai Jie is satisfied. Ting Yu
says he’s finally found a reason to not play the violin and then leaves.
Ting Yu’s confession is blowing up in the media. The director
goes to Yu Shu and tells her she needs to move back to her father’s house. The orchestra
is finished; things are more serious than she knows. He gives her some
documents and a credit card because he doesn’t want to worry about her on top
of everything else. Yu Shu returns home and placates her father. He says he’ll accept
her relationship with the director and he gives her some family heirlooms as a
peace offering. Later, the director and Yu Shu secretly elope.
The orchestra is officially disbanding. Ting Yu calls a
meeting to tell everyone that the director has robbed them blind and
transferred everything to a Hong Kong account before running away. Stores are
demanding a recall of the new album, so Ting Yu’s agreed and gives the Siren to
the conductor to cover everyone’s severance pay since there is no other money
to do so. Ting Yu bows and apologizes to everyone before leaving. He watches as
people pack everything up and clean out the practice hall. He hears Die Fei
singing and closes his eyes. When he opens them, he’s in another room and runs
to Die Fei’s voice, but the room stretches on forever. He hears rattling and
turns around to see a little girl holding keys, but every time he tries to grab
them his hand goes through them. He wakes to find himself, alone, in the
practice hall grabbing at air. He then notices sheet music on the ground and
snatches it up, humming to the score and dancing around the room. If it’s not
clear by now, Ting Yu’s having a mental breakdown.
SJ makes another appearance, threatening Lisa as to what
will happen if she doesn’t bring him the X-seed.
Clearly not well, Ting Yu is lounging around by a pool with
a partially finished bottle of Jack. He takes some sleeping pills, downing them
with the liquor. He receives a call from his friend Ash, who says he’s tracked
the director to Cambodia. Ting Yu doesn’t care and requests more sleeping
pills. Die Fei tries calling him, but he doesn’t answer. He has a moment of
delirium where he can only think of his failures and his mother. He then falls
face first into the pool. The scene cuts and he’s sitting on the edge of the
pool, hallucinating that Lisa is there comforting him. She tells him that
everything will be okay, he just needs time and rest. He then says he can see
his mother and she’s there to take him away. Lisa’s hallucination quickly
reminds him of a place that he can go to rest and help a lot of people. As he
recalls, he opens his eyes, realizing he’s still underwater. He bursts to the
surface and answers Die Fei’s phone call.
Die Fei finds Ting Yu sitting with a glass of liquor in his
hands, completely out of it. She pries the glass from him and tells him that
she’s very worried about him. Despondently he tells her that he wants to live
in a world that will never change, he only wants darkness. She pulls him to her
and kisses him. He briefly responds to the kiss, but pushes her away and tells
her to leave and never come back. He reduces her to tears and tells her that
she is a bother to him and she should forget him. Die Fei doesn’t believe him
and says she’ll never forget him. She runs up behind him and grabs him, but he
pushes her away, again and coldly tells her she’s not fit for the stage, so she
should go back to her normal life. She desperately begs him not to leave, but
he tells her to never come back.
At the hospital, Hai Jie’s a little rough around the edges,
but promises to take care of Alice while Lisa goes to the US. Die Fei goes to
talk to him and tells him that Ting Yu pushed her away and won’t talk to her.
Hai Jie, who can see through Ting Yu’s act, tells her to be patient and Ting Yu
will come back to her. He then tells her he has a spell that brought Alice back
to him and it will fix all her problems. He then does a ridiculous dance and
chants some nonsense. Eventually he gets Die Fei to do it with him and they
both have a moment free from their worries.
Die Fei is at her friend’s book shop and the friend asks
where Yu Shu is. Die Fei says she doesn’t know. The friend then asks her about
Ting Yu, but it makes Die Fei more depressed.
Elsewhere, Ting Yu goes back to the facility for mentally
unwell patients, where Lisa used to volunteer. He gets a set of keys from one
of the workers and is told to follow a trail through the woods to find the
place he’s looking for. On the hike, he thinks back to the night with Die Fei,
torn. He yells out that he wants to sleep, to dream and to wake up. He hears
Die Fei singing, again, and wanders deeper into the woods, where he encounters
the angel from his Dream Garden. He looks around and asks if this moment is
real. She tells him not to think too much and offers an exchange of dreams. He
immediately dives into a nightmare of being on stage, ready to perform, but
there are no strings on his violin. Everyone is laughing at him, but as he
looks around, he sees himself in the audience laughing the hardest. He jerks
awake, and the angel tells him she has taken the nightmare and has exchanged it
with happy dreams, but he must fall asleep on his own and cannot use alcohol or
pills to cope anymore. He wakes, again, realizing it was all a dream and he
fell asleep in the middle of the woods. However, he finds the keys from his
previous hallucination at the orchestra hall in hand. He continues on the trail
to a cottage, where he will finally be able to get the rest he needs.
Back in Taipei, Die Fei sneaks into the closed orchestra
hall, sad that everything is gone. She tries doing the spell Hai Jie taught
her, but breaks down crying.
Ting Yu still can’t sleep and grabs his sleeping pills, but
forgoes them in favor of writing music.
Die Fei’s and Yu Shu’s father is worried about his
daughters. One has eloped and the other is moping. Die Fei recalls Ting Yu’s words
and tells her father that Ting Yu’s left her. Her father gently explains that
the only way someone can leave is by dying. Die Fei takes this to heart and
goes to find Ting Yu, but has no luck.
Ting Yu has finally finished writing, having stayed up all
night. He manages to fall asleep on his own, imagining his head on Die Fei’s
lap while she sings him to sleep.
At the hospital, Alice tells Hai Jie that her father was a
botanist who accepted a commission from SJ’s father to find a plant previously
thought not to exist.
EP 15
Alice continues the story of her father finding a rare plant
called Alice that would make anyone who smelled it genuinely happy. However,
just after he and his colleagues found it, they all turned on each other and her
father was critically injured. He secretly hid the seeds so no one would find
them.
Hai Jie meets Die Fei to tell her that Alice has woken up
and is doing better. Die Fei is happy for him but comments that she envies Hai
Jie and Alice since Ting Yu won’t talk to her. Hai Jie tells her that Ting Yu
doesn’t realize his feelings yet, but she knows her own feelings so she should
take this opportunity to look for Ting Yu. Hai Jie breaks everything down and
makes what she thought was a complicated situation simple. Encouraged, Die Fei
agrees to meet with Alice, in hopes she might know where Ting Yu has gone,
since they can’t ask Lisa (she’s in the US). Alice gives Die Fei a possible
place to look.
Yu Shu sends a postcard to her family as a way of letting
them know she’s ok. Her father still can’t understand why she ran away, but Die
Fei defends that it might have seemed like a better choice at the time. He
notices Die Fei’s bags are packed and asks if she’s resolved her problems with
Ting Yu. She says she’s going to find him and her father gives his blessing.
Ting Yu comes back from a walk and finds Die Fei waiting for
him. Shocked, and touched, to see her, they embrace. Die Fei tells him that no
matter what happens, she’ll never leave him alone again. Ting Yu remembers her
whispering those words to him the night they slept together and says that by
hugging her, he isn’t afraid of anything.
Hai Jie sneaks Alice out of her room to cheer her up. He
blindfolds her and tells her he’s taking her somewhere full of memories. He
wheels her out of the hospital and she imagines their first meeting, where they
spent the afternoon on a bridge with the scent of the osmanthus flower all
around. Hai Jie kisses her and removes the blindfold.
Lisa has come back, but is closely watched by SJ’s men. She
sends her café worker to tell Hai Jie something (we are not privy to what it
is). At the airport, she tries to swap her luggage with Hai Na (Hai Jie’s
sister/Lisa’s old friend) without SJ’s men noticing. She’s brought to SJ, who
uses Hai Na to threaten Lisa’s plan. Lisa agrees to tell him where the seed
really is if he lets Hai Na go. Hai Na previously swapped the luggage with her
husband, who took it to Hai Jie. In a flashback, we see Lisa explaining
everything to Hai Jie before she left.
The seed disappeared years ago with Alice’s father. It turns
out that his family has a rare genetic defect that he knew would be passed on
to his child. The condition requires umbilical cord blood be used if a transfusion
is necessary. At the time, only the US had the technology and equipment to
store the blood, so before Alice was born, her father arranged to have her
blood stored with his friend’s US biotech company. The whole purpose of Lisa
going to the US was to get the blood for Alice; they kept up the lie about the
seed so she could safely go without SJ finding out.
Hai Jie gets the case of blood from his brother-in-law and
rushes it to the doctor, but is concerned when his sister and Lisa are still
missing.
SJ frees Hai Na (by throwing her from a moving car, with her
hands tied) and Lisa directs him to a highly populated area. There, she causes
a scene by slapping him and calling him a pervert, and runs away. SJ and his
men catch up to her and take her to the rooftop of a nearby building. They slap
her around and she’s pushed to the edge of the building, where she pulls out a
seed and taunts SJ with it. She hands it over, but he realizes she’s played him
and has handed him a pea. She pulls out a handful of them from her pocket and
he slaps them out of her hand and pushes her off the building. She’s rushed to
the hospital and via news reports, we find out that SJ and his men are in
police custody. Lisa and Alice undergo simultaneous surgeries, while Hai Jie
and his family wait for news from the doctors.
At the cottage, Ting Yu wakes to find Die Fei outside
singing. They share a nice moment watching the sunrise together. Time passes
and Ting Yu continues to write and compose, while Die Fei dotes on him and
entertains herself while Ting Yu works.
Lisa and Alice survive their surgeries, but Lisa is in a
coma. When Alice wakes up, she tells Hai Jie that she wants to wash her hair
and that she dreamt about a doctor with a rabbit head. Hai Jie jokingly says it
was him and tells her his family is helping look after Lisa. Alice blames
herself, but Hai Jie says that she was a blessing in Lisa’s life and made Lisa
extremely happy.
Ting Yu finishes his musical, giving it a happy ending. He
asks Die Fei to take the script back to Taipei with her. He dedicates the
script to her and says he needs more time before he can go back to Taipei, but
promises he’ll follow soon.
Die Fei takes the script to Hai Jie at the hospital. He is
extremely impressed with Ting Yu’s work and sits at Lisa’s bedside telling her
about it (she’s still in a coma). Hai Jie notes that the story is different
from the original. Now the characters hold hands, have more emotions and leave
the Garden happy together; Ting Yu has changed for the better. Die Fei is
determined to do the musical, and she and Hai Jie think of ways to produce it
since the orchestra has disbanded. Die Fei asks about Lisa’s condition, but
there’s been no change.
At the watch shop, a very pregnant (and married) Yu Shu
stops by, much to her father’s delight. She cries and asks him not to be mad at
her. He assures her he’s not mad, he’s ecstatic she’s home and that he’s going
to be a grandfather. He asks about the director and Yu Shu says he’s turned
himself in to the police. Yu Shu and her father hug and all is forgiven.
Alice is now recovered enough to be discharged and spends
her time at Lisa’s bedside with Hai JIe, begging Lisa to wake up. In the coma,
Lisa dreams of her husband coming to the hospital to get her. She tells him she
lived a good life in his absence and she’s happy he’s returned. She asks him to
sing for her, and in reality, she dies. Hai Jie, his family, Lisa’s café worker
and Alice all attend the funeral. After, Hai Jie promises Alice to always stay
by her side and protect her in Lisa’s place.
Sometime later, Ting Yu comes back to Taipei and stops by
Lisa’s grave to pay his respects, while Die Fei works hard to make the Dream
Garden musical a reality. During practice, she reminisces about the orchestra
and the times she spent with Ting Yu.
The play is finally premiering. It opens with Die Fei
singing, playing the part of Midori, the dream angel. Ting Yu has unexpectedly
showed up as the pianist and sings with her. It flashes back to Ting Yu at Lisa’s
grave. He thanks Lisa for everything she did and promises to stop hiding and be
more open to receiving and giving love. In the back, Hai Jie and members of the
orchestra accompany Ting Yu on the piano. The song ends, and the audience loves
it. Ting Yu joins Die Fei on stage and everyone takes their bows. Alice and Die
Fei’s father watch on in happiness.
The series ends with Ting Yu narrating his plans to be Die
Fei’s assistant and to only play for her in the future. He jokes that from now
on, he’ll be collecting stacks of her CD’s, as she used to do with his.
Overall Thoughts:
So, I really feel like this is an underappreciated drama. It apparently didn't do that well while on TV (based on what I've read) and tends to have low ratings on other sites. I do acknowledge that it is rife with the typical tropes that most dramas tend to have, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. I felt like Aaron Yan (Ting Yu) really carried most of the show, but I did like the other actors, too. He really made me feel a connection to Ting Yu. He showed a believable amount of angst, anger and depression, but he also did a great job (IMO) of showing the appropriate amount of happiness, when called for, that a character with his history is able to. Some might feel that his acting was cheesy or over-the-top or maybe not enough, but I thought it was great.
I do believe there may have been a few too many plots going on for a show of this length. If there had been more episodes, certain things could have been hashed out or elaborated on more, but for the amount of things to cover in a small amount of episodes, it did alright. I also feel like Laura Veronin (Die Fei) took a while to really get into the role, so the balance between her and Aaron's characterization is a little lacking for the first two-thirds of the show. However, once she finds her niche, the chemistry between them is much better.
I didn't really focus much on Hai Jie and Alice (not my bias lol), as they do play the push and pull game a little too much for me. However, they do well when they are together and actually supporting each other.
Overall, this is definitely a drama that I (have) and will watch multiple times. I (of course) wish the main characters would get together quicker and have more romantic scenes, but I don't have too many other complaints :)
Overall Thoughts:
So, I really feel like this is an underappreciated drama. It apparently didn't do that well while on TV (based on what I've read) and tends to have low ratings on other sites. I do acknowledge that it is rife with the typical tropes that most dramas tend to have, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. I felt like Aaron Yan (Ting Yu) really carried most of the show, but I did like the other actors, too. He really made me feel a connection to Ting Yu. He showed a believable amount of angst, anger and depression, but he also did a great job (IMO) of showing the appropriate amount of happiness, when called for, that a character with his history is able to. Some might feel that his acting was cheesy or over-the-top or maybe not enough, but I thought it was great.
I do believe there may have been a few too many plots going on for a show of this length. If there had been more episodes, certain things could have been hashed out or elaborated on more, but for the amount of things to cover in a small amount of episodes, it did alright. I also feel like Laura Veronin (Die Fei) took a while to really get into the role, so the balance between her and Aaron's characterization is a little lacking for the first two-thirds of the show. However, once she finds her niche, the chemistry between them is much better.
I didn't really focus much on Hai Jie and Alice (not my bias lol), as they do play the push and pull game a little too much for me. However, they do well when they are together and actually supporting each other.
Overall, this is definitely a drama that I (have) and will watch multiple times. I (of course) wish the main characters would get together quicker and have more romantic scenes, but I don't have too many other complaints :)
First off, I want to thank you to everyone who's been reading these reviews (and all the other reviews on the site). For us, partaking in Asian film, of any kind, has always been (and always will be) a unique hobby. Only recently have we been able to share this passion with a lot of people, so we are very thankful to all of our readers. We also encourage you to check out any (and all) of the media we review here, not just because we like it, but because we know there's bound to be something you like, too.
Second, I'd like to thank Whitney for asking me to collaborate with her on this blog. Being besties, we always try to support each other in our endeavors, so this is a great way for me to do so. The fact that I get to basically tell everyone all the details of my favorite dramas is just a plus ;)
This is my first time actively blogging, so please forgive me if you find my posts lacking! I tend to watch dramas like a fiend, while Whits prefers to take her time and savor the flavor, so believe me when I say there's lots to share!
Second, I'd like to thank Whitney for asking me to collaborate with her on this blog. Being besties, we always try to support each other in our endeavors, so this is a great way for me to do so. The fact that I get to basically tell everyone all the details of my favorite dramas is just a plus ;)
This is my first time actively blogging, so please forgive me if you find my posts lacking! I tend to watch dramas like a fiend, while Whits prefers to take her time and savor the flavor, so believe me when I say there's lots to share!
Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed it! Let us know what you thought about it in the comments below!
K
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