The Pursuit of Happiness Episode 13 Recap

We finally made it to the finish line! 13 weeks but it was all worth it. I really enjoy this drama despite some inconsistencies that it had.  Nonetheless, it was a really good drama to watch and I am very happy with what I got out of this journey.

This ep was concerned with bringing the OTP together and I couldn’t be any happier with how it came about. It was subtle and understated but yet it was very sweet and adorable to watch. Ji An Lei (Sonia Sui) and Huang Yi Kang (Tony Yang) had already fallen for each other long ago but they just needed that push for them to realise their feelings. That push came about during their separation which allowed them to really dig deep into their feelings for each other. Yi Kang needed some clarification for his feelings while An Lei needed some confirmation for her feelings. Without him in her life, she started to realise and accept that she could not be without him. It was this separation that brought them together; she had gotten so accustomed to life with him that she didn’t realise just the grand scale of the effect that he has on her until he actually left her. It might have taken 13 eps but at long last she has finally found the one for her!

This drama was really An Lei and Yi Kang’s show, because He Wei Ting (Zhuang Kai Xun/Cash Chuang) and Shen Hai Lun/Helen (Aggie Hsieh)’s storyline was non-existent. They served their role in bringing Yi Kang and An Lei together but didn’t do themselves any justice in their relationship. I didn’t mind because An Lei and Yi Kang alone were enough to sustain the drama and that was enough for me to grow to love the drama. An Lei and Yi Kang really brought the drama home; their relationship was nicely developed which was all that I could ask for.

Watching this drama was like going through the journey with An Lei and Yi Kang. They really made their relationship one that was dense and filled with feelings. While their relationship might have been draggy at times, but it was without a doubt a nicely written one. The Pursuit of Happiness centralises on their development and did a very good job at doing so. Most dramas which are centralised on building the OTP tend to go haywire but that didn’t happen here, for which I am very pleased about. The drama concluded beautifully which really tied together the long journey that Yi Kang and An Lei went through to find each other. 

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The Pursuit of Happiness Episode 13 Written Preview

Hmm, I’m not sure how I am supposed to feel about the upcoming ending. On one hand I am glad that this drama is coming to a closure but on the other I feel like there were still lots of aspects that weren’t fully developed. I like this drama, and I have made that quite clear throughout my recaps but there were so much more that the drama could have done! The drama was fixated on sculpting Ji An Lei (Sonia Sui) and Huang Yi Kang (Tony Yang)’s relationship that everything else was kicked to the side. So while the drama did reasonably well to build up their relationship, it failed to do for Shen Hai Lun/Helen and He Wei Ting (Zhuang Kai Xun/Cash Chuang)’s relationship. It was just flat and the drama only tried to introduce conflict for them two eps ago which is definitely not enough time for anything solid to happen. A great drama must know how to neatly intertwine different elements of the drama together but this did not happen here. I am glad that  Yi Kang and An Lei aren’t going to be fated with a rush ending but sadly Helen and Wei Ting have the unfortunate luck on this ending. It’s a good thing that the drama is quite short or else things could have really been draggy. Let’s see what ending the drama has in stall for us! 

The Pursuit of Happiness Episode 13 Video Previews

I thought that I wouldn’t have a post up today but I have one today! This means I can wish you a a very bright and blissful year ahead! May 2014 be a great year for us all bringing us great achievements! (: Thank you for your continuous support for me and this blog this year, may 2014 bring on better achievements for this blog! Wishing you guys all a very happy new year! Enjoy the fireworks wherever you are!

Ooooooo, the final previews for The Pursuit of Happiness showing that the OTP will get together once and for all. I have waited a very long time for this to come and I will most certainly be very happy when it does. They have been through a long journey and I have to admit that their journey was a bit draggy. Should the drama be any longer than 13 eps, then their journey would have entered the unbearable draggy stage but it’s a good thing that it’s only 13 eps. It has been a journey of self-finding for Ji An Lei (Sonia Sui), a journey of discovering where her heart lies and it has been a long journey at that. It was not an easy task for her since she doubts herself and her love for Huang Yi Kang (Tony Yang). Factoring that she had to heal her broken heart for He Wei Ting (Zhuang Kai Xun/Cash Chuang), she was in a state of self-doubt wondering whether she would be able to love again. Yi Kang came into her life and helped her to overcome that and little did she know it, she was falling in love with him. Even when it became obvious to the world that she had fallen for him, she tried to mask that and pretend that her feelings was not there because she did not want to get hurt again and neither does she want to hurt him. She has gotten so used to having Yi Kang in her life that it became really easy for her to mask these feelings but they really start to show themselves when Yi Kang is no longer in her life.

This drama might have been the best written but I thoroughly enjoyed it even if it was repetitive at times. The drama fell on developing the storyline for the second leads and revolved everything around the OTP. Yi Kang and An Lei’s story was quite solid and I really appreciated the fact that their relationship had ample stages of growth. Now we just need to watch that final flower blossom! Hopefully it will be a pretty flower!

The Pursuit of Happiness Episode 12 Recap

Things are finally picking up pace now that there is only one ep left until this all draws to a conclusion. Yep, it’s all going to end next week. The drama has done quite well in building up Ji An Lei (Sonia Sui) and Huang Yi Kang (Tony Yang)’s relationship and it has finally reached a turning point. While some might define An Lei and Yi Kang’s relationship like a tug-of-game, I beg to differ. An Lei chooses to push him away because she is still not sure of what she feels about him yet and even in this ep it is still something that she is constantly  trying to work out. She knows that she doesn’t have much time left to play around with feelings and she does want to have to go through that again. After her experience with He Wei Ting (Zhuang Kai Xun/Cash Chuang), she knows all the more that she can not toy with feelings; she wants to be certain of her feelings before she even decides to give it a try. Having been through all these experiences with Yi Kang, she is growing more and more aware of her feelings for him and this is something that she has to stop avoiding and face with a brave heart.

There was some conflict in this ep for the OTP which was solely to push them closer together. The conflicts did just that and really helped for An Lei and Yi Kang to listen to their heart. For An Lei, this is something that she is still learning to get to terms with. These conflicts helped her to realise the feelings that she holds for Yi Kang as well as to understand what it is exactly that her heart feels. I know that these conflicts were a very clichéd way for bringing the OTP together but I love that it was just glossed over which was such a slick way to get to realise their feelings without being OTT.

This ep served quite well being the penultimate ep. Hopefully it will lead to a good conclusion to the drama! Just one more until the finale!

The Pursuit of Happiness Episode 12 Video Previews

GTV is running late with dropping the The Pursuit of Happiness previews this week. Either they were too preoccupied with Christmas or they just want to keep me waiting! I kept checking back and forth on there youtube page for the preview and finally the dropped one four hours ago! Yay! I already saw the full preview at the end of ep 11 but there is always something different when I see these shorter previews. So far, GTV has only released one preview and usually there are two previews per ep. I will update this as soon as the second preview drops. *All updated now!

TPOH is confirmed to end at 13 eps and will finish its run in two weeks time on 03 January 2014. This means that this upcoming ep is the penultimate ep so hopefully some big things will happen! GTV dramas are usually 15 eps in length so this drama is shorter than most. However, I am quite glad that is on the shorter run because if this drama were to be any longer, it would have lots of trouble trying to sustain itself without appearing draggy or adding in any unnecessary storylines. 

The Pursuit of Happiness Episode 11 Recap

The drama is back to giving me a waiting game! I had expected it to come around because we are still a fair way from the ending but the previews were so misleading that I just wasn’t fully prepared to come to face with it yet. But that’s okay, I’m learning to deal with this waiting game. It is actually a very vital aspect to Huang Yi Kang (Tony Yang) and Ji An Lei (Sonia Sui)’s relationship because I am not ready to see them together yet. They still have a long way to go before I can accept that they are on the same page with their feelings. What we are getting from them right now is that they are finding their footing on how they feel towards each other. They have yet to cross that line and that is something that they need to carefully take their time on. It is a risk that they cannot turn back on so they need to be certain of this decision before they decide to embark on that step.

Oh dreams, stop toying with me! You get me excited for the wrong reasons! While I may be annoyed with it, I do like what the drama is trying to do. It captivates you and then leaves you disappointed. But at least there was a kiss, even if it was a dream. Now, if only Yi Kang and An Lei can muster up the courage to confess to each other then these dreams would become reality.

2013 End of Year Drama Review

I cannot believe that the year is coming to an end already! It feels like it was only just the start of 2013! Oh, how time flies! It just makes you look back and appreciate all the goodness that has come out of this year. It comes to the time for an end of year review and I really do appreciate the goodness that dramaland has given this year.

2013 has been one drama year for me (every year is a drama year for me!), though it was definitely much slower than 2012. I was actually quite slack with my drama watching for the first half of the year and only began to intensely drama during the second half of the year. With a heavier school load, I had no choice but to lighten up on my drama watching and this also meant choosing wisely with what I wanted to watch, which didn’t work out quite so well with some drama choices. But I did manage to do a lot of live-watching this year, which is something that I am very proud of. I also managed to watch a 73 ep drama, which is another thing which I am very proud of. I looked back at my 2012 End of Year Drama Review where I said that one of my resolutions for this year was to watch more dramas outside of hk-dramas but I don’t think I accomplished that. Anyhoo, I’ll just blame this on school which, really, is just an excuse to make me feel better of not achieving my goal.

There were quite a number of misses rather than hits this year which is quite disappointing but there were also a number of great hits. I didn’t get to see all the dramas that I wanted to see this year but I can always catch-up on it once I find some time in life. However, in generally, I think this year was quite a miss in terms of dramas. The reason why I was quite slack in terms of drama watching for the first half of the year was that there was any dramas that called out for me to watch it and furthermore, I have read reviews which have not been so positive about those dramas. It was during this half of the year that the dramaland picked up its game, especially in the k-drama verse.

I am going to have an even heavier school load next year which means less drama time for me but it won’t stop me from dramaing! Obviously school will be my priority but nothing is going to keep me away from dramas and blogging!

For this review, I am rating all of these dramas together for this year so the ratings will vary to the ratings on my ratings page. The ratings will be out of 5 stars.

The Pursuit of Happiness Episode 11 Video Previews

Now that Huang Yi Kang (Tony Yang) and Ji An Lei (Sonia Sui)’s relationship has started to take shape, it is a matter of seeing how they are going to maintain their relationship and be sure that they are the one for each other. I want to see how they will realise that they are right ones for each other. For An Lei, I don’t think that her heart is quite ready to accept someone new yet. She might have moved on, but she is still fresh from healing a broken heart. As much as I am eager to see Yi Kang and An Lei together, I don’t want to see her get together with him out of rash or because of loneliness. Yi Kang does not deserve to have his heart broken. However, in spite of this, it can be seen that An Lei is falling for Yi Kang though it is not all that evident to her eyes yet. This is why they need to have some complications in their relationship for them to overcome together which will also them to realise that they are the one for each other. Whatever you do drama, just do not break Yi Kang’s heart! 

The Pursuit of Happiness Episode 10 Recap

Ooooo, things are getting hot for Yi Kang and An Lei and somehow things appear to be moving at the pace they are supposed to be going at. I find that Yi Kang and An Lei are really moving it fast given that it has only been two months since they officially met but despite this, I don’t find it to be fast moving for their relationship. This is because they have built on a very strong friendship, one that is much stronger than anything that they have ever had in the past. This in turn allows their love for each other to show up naturally and as it happens, you just accept it to be as it does not feel forced or planned. Of course, Sonia Sui and Tony Yang have great chemistry together which helps to top off this natural feeling. Even when An Lei and Yi Kang do get together, I don’t want to see it end just there. I hope that we will get to see some conflict between them to actually show that meant for each other.

This ep scored the highest rating for the drama sitting at 1.39 but it is running last behind the current crop of dramas airing at the same time. It also isn’t faring as well as its predecessor, A Good Wife so hopefully it can pick things up as we wind down to the finish line. I can see why this drama isn’t raking in the ratings but I am really enjoying this drama. Light-hearted sweet love isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but this one is sure mines! Its rival over at SETTV, In A Good Way is breaking its own rating records week after week and is one of the current most-talked about drama in Taiwan. I am going to get my hands on it, hopefully soon!

This ep there is a lot of mind-crossing talk, if you can call it that and anecdotes under the name of “my friend”. So for this recap when there is the mind-crossing talk thing, I am going to indicate it with “…” to switch back and forth between the talks from the two parties. Hopefully this will be understandable enough.

The Pursuit of Happiness Episode 10 Video Previews

As much as I want Ji An Lei (Sonia Sui) and Huang Yi Kang (Tony Yang) to get together already, I know that and feel that this is not the right time for them to do so yet. The biggest problem that is stopping them from getting together right now is that An Lei has yet to fully let go of He Wei Ting (Zhuang Kai Xun/Cash Chuang). She is still in the process of learning to move on and to let go of Wei Ting. It is going to take some time and effort giving that it is 15 years of feelings that she has to leave behind. Yi Kang doesn’t push her nor does he rush her; he allows her to deal with it at her own pace and even helps her on this journey. He is such a sweet guy and his love for her is just as sweet and as tender as her is. This is all the more reason why I do not want her to get together with Yi Kang if she cannot admit that she truly and whole-heartedly loves him. I do not want to see him being used as a rebound for her broken heart or getting hurt in the process.

There is an upcoming kiss! I am excited but after last ep, I have learnt to keep my expectations down low. But at least this time I know that it is a real kiss and not an imaginary kiss, well, hopefully it is a real kiss because if it turns out to be another imaginary kiss, then it will be keeping my excitement off of any kisses!