Name:
Life Art
Genre:
Modern; drama
Released:
2007
Episodes:
20
Cast:
Kevin Cheng
Gigi Lai
Astrid Chan
Paul Chun
Ben Wong
Natalie Tong
Queenie Chu
Yvonne Lam
Kathy Yuen
Josephine Shum
Vinci Wong
Sam Ho Yan
This is a lighthearted family drama from tvb this year and since I don’t really follow up to what genre tvb releases are, I have no clue how many of this type of drama are out this year but I can tell you that i am a fan of lighthearted family drama. I am also a fan of Gigi Lai and Kevin Cheng so there is no way in the world I would miss this drama not even if the drama itself is plotless (which all lighthearted dramas usually are). From the synopsis, I learned not to expect much from Life Art because I just can’t find anything interesting about calligraphy, painting, or art in general. But since it is lighthearted it really doesn’t hurt to watch.
The synopsis do give this drama justice because there is really no overall plot. There are plots, not big but little plots throughout the drama, just not big enough to cover the whole 20 episodes.
The Kevin & Gigi’s plot:
Kevin misjudges Gigi for being ruthless when she doesn’t help his mom when his mom falls but he soon realizes that her right arm is disabled due to an injury caused by her father years ago. After they become friends, he encourages her to seek doctor’s help for her arm, helps her gain back confidence in her drawings, and recommends a comic drawing position to her. Gigi steadily falls in love with Kevin but she doesn’t find the courage to tell him because he’s in a long distance relationship with his girlfriend. But after his girlfriend breaks up with him, he realizes that Gigi is always there for him and unknowingly discovers that he has feelings for her too. Thus they get together at the end and since their relationship is fully established in the beginning, the appearance of Kevin’s ex-girlfriend at the end did not break them apart.
Kevin and the company’s plot:
In the beginning, Kevin is a workaholic, who would spent day and night at the company trying to write or fix computer programs for customers. His hard work never pay off, despite the fact that he gets compliment from times to times from his boss, because he never receive credits for his work. The big boss always praises Kevin for his good work but ended up taking all his credits in front of the bigger boss. Ben Wong in the other hand is a very lazy person but because he is the brother in law of the boss, he shares some credential from Kevin. Not only that but in front of everybody, the boss shows disappointment and disapproval of Ben’s work but behind the closed curtain, they secretly laugh at everybody else’s stupidity. When Kevin discovers the truth about their relationships, the boss fired him. But at this same time, the company going through some ownership changes and it turns out the new boss, Astrid, not only like Kevin and willing to let him stay, but she disapproves of the way the company run. Ben and his brother in law lost their power within the company and thus Ben comes up with a “genius” plan to save their asses by courting Astrid. Ben goes through many unsuccessful attempts to please her which only ended up in favoring on Kevin’s part. However, the new software program is stolen and someone have to be responsible for the loss. Kevin decides he doesn’t want to work under such hostile work environment any longer so he leaves and starts his own company. Astrid is demoted for her inability to run the company so the company is going back to Ben’s brother in law. After what Ben thought was all good and better now, he suddenly gets fired by his brother in law. It turns out the brother in law is the bad guy who stole and sold the programs to the black market, frame Kevin for doing so, snitched on Astrid to the biggest boss, and now sacrifice Ben to save his position.
Natalie and Kevin’s colleague’s plot:
There isn’t really anything interesting about this couple but since it is one of the subplot, there shouldn’t be a reason not to mention it. Natalie is Kevin’s younger sister who is one of those immature, young adult, who just grow up and doesn’t know what is life and what is respect and who unintentionally toy with other feelings. She uses Kevin’s colleague shamelessly to the point of breaking his heart. She basically treats him like a slave, call him when she pleases, and ignore him when she doesn’t need him. He soon realizes this and confront her to which she childishly apologize but I still see she treats him the same but of course he’s willing to be treated that way now because they’re officially together.
Evergreen & Yvonne’s plot:
This is probably the most developed plot of all the other plots because it has the past, the present, and the consequence. Evergreen and Yvonne supposed to marry years ago but on their wedding day, they argue over some saving amount of money that Evergreen let his friend borrow which have yet to return and thus cause the wedding to fall apart because Yvonne cannot tolerate Evergreen to trust his friend over her. So fast forward to the beginning of the story, he have to paid her off her share of the money by selling his art work to her store. They disgusted with each other’s site but deep down inside, they still love each other very much. When the friend reappeared and say he couldn’t return the money because he’s poor and what not, Evergreen padded him on the shoulder and say it is all good. But Yvonne knows better that this friend is a faker, who pretended to be poor so he won’t have to pay the money back. This cause Evergreen and Yvonne to have another argument and Evergreen slaps Yvonne while she vows to never put her mouth into his business again. Paul Chun however, believe in what Yvonne said so he pulls Evergreen out to stalk the friend. It turns out the friend is making a lot of money now, but he refuses to pay because Evergreen is so gullible and easy to deceive. Disappointed and apologetic, he wants to seek Yvonne to say sorry but it is a little too late because she left to China with another man. However, they reconcile and become a happy ever after couple.
Complaint:
I seriously thought this whole drama is about the process of one person (possibly Gigi) who gifted with drawing and painting talents to go further in her life with them like making a difference in her art. I was disappointed that none of it was in there. While the title state Life Art, there is so little art in here that make this whole Life Art title as a false advertisement. Yes true Paul and Yvonne own an art shop, Evergreen paints for a living, Gigi used to draw, and many people learning calligraphy but what is lacking is the process of drawing itself. I know I can’t expect these actors and actresses to be professional artist over the course of filming for this serial but at least found a real artist who drew for the viewers. I expect it to have lots of exhibits of the art or going into the history of drawing and painting but there are none of that. As a matter of fact, I learned more about art from When Rules Turn Loose from Ha Yu than I can acquire from this entire serial. One scene really disappointed me was the scene at Yvonne’s shop where a guy walk in looking at the paintings and I thought they will introduce a little about the painting but instead Yvonne just recommends him a random painting and the scene is over. When Evergreen declare that is Mona Lisa is better than the original because he drew the position of her eyes differently, I was hoping he would explain why and what’s so spectacular about it but he ended up didn’t. The one scene that I actually enjoy is when Paul took Gigi to the mountain where he sat and slowly drew the scenery. Although it doesn’t reveal the step by step process, Paul’s explanation to Gigi about people’s ignorance of art is pretty interesting.
Most hated character:
You would think the boss who frame Kevin because he’s the only one who really did some evil in here or you would guess the lady who starts rumor about Paul and Kevin’s mom being a couple. Yeah they’ve done wrong things but I can tolerate their behaviors but the one person I can tolerate is Natalie’s character. What a spoil brat? In the first episode where Kevin and their mom were teasing her about the way she talks, I thought she would stop, but the girl still think she’s a child or something, continues to speak in that annoying way. There was a part where she was frustrated at something and when her mom ask her to take the thread out of some dress and sew together something because her mom is busy with some other important things. She didn’t want to but I guess she did it anyway to irritate her mom so she ended up messing all the tasks her mom ask her to like sew the legs from the pant together. The mom had to go buy new cloths to redo the dress for the customer. If I were the mom, I would’ve beaten this girl so badly or at least give her a good slap. How hard it is for her mom to raise 2 kids all by herself by sewing days and nights to support them financially and now when her mom need a favor from her and this is how a good daughter suppose to act? It doesn’t matter if you mad at the world, but the mom had done nothing to you let alone to do that to her. Maybe I am exaggerating because messing up the dress is something small and not as trivial but the way she did it annoys me. When her mom shows her the mess up part that she sew together, she just give that annoying face like yeah i told you i don’t know how to do it so don’t tell me to do it again. Then of course the way she treated Kevin’s colleague, i won’t go into details as I already did under their subplot. I really hope she would grow up but unfortunately I see she remains the same till the end.
Most annoying character:
Once again, Natalie’s character is also one annoying b****. I recalls several occasion when she calls herself beautiful and no she didn’t do it in a playing tone or at least that’s what I perceive. Are you serious about thinking you’re pretty? Like when she is debating whether or not to go out with Kevin’s colleague, she was talking to herself saying how can such a beautiful young girl like her go out with him. PSH!
Most pitiful character:
I would say Kevin’s ex-girlfriend and Kevin’s colleague, the one dating Natalie. I didn’t understand why she broke up with Kevin in the first place. I mean, I saw how she just say she’s going to marry that guy from the webcam, but then when she returns, she says it was all fake. I was confused but then I pity her for losing the one guy that she thought would be hers. I mean they dated for 7 years, that’s a long time, and suddenly this one person, Gigi, come in and steal his heart away in 1 month, or months.
Favorite character:
Kevin? Gigi? Nope. I actually enjoy Ben’s character the most. Although I know he and his brother in law used Kevin in the beginning, I never see Ben as an evil guy. There are many times he tries to get rid of Kevin but I think he does it simply to save his job. I never see him as a comedian earlier but he makes such a fool out of himself in here that I cannot resist laughing. Afterall, he’s a good guy at heart, especially at the end when the truth is reveal. Everyone thought he was the traitor who stole the program but he never did it. He clarifies to his brother in law that no matter how much he hates and wants Kevin out of the company, he would never use dirty tactics and illegal ways to get his mean. That’s what I call a person with character.
Favorite scene:
The scene when the company hold a ball and everyone is invited. Ben after digging through Astrid’s profile read that she loves this one song because it reminds her of her first love, Ben paid the guy to pay the song while he will ask Astrid to dance with him. His plan work out great until he went to the bathroom and accidentally locks himself in there while the song played outside. When he climbs his way out, rips his pant and break his neck in the process, he saw Kevin and Astrid were dancing with each other. The next day at work, he shows up having casks on his neck and hand, his foot is broken while his other hand hold a bouquet of flowers and slowly walk up to Astrid to give her the flowers. The scene was hilarious. The best I have seen this year.
Rate:
6/10
Do watch it if you’re a fan of Kevin and Gigi. They look so good with each other and Gigi seems so young. She’s gorgeous in her outfit to the ball with Kevin.
