This one’s a classic and I feel that many of the tropes from shojo manga or even romantic k-drama (plain cinderella surrounded by a bunch of good looking guys, rich guy/poor girl, evil mother in law, etc.) were inspired from this. In other words, it’s got everything people either love or hate depending on their personal tolerance or liking for these old tropes.


The male lead is very controversial. He’s downright mean in the first few episodes and almost does something unforgivable in the fourth episode (something I wish they had removed because the story would have worked just as well without it, IMHO) but I could see what the writer was trying to do with him…he’s a big sweetheart and probably one of the most devoted and unwavering MLs by the 30th episode onwards; almost like an entirely different person but it takes awhile for him to get there and maybe for others (understandably) a little too late.

The relationship between the ML/FL only work out here if* the viewer likes the trope where one character transforms after going through a lot of changes. I was loving the ML/FL by the latter episodes but again, it took a long time to get to that point and there’s a lot of angst a viewer has to wade through, brought on by their social status differences and his meddling evil mother.

I’ve seen several versions of HYD/MG. It was a huge hit when it aired in my country; in fact, it started the asian drama wave in the 2000s. I think this might be the best version because of how closely it follows the manga. It does something better in that it manages to soften the characters even further and inject more sweet moments between the ML and FL, which I didn’t see much of in the HYD comic. I could actually tell that they liked* each other here, compared to other versions where they just bickered most of the time. It also handled the amnesia arc from the comic very effectively…I didn’t like that trope.

Also, casting is on point for all the characters here, especially the F4. I’ve always thought Lee Min Ho from BOF and Bright from the Thai F4 were too soft and pretty to be Domyouji/Dao Ming Si..but they would have been perfectly cast as the 2nd ML. IMHO, only the Japanese, Taiwanese and now the Chinese versions cast the ML right. So far, the only San Cai/Tsukushi I like are the ones played by Barbie Su and Mao Inoue. The one here is just alright. It’s a nice touch that they made her a chef.

The only thing I didn’t like about this version were the episodes that focused on a made up character named Zhou Caina, who was not part of the comic..and also the last episode which seemed rushed and out of the place.