Return of Happiness/幸福归来 : Back to the Sea

I do feel like I have been on a Chinese drama binge lately! Yet another one has caught my attention. Even though it feels like your run of the mill chaebol + Candy storyline with amnesia/birth switcheroo, I enjoy it for the great acting (actors who I have actually never watched before)! Return of Happiness focuses on You Wei, a passionate seafarer who loves to go sailing due to her upbringing near the sea. However, in the beginning, she was actually the precious daughter of a rich family. One day, she explored too near the edge of a cliff and fell off. This resulted in her losing her memory. In an effort to keep the money in the family which the father was going to donate to charity, the aunt searched high and low for the missing girl. Instead of bringing back the lost daughter when she found her, she brought back another ailing girl in her place. The aunt then places the real daughter with the family she took the girl from 10 years later so that the girl is more unrecognizable. She intends to keep this as her leverage in her bid for more company power. Therefore, the lost daughter takes on the name of You Wei and lives her life by the sea while her counterpart works at the family company when she grows up.

You Wei grows up to be your super-Candy, hardworking, bright, and working 5 jobs to support her little (pseudo) brother’s education. Her dream is to be able to sail yachts for a living. She applies for a job on a sailing team, gets it by winning a sailing competition, but loses it due to misunderstandings when she meets Hao Min, the CEO of the company. Hao Min is actually a childhood friend that You Wei grew up with, but now can’t remember. However, not to be deterred, she manages to get another job with maintenance of sailboats instead….before getting fired again due to another misunderstandings. Through these events, she is gradually and unknowingly coming in contact with key players of her childhood life. Hopefully one day she will recover her memories and set things straight with the help of Hao Min.

So far, the drama is breezy and light. Willing suspension of disbelief is a must in these kind of dramas or our lead lady would have died a couple of deaths already. For example, when she falls off the cliff, drinks two bottles of Hennessy Cognac by herself, and gets whacked in the head with a stick (why didn’t that bring back some memories?). And I guess they aren’t in the practice of getting more DNA samples and can’t recognizing their OWN daughter (we will give credit to the mother who has a gut feeling that her current daughter isn’t hers)? While the plot may be hole-y, I am still attracted to this drama due to the crackling chemistry between our leads. The moments where You Wei angsts are particularly good and Hao Min puts on a good comedic flair without being slap-stick. May I just say, I just realized the past 3-4 leads in the Chinese dramas I’ve watched all had pixie short hair!

EDIT: I am quite addicted! And what a wonderful OST!

INTRO

ENDING

PRETTTAY