Hi Venus (2022)

Romance ordinaire et relations épanouies…

Hi Venus est une comédie romantique légère et saine. Dès le premier épisode, l'alchimie entre les personnages principaux crépite, tandis qu'on se laisse happer par cette histoire toute simple, mais réaliste.

Lu Zhao Xi (Joseph Zeng Shun Xi) est le nouveau président de l'hôpital. Charmant, intelligent, doux et optimiste. Il prend son travail à cœur et se révèle être le parfait petit ami. Il est loin des stéréotypes habituels du PDG froid, distant et supérieur. Ye Shi Lan (Liang Jie) est une pédiatre au passé douloureux qui s'efforce d'avancer en espérant s'acheter une maison, un rêve qu'elle cultive depuis des années. En apparence heureuse, son insécurité et ses peurs profondes alimentent son évolution au fil des épisodes. L'alchimie entre eux est excellente avec des interactions (professionnelles et personnelles) fluides et naturelles. Liang Jie m'avait déjà séduite dans deux projets précédents. Quant à Joseph Zeng Shun Xi, je ne l'avais pas revu depuis Ultimate Note, et je suis ravie d'avoir commencé ce drama pour le redécouvrir.

Le couple secondaire est adorable. L'assistant Lin (Zhou Zi Han) est un homme appliqué et minutieux dans son travail, mais aussi un fervent lecteur de webromance. Et la meilleure amie de Ye Shi Lan, Yao Jia Jia (Li Lin Fei), qui travaille dans un café la journée et est autrice de webromance le reste du temps. C'est un couple mignon, si bien que j'aurais aimé que leur histoire progresse un peu plus vite, évitant ainsi de nous laisser sur une mise en couple aussi tardive. Je ne connaissais aucun des deux acteurs, mais ils étaient aussi bons que le reste du casting.

Il n'y a rien de nouveau dans ce drama, mais l'intrigue reste engageante et permet d'oublier les quelques clichés ici et là. C'est une romance de bureau efficace avec des personnages complets avec pour toile de fond un hôpital. Il n'est pas question de traiter des malades ou de voir des médecins évoluer dans leur métier. Les malentendus ne s'éternisent pas inutilement, ce qui permet d'avoir un bon équilibre entre la vie professionnelle et la vie privée. De plus, c'est agréable de n'avoir aucune famille diabolique, pas de harceleur ou d'ex psychopathe, ni même de jalousie démesurée ou de toxicité entre les personnages.

En bref, Hi Venus est un drama chaleureux et réconfortant qui fait du bien au moral. L'histoire est simple, riche en ondes positives et en relations saines et épanouies.

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How To Become a Perfect Lover

I wasn’t planning to pick up “Hi Venus” in the beginning because I had had a bad experience with Liang Jie in “Time Flies and You are Here”. But I couldn’t resist Zeng Shunxi (aka Joseph Zeng) because I have really enjoyed most of his dramas thus far. He has a magnetic charisma that pulls the viewers in and his adorable good-looking face beacons. I was taken by surprise how enjoyable this series is. This drama gives viewers a perfect lover here in the male lead.

Though given a hospital setting as the background, the story is more akin to an office romance. There are no hardcore hospital scenes, nor talented/ambitious female/male lead doctors trying to save lives or inventing new medical technologies/procedures. This is basically a love story between a boss who has no medical experience, and his personal assistant who is a pediatrician with no administrative experience.

Ye Shilan (Liang Jie) is a fresh pediatrician of a private hospital. She is temporarily assigned to the Chief Executive Officer, Lu Zhaoxi (Zeng Shunxi) as his personal assistant. Reluctantly, she complies. Coming from a broken family with a father who killed himself and a mother who remarried, Ye Shilan is insecure and has a low self-esteem; she is awkward, guarding and reserved. Despite the inadequacy she feels of herself, she is upstanding, accepts her own mistakes, systematic, clear-cut, and independent. I’m so relieved that Liang Jie has handled this role very well. Her styling is soothing and down to earth, and her serious demeanor is appropriate for the character. Most importantly, she has an amazing chemistry with Zeng Shunxi.

Born with a silver spoon in an entrepreneurial household where his parents run the hospital business, Lu Zhaoxi is not the typical cold, rude, arrogant, and authoritative CEO. He is mature, considerate, playful, never imposing, optimistic, empathetic (as shown with him going through simulated childbirth pain), romantic, earnest, accommodating, sweet, warm, friendly, fearless (except for insects), intelligent and confident; he’s a perfect partner that all girls want and deserve.

When Lu Zhaoxi falls in love with Ye Shilan and she him, both are not exactly sure of the other: she thinks he is too good for her and she doesn’t deserve him, and she fears losing him if she accepts him; whereas for him, through various rumors and conversations, he thinks she still cannot come out from the hurt of a previous relationship, so he hesitates for fear of being rejected.

Not only very good looking, I find Zeng Shunxi a very good actor. His large round eyes speak volumes, capturing his playfulness, thoughtfulness, exacerbations, romance, intelligence, and confidence. I always feel soothed watching him, even in my most critical drama of his in “Time Flies and You are Here”. Zeng Shunxi nails the role as Lu Zhaoxi. He’s perfect here and I don’t think another actor could do better.

The story is narrated through Ye Shilan's perspective, how she changes from an inferior character to a positive person; she meets her 救星 ("jiùxīng" or savior), her Venus. This is quite a slow burn, pull-push kind of relationship which is subtle and humorous. The couple’s official relationship begins in Episode 16 when they are more open to their closest friends. I'm usually not a very patient person with intentionally made misunderstandings and wasteful moments. However, I find the development of romance here very charming and interesting; it's the little moments that are precious and unforgettable. The dialogues are so funny that at times viewers must think twice to get the meaning and truly understand the words. I feel the scriptwriter has given the viewers one of the best dialogue writings here: subtly funny, humorous, oxymoronic, and paradoxical.

Among others, one thing that stands out to me is, there are no annoying bad parents forcing their kids to marry for wealth and status, or for people they (the parents) approve of. Here, Lu Zhaoxi's parents dote on him and give him freedom to discover himself, hence making him very close to them (the parents); he tells them everything on his mind, including his love life. In fact, Lu Zhaoxi's mother is his best confidante, talking and listening to him pouring out his happiness and frustrations every night, and his father warns him not to use his power to coerce his subordinates to go out with him. Rarely I see such open-minded parents in Chinese dramas. This has definitely taken out a lot of angsts in any romantic relationship.

There are also no annoying ex-girlfriends nor ex-boyfriends, no toxic relationship nor emotional hijacks, but a pair of very engaging best friends who later become our beloved side couple. Unlike in other dramas where the OTP’s best friends always give silly and outlandish ideas, the best friends here, Yao Jiajia (Li Linfei) and Lin Kaiwen (Zhou Zihan), are intelligent and analytical, giving our couple insights and sound advices, helping them to see themselves and find each other.

Finally, the background music is amusing, usually fast and upbeat. There’s a wide usage of assortment of musical tunes, including classical music such as Mozart’s Ala Turka, to accentuate the moods and blunders of the scenes. The flow of romantic music can abruptly stop when something unexpectedly happens. This adds even more humor to the moments and is brilliantly executed.

My Verdict

This is a story with a very simple storyline and no plot twists. I find the writing of the final few episodes not as engrossing as the earlier ones, and the drama becomes rather bland towards the end -- everything is smooth sailing. Nonetheless, this drama is soothing and light-hearted, a chicken soup for the soul, great for erasing away the stress and anxiety.

I love the writer’s humor. It’s so subtle that one may not catch it right away. To me, this is some very excellent writing and a lot of thoughts have gone into it. Many lines spoken here can be used by lovers to enhance their relationship. The “confession conversation” is the type of conversation all viewers should learn to say, in whatever circumstances. It can help us move positively forward in our life.

Another conversation that stands out to me is when Lu Zhaoxi tries to address Ye Shilan’s concern, “Many families are better off than ours, and many are worse off. We cannot use these, better off or worse off, to determine success or failure. But hard work, ideology, compassion can. So don't compare with others to chase after success; we compare within ourselves to have a better life, that's suffice.”

"If you want people to help you, you first have to extend your hand." "If you want people to save you, you first have to save yourself." And this is the message of the story.

Love life. Love everyday!

Great watch! Recommended for all romance buffs and all viewers with fragile hearts (like myself).

BRAVO!

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