Hi Flower (2017)

Living with Debt or Guilt

Being warned by earlier reviews not to waste my time on Hi Flower/Ugly Girl Hai Ru Hua I still couldn't resist watching this series. I like the actors, both played in Ten Miles Of Peach Blossom, I love romcoms about student life, and I don't mind if the story gets darker as long as I can relate to the characters. Just like watching Moon Lovers Scarlet Heart Ryeo. This k-drama started very light, but before I knew it, I could only watch it with a tissue box at hand. Still I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Synopsis
Hi Flower is a romcom/drama about growing pains at campus and living with debt, or guilt. Female lead Lu Ruhua (Zhu Xudan) suffers from heavy debts of her family and high medical bills due to the heart disease of her twin brother. Eager to earn every penny she can get she's a jack-of-all-trades, selling all kind of services at her university "except for my body". One day she encounters the male lead, wealthy heir Wen Chu (Lai Yi) who immediately clashes with her because of her materialistic attitude. Eventually his hate turns into love. Still their budding relationship is full of misunderstandings and unlucky events. Will they find happiness together, or do they have to live separately, feeling guilty for the rest of their life?

The good
I know there are a lot of complaints about the characters. The female lead is too much of a saint...the male lead is immature, self centered...the girls are either highly naive or mean...the boys are lazy, a bunch of users. Yes, agreed to all that, but isn't this picture quite realistic too? Naturally we like to see kick-ass heroines, relatable boyfriends, understanding parents and such, but my experience is this takes a long haul in real life, with obstacles and unruliness along the way, and the end not yet in sight. I found myself drawn into the story, it had a nice flow as well. Also I loved the chemistry between the actors.

The Bad
This drama contains a lot of clichés like in Boys over Flowers. There's this poor, hard working girl, troubled by the debt of her family, she's loved and admired by several men, and she likes this rich, arrogant boy, against all odds, despite of his antagonistic family. Moreover the light and funny events in the first season change into angsty, tear jerking moments in the second.

Still...if you like a student life romcom blended with melodrama this is for you. The ending isn't all that bad.

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For the first few episodes it took a while for me know what was going on. I think I had to rewatch the first episode again to understand.

The actors were ok. Most of them were very predictable. However, they would grow on you with the pass of each episodes.

But here is the thing. This drama have the tag of Comedy and Romance, but it also deserves the tag of Tragedy. I'm telling you, if you cannot stand tragedy, stop watching the drama at episode 32. The last two episodes are very depressing and although it was a "happy ending" at the same time, it wasn't. All my happy and positive feelings I had for this drama crumbled right at the beginning of episode 33. I was SO DONE! I just couldn't.

Anyway, I'll apologize if anything I wrote is incorrect. English is not my first language.

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