Started watching Taiwanese drama ‘Alice in Wonder City’ – to be honest, I wasn’t really excited about this drama, but from the second half of the first episode I started to like it.
Plot:
He Ting Yu is a famous violinist who’s just returned from an overseas tour. Chen Hai Jie is a hardworking dreamer who came to the big city to become a world class violin player. Lan Die Fei is a charming girl who has a beautiful voice and an ear for pitch. Alice is a mysterious girl from Japan who wonders the streets searching for the secrets of her past.
The seeds of their dreams are planted in the city; they are all waiting to see if one day the seeds will grow to bear fruit.
– dramawiki
The drama starts with a weird dream where Chen Hai Jie meets a rather strange little girl named Alice – when he wakes up, it seems that he overslept, takes his violin and rushes on his bike to…..somewhere. After that they show staff people at a concert hall asking if ‘he’ arrived.
Of course I thought that Chen Hai Jie was rushing at the concert hall, but no, he was rushing to play the violin at a kid’s birthday party… Anyway, at the concert hall the ‘main man’ was actually He Ting Yu (Arron Yan).
At the birthday party, Hai Jie meets a beautiful Japanese girl named Alice (remember the strange dream, smart huh?) – he tells Alice that he wants to be her guide – to show her around Taipei. The two of them exchange phone numbers and decide to meet another day ‘to show her around town’.
After a few days, we see Lan Die Fei at a job interview(?) – to be part of the orchestra staff. During the interview, the orchestra conductor(? – I think that’s what it’s called) somehow makes fun of Lan Die Fei when she has to ‘guess the singer’ -like game. She guesses right, and the conductor tells her to guess another one – it was Kreisler Leibesleid’s song but played by He Ting Yu – she guesses the song and the fact that Ting Yu was the player and at that moment Ting Yu enters the room, telling the conductor (?) to stop playing these kind of tricks because they are an orchestra not an art school, he also tells Die Fei that she is hired.
Alice and Hai Jie meet and have a cute/bubbly date – but after a year she disappears.
Dai Fei is now working for Ting Yu – and well he just acts as if he is the center of the Universe.Well, I actually like a little his selfishness, I like how he told Dai Fei to stay on the back seat of the car because in the front seat (the one near the driver) is only for his violin, no one is allowed to stay there except for his violin.
At Ting Yu’s home, he seems to have some insomnia problem and then they show this over dramatic scene (something like ‘omg looks how much he is suffering’).
The next day, Hai Jie wants to see concert but there were no more tickets – he sees Dai Fei, and asks her if there is any way to see the concert. Dai Fei let’s him enter the hall (acting as her friend).
Because Ting Yu didn’t arrive in time (as always ) for the costume rehearsal, and the staff puts Hai Jie to replace Ting Yu. Of course when Ting Yu arrives he gets all annoyed seeing Hai Jie in his place – to be hones here, I don’t think he is annoyed just because Hai Jie was in his place, more like I have a feeling that he knew Hai Fei since before, but non of them say anything.
Hai Jie doesn’t actually shows any signs of knowing Ting Yu (he apparently knew him only as a violinist – ad he seems to be his fan), but the way Ting Yu got annoyed I think he actually knew each other – don’t know, maybe I’m thinking too much.Before the concert, Ting Yu doesn’t find his violin and starts screaming at Dai Fei – it seems that the manager took it but he also blames Dai Fei.
At an interview – still, before the concert:
Interviewer: As a violinist why do you play the violin?Does the orchestra has any special meaning to you?
Ting Yu: I don’t know, you say it like I was born to play the violin. But to me it’s just my job.Nothing else.
Interviewer: So music doesn’t make you happy? Can I put it like that?
The interviewer says she saw his biography, and saw that he started doing solo performances when he was 10 also every year he received an award, but the year when he was 17 years old was empty. So the interviewer asked what happened that year. He looks rather nervous, and starts having some flashbacks.
Ting Yu: I died that year.
Because they didn’t find Ting Yu’s violin, Hai Jie gives his violin to Ting Yu.
After the concert, Hai Jie tells Ting Yu his opinion about the performance – it was actually a honest an innocent opinion – but Ting Yu got annoyed and told Hai Jie that he had no right to criticizes his performance.
After that everyone was still blaming Dai Fei for loosing Ting Yu’s violin. But Hai Jie comforts Dai Fei.
Near the end, we see Ting Yu in a darkish room, reminding about what he said during the interview, when the interviewer asked him if music doesn’t make him happy.
Four Seasons Dramas! 