J-Views: Rent A Girlfriend Home For New Years

No, this is not a perverse ad or a silly joke, but rather the literal translation of China's newest romantic comedy family drama, 租个女友回家过年. And it is so freakin cute!


Credit: MyChineseDrama

Don’t be fooled by the corny title and think this is another fluffy, inconsequential, “idol” drama. No, it is completely different from what you or I would expect. As if to lure viewers deeper into misjudging it, the drama starts off on an “idol-cliched” note with the male lead conducting an arranged date and purposely ruining it (Samsoon anyone?); meanwhile the female lead is hard at work practicing Tae Kwon Do, suddenly running off when she receives a call, and storming into the same restaurant to kick the main lead, David’s ass. But of course, she bullied the wrong guy – the real target should have been David’s best friend, who had used David’s name to cozy up to chicks, one of which happened to be Xiao Xiao’s (literally translated – Smile's) best friend...

Rent A Girlfriend Home For New Years - Smile & David

Credit: ent.sina.cn

By the time I finished watching this part, I liked the catchy theme song, was mildly intrigued by the leads’ storyline, found the dialogue contemporary and refreshing, liked the personality traits of the lead characters, and liked the acting chemistry. That’s enough for me to continue watching, despite my misgivings at the time of this being a clichéd “idol” drama. Unlike my austere requirements for Korean, Japanese, or Taiwan dramas on acting, chemistry, and character development, my judging criteria for Chinese dramas are completely…shallow.

Most of the time when I watch Chinese dramas, acting and character development are not a concern at all – it’s the industry norm to have their drama leads be either experienced and/or academically trained actors, and Chinese productions are meticulous with emotional development of their characters AKA logical and smooth transitions. So, I look for likeability of the actors, the storyline, and the characters itself. Superficial, I know, but with 500+ dramas produced in China in any given year, I can afford to.

Theme Song - Give Me Your Love
Singers: Leng Zhong Yi & Yuan Zi Fei
Lyrics: Leng Zhong Yi

Credit: cherry33www

Sub Theme Song - Love Gradually Leaves
Singers: Yuan Zi Fei

Credit: fountainpark723
So what makes Rent A Girlfriend Home For New Years so cute, endearing (can you believe I cried for this drama? Me? A small swimming pool to boot?), and greatly entertaining? The characters and dialogue. The writer has a good balance between modern superficiality and traditional philosophies, drama and realism, to make the character interactions completely hilarious, charming, yet realistically relatable - particularly David's traditional family, comprised of 3 naggy older sisters, stern father, soft-spoken mother, and child-like, but has full-authority, grandmother.

Smile, is an independent, tomboyish, wealthy, single-parent raised, liberal thinking, college student. David is a serious, stubborn Director in a prominent IT firm, having gone abroad and earning his MIT Masters degree before returning to China to fulfill his filial duty as the only son to a prestigious ancestral family. And it is exactly this family that drives rational David to ultimately seek a “Girlfriend-For-Rent” (part of a growing new trend of services online in Asia including "Personal Assistants") – and who do you think suggested this inane idea? Yup, the unscrupulous best friend that got David's ass kicked in the first scene of this drama.

By no means am I going to spoil this drama for the rest of you. But I will give you all a taste of the ingenious scripting for this show.

Smile: Hey...You...I'm officially saying this, when we get to your oldest sister's house, I stubbornly refuse to eat that whatever "candy egg" - if I eat any more of that, I won't even want to eat chicken for the rest of my life.
David: Fine. When we get to my oldest sister's house, I promise I won't let you eat the "candy egg"...I'll let my sister reward you a little, and fry you an egg.

David: The town of Long Men has a population of 7,000 - all descendants of Lord Sun Qun.
Smile: No wonder you're brain dead, you're the result of generations of incestuous breeding.

Isn't their relationship just adorable? Seriously, I was either laughing non-stop, infinitely touched, or crying like a baby with the dialogue in this series. However, do not assume this drama does not have flaws - it certainly does, especially in the form of how the production team tried to begin and end the drama in rather nonsensical, fluffy tones. As if it needs to justify itself of it's "idol drama" characterization. And don't get me started with the extraneous amount of musical insertions. There is also the rather stoic, or at least in comparison to the usual Chinese standards, inept acting portrayals of the second lead actors. But considering that they are singers-turned-actors, and I've seen worse in dramas of other regions and accepted it (i.e. Devil Beside You, Mike He), I'm willing to concede. I also think marathoning this drama in 2 sleepless days also affected my likeability for it, even if it's just a tad. The romantic development of the leads are too cute and irresistible to regard these disappointments. ^^ Go watch it.

Rent A Girlfriend Home For New Years (Watch Online)
Theme Song - Give Me Your Love
Zhang Zhi Lin - Cool Girl
Zhang Zhi Lin - I Lost
Jin Mu - Lifetime With You

Verdict
Creditability: ☆☆☆ /5
Likeability: ☆☆☆☆ /5

The GM