A remake that fell flat

A drama remake isn’t expected to copy the original movie to a tee. Directors and screenwriters have creative license to tweak the story to engage the audience as they see fit. But in You Are My Destiny, the plot makeover was a train wreck. The original Fated to Love You had all the ingredients of a classic, with a plot, character development, humor, conflict, and dramatic tension that went high and low like a thrilling rollercoaster ride. But sadly, with YAMD, those highs and lows flat-lined. The drama was reduced to a mediocre show with so many product endorsements, directorial faux pax, and plot inconsistencies that you need to suspend disbelief just to appreciate the flow of the story.

I’ve watched all versions of Fated to Love You, but this Chinese version wins the award for the most ridiculous plot and most subpar acting. A good drama pulls the audience into the story so that they forget they’re watching. A good drama tugs at your heartstrings so much that you feel the characters’ emotions and you sympathize with their sufferings. A bad drama makes you forget the story and instead causes you to raise your eyebrows and count all the glaring flaws. So let me count the ways YAMD failed:

1. No Character Motivation/ Deleted Backstory

YAMD deleted a big chunk of the character motivations from the original FTLY. Why was the death of Ximi crucial to the plot? Perhaps, if the drama stuck to the original story and mentioned that the ML’s family had, from generation to generation, found it difficult to produce an heir, then we would have felt the urgency of Xi Yi finding a spouse, getting married, and protecting the baby. We would have understood the FL’s 3-year-long grief over Ximi’s premature death. This important backstory was removed, and so the original highs and lows of the conflict fell flat in YAMD. The issue of infertility, originally attributed to the FL, was redirected instead to Anna. This switch served no purpose and added nothing to the plot. Because of infertility, Anna said she no longer had reason to pursue Wang Xi Yi. But a few episodes later, Anna still relentlessly clung to Xi Yi. What then happened to the infertility tension? Nothing. The impact fell flat. It wasn’t even a tool of retribution for Anna’s misdemeanor over the divorce papers. Contrast this against the original FTLY drama. In Fated to Love You, the infertility was a plot twist for the FL. It was a major hurdle that raised the question, “Will the main couple ever get together again?” What was the impact? Dramatic tension. The infertility caused us to cry with the FL. It gave her sufficient motivation to run away from the ML. But in YAMD, the FL’s running away became a drag. The last 10 episodes of YAMD became a boring push and pull that caused the audience much frustration. There was no longer any logic to Chen Jia Xin’s resistance, especially after Wang Xi Yi’s many sincere attempts to express his love and regrets. At a certain point, I stopped rooting for Jia Xin because she was playing hard to get. Her resistance became illogical and made the character seem wishy washy, selfish, and undeserving Xi Yi’s love.

2. Mediocre Acting

For me, the emotional high point of the story was the car accident and the succeeding hospital scenes. In the original drama, there was already escalating tension starting from the party and the chase that led to the street collision. The set-up was well-timed and the tension reached a peak at the loss of the baby’s life. The bloody scene, the rain and gloomy ambience, and Chen Qiao En’s masterful acting all weaved together to heighten the sadness during the tragedy. Chen Qiao En pulled out all the stops to give us a gut-wrenching performance. You can feel her panic and her doleful pleading for her baby’s life. You can feel her post-traumatic stress when she hysterically refused to see a grieving Ethan Ruan waiting at the hospital door. I replayed this scene countless times, and each moment, I still had goosebumps accompanied by a torrent of tears.

But in YAMD, again the scene flat-lined. The acting plateaued. It didn’t quite hit the peak of tension that it should. The accident choreography didn’t look serious enough to bruise a victim, let alone cause Jia Xin to lose consciousness. And where is the blood? For someone declared to have placental abruption and excessive bleeding, Jia Xin looked pretty clean. You’d think she was admitted to the hospital for a fever. Later, in the hospital, Liang Jie’s crying, body language, and expressions were seriously lacking, she didn’t pull me in. The anguish wasn’t there. It’s as if the scene had many retakes and the actress’s tear ducts ran dry before the director screamed, “Cut!”

Li Jiu Lin as Dylan was no better. Throughout the drama, his facial expressions were bland. It was as if he existed merely to deliver a dialogue. He was not a worthy second lead you’d swoon over, unlike Baron Chen of FTLY who had the self-assured swag and intense stares that would make you fall in love and think twice about the male lead getting the girl.

3. Sibling Relationship Changed to BFFs

It’s beautiful how FTLY celebrated family. The focus on familial relationships and the dynamics of a small island community was what set the original drama apart. I love that the FL leaned on her siblings and mother for emotional support during crisis situations. I love how the sisters rallied behind her at every turn, whether during the accident and loss of the baby, or during the kidnapping and hostage drama, or even in the light moments of setting up her surprise wedding in the final episode. The sisterly bond was endearing. But that magic formula was deleted in YAMD and replaced instead with a best friend confidante in the person of Si Qi. Again, the remake fell into mediocrity. Hundreds of dramas already center of BFF relationships. We don’t need another one to add to the list. It’s sad how the director and screenwriter reinvented the wheel and destroyed a plot that was already working perfectly.

4. Horrible Rewrite of Anna’s Storyline/ Poor Character Development

YAMD turned Anna into a clingy and conniving vixen instead of the original non-cardboard character in FTLY who was a victim of a screwed up childhood. I don’t like how the screenwriter removed Anna’s redeeming value. In the original drama, Anna felt remorse upon seeing the fatal consequences of her selfish act. And that remorse stayed with her till the end so she stopped her willful plotting. She had a redemptive character arc and we finish the drama without hating her to bits. In YAMD, Anna remains hateful and repeatedly attempts to whitewash her mistakes. Yes, she eventually apologized through a letter, but for all the damage done, her apology was short and not repentant enough. She felt guilty, not because she caused the death of Ximi and put a wedge of prolonged separation between the main couple. Shi Anna felt remorse because she was caught red-handed during a cover-up attempt. Without Dylan’s investigative trickery, I bet Anna would have continued in the same evil trajectory she was at.

The FL was also one who suffered poor character development. She wasn’t a dorky sticky note girl with as bad a fashion sense as Chen Qiao En had in Fated to Love You. If the director thought braided hair and eyeglasses were enough to depict a pushover character, then he’s sorely lacking in creativity. When Jia Xin was about to have a makeover during the cruise and the makeup artist complained about what a tough job that would be, my reaction was, “Seriously? You think it’s hard to fix her up? Look man! She’s pretty already. Can’t you see that?”

Again, even in the manner of dressing, this drama remake stayed in the midline. There’s no high nor low. No extremely ugly then extremely pretty. It just stayed in the middle, from one version of pretty to the next interpretation of pretty. That said, the character development was flat. If there was a change in Jia Xin, it was hardly noticeable except for the hairstyle and because all the other side characters kept telling us she changed after living in Budapest. Telling, not showing. Jia Xin was not an eyesore in the beginning, unlike Chen Qiao En whose fashion faux pas and social awkwardness at the start was an assault to the senses. And this is why when the makeover happened, Chen Qiao En wowed us. With Jia Xin, the change was meh. She walked down the stairs in a red dress and my reaction was, “Seriously? She just combed her hair and showed more skin. Is that it?”


5. Inconsistencies

There were some close-up scenes with internal monologue where Jia Xin rubbed her belly to reveal a minor baby bump under clothing. A few episodes later, she sports a midrib shirt during prenatal classes and exposes a slim figure without a hint of a pregnant belly. How did the belly disappear?

There were also earlier scenes where Jia Xin lamented the loss of her high heeled shoes in favor of the more pregnant-safe flat runners. Shortly thereafter, she goes off again in high heels. Didn’t anyone notice the inconsistencies? As a novelist and writer who is deep into plot analysis, I did.

Yes, these are trivial details that the director might have brushed off as inconsequential. But these are details that ruin a show, just like how a famous American historical film accidentally showed a cellphone as background prop. You pay attention to minute details because you never know what your audience will spot that will destroy the drama’s credibility.


6. Lackluster Ending with Product Endorsement

A great drama should have a satisfying resolution that ties all the loose ends into a neat bow. After 10 episodes of “will we stay together or live apart” tug-o-war, you’d expect the finale to at least give us a reprieve from the frustrating wait. Regretfully, YAMD failed to give us that all-satisfying happy ending. Again, there was no climax, and the drama fell flat even in its concluding episode. The 5 minutes it took from the airport scene to the wedding put a new spin to the word “rushed.” All I could do was shake my head and wonder, “What the heck happened here? Is this the ending?”
Wang Xi Yi just discovers the love of his life was leaving for good, and yet he manages to prepare a crucial, revealing document, have it sent to the airport’s check-in attendant, and make sure Jia Xin receives the evidence before her flight takes off. What an eyebrow-raising scene! Really? Can someone who was taken by surprise at the turn of events be this prepared that he could produce and express-deliver a document at the nick of time, and be the hero that saves the day? Folks, that’s drama logic for you!

In the final minutes, what does the drama give us? Swoon-worthy dialogue? Nope. Answers to plot holes? Nope. Retribution for the antagonist? Nope. What then? Skin-care product endorsements, that’s what! Sponsor shout-outs and product close-ups are such important scenes, no director in his right mind should edit them out. Yeah, right.


Positive:

Not everything was a train wreck, though. There were still memorable scenes and notable actors who deserve a warm applause. The ML’s crying moments were definite scene-stealers. When Wang Xi Yi carried the unconscious body of Jia Xin after the car accident, his anguish was heart-stopping. So was the processing of his grief while he hunched on the floor in Ximi’s room after Jia Xin abandoned him. His flawless acting in these two scenes made the tragedy so real for me.

Another positive for me was Anna’s dancing in the street of Budapest. The cinematography, camera blocking, and dance choreography were just impeccable. Fu Jing who played Anna was a believable ballet dancer. You see, the problem with most dramas that showcase dancing or active sports is that the camera angles trick us into believing the actor, and not a stand-in, performed the moves. The video clips switch too fast or the cameras shake so much that we get dizzy watching. The camera zooms in so that we see the faces of the actors, but we don’t see their bodies dancing. Then the camera zooms out so far that we see the whole person dancing, but we can’t distinguish if the actor himself is really the one performing the choreography. Such was the case in Fated to Love You. Bianca Bai as Shi Anna, wasn’t a believable dancer. The auditions in the early episodes look contrived. But in YAMD, it’s clear Fu Jing herself, and not a stand-in ballerina, performed all the dances.

Another positive for me is that YAMD cut back on some of the slap-stick humor and overacting from the original Fated to Love You drama. That is a welcome change. However, too much of the humor was deleted that none was left to give the audience breathing room from the heavy drama. One of the charms of FTLY was that it punched a healthy dose of comic relief at just the right interludes, like when Ethan Ruan pretended to be blind, like when the lawyer cringed at the reading of the very cheesy divorce agreement, and many other rom-com scenes.

Rewatch Value:

Overall, watching this drama once is already more than enough. The fact that I didn’t skip episodes was already a form of kindness extended to the cast and production crew. Three stars cut the rating right down in the middle which is where this mediocre drama positioned itself anyway. You are My Destiny is neither high nor low in dramatic tension, neither high nor low in acting skills, neither high nor low in emotional impact. It sits smack dab in the safe middle. And so I give this drama a score of 5/10.

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