Switch of Fate (2016)

good for those quarantine days....

I saw clips of this drama on FB. I thought it was one of those Asian PSA type of commercials, but now it was a whole clip of how Rendong (One of our FL)'s family treats her like shit. No, idea why I chose to look up this drama and keep watching but I was really interested in the ending once I started. Of course, I don't see any spoilers or reviews online for this drama either.

Basically, our two female leads are switched at birth. Rendong, is supposed to be born in a rich family and become a doctor is raised in a struggling household where she is the breadwinner by dangerously climbing the hillside/mountain side to gather herbs to sell. Although she had a hard life, she has a optimistic attitude and it makes her likeable to many. Qiangwei is an illegitimate daughter stemming from an affair her bio-mom had with a servant of the Gu family, he ends up switching the babies because of his own hatred. She's spoiled, and has a bad attitude. It's what turns a lot of her close friends/family away from her. This drama follows the two girls and on they deal with and discover their true identities.

Although, the moms in this drama are pretty SHITTY. I did enjoy the fathers in this drama. Rendong's "father" Wang Yao, although at first hates her existence later realizes how filial and a great daughter Rendong is. He does his best to offer her a good life, and even sends her to the city to get better work opportunities - under the guise that he hates her and doesn't want to be around her. But he really does love her as his own. Rendong also acknowledges him as her father. I also though Mr. Chen was also a great father-figure for Rendong too. He always treated her well and took care of her family, despite Mrs. Chen being a greedy MF about Rendong working for them.

Overall, this drama was simple and not overly exciting but enjoyable. I wouldn't watch it again.

The main theme song really gets stuck in your head though.

Although, this drama is set in the republic of china, there is no overly communistic themes in this drama.

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The Characters from Hell

If there was a prize for the series with the most irritating, disgusting characters, this would be it hands down! That would indicate that the acting was pretty good since they were so convincing. The storyline was pretty clear, no glaring loose ends, but 46 episodes was a bit drawn out and I found myself fast-forwarding through a lot of scenes with the characters who were just downright disgusting, especially with the constant bickering.

The Women: Unfortunately, the women in this drama didn't come across in a very positive light - with the exception of Jingyi, Dr. Gu's wife. The matriarch of the Gu family, the grandmother was vicious and hateful. She said the most offensive, awful things (and got away with it) and did some pretty ugly things (and got away with it). The Wife of the Chen Pharmacy was particularly annoying and shrewish and nagging as hell! Substitute daughter Qingwei was whiny and your typical spoilt brat, but she was so arrogant and childish so that got old real fast. The FL was a disappointment. There was such promise for this character - a strong, smart woman rising from adversity and from one bad break to the next - but she just came across as a pushover - too 'good' to be true and annoyingly naive. But the female character who deserved the most disgust and disdain was the shallow, selfish, greedy mother He Xiu - the one that had me screaming at the screen and fast-forwarding out of disgust. Great job by that actress, by the way!

The Men: The villain Fang Cheng was unconscionable and childishly spiteful and vindictive. The two ML Zhen Ding & Han Chong were weak and neither one really lived up to the title of hero. Zhen Ding was too passive, and Han Chong was childish and impulsive. Patriarch Dr. Gu was so gullible and stubborn - that character too, could have been such a strong force, but he came across as noble but weak and wishy-washy. Pharmacy owner Chen Fu Gui was an all-round good guy, and I liked his character a lot too. But the definitely the star of the entire series was the adopted dad Wang Yao - who started out to be pretty harsh but turned out to be the kind of dad you can look up to (except for being hen-pecked by that shrew of a wife). I really hoped for a better ending for him though.

So overall, I kept watching to see the bad people get their Karma - and kept coming back until it was done. I think they wrapped it up pretty well in the last two episodes, which these days is rare. You find that in the last episode everything tends to get rushed through to complete in the time slot, but this one didn't feel that way.

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