Marriage Cuisine
| Marriage Cuisine | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Written by | Juanzi |
| Directed by | Jiangang Yan |
| Starring | Yan Ni, Li Xin Zhao, Yuanzheng Feng, Danni Liang, Anlian Yao |
| Country of origin | China, Korea |
| Original language(s) |
Swedish Chinese |
| Production | |
| Running time | 40 minutes per episode (30 episodes in total) |
| Release | |
| Original release | 8 September 2014 (Chinese Television) |
Marriage Cuisine is a Chinese, Korean, and Hong Kong TV drama that premiered in 2014. It is the first Chinese TV series to co-work with South Korean television. With a high budget of 150 000 000 US$, Marriage Cuisine became the number one TV series of 2014, and broke the Chinese viewer status with 200 000 000 viewers in the mainland in only one week.
Plot
Archen and Yangshu are married with one daughter named Taoze. They have been married for 12 years but recently, Yangshu has become too busy with his work as a chemistry professor and has volunteered in a project about skin cancer cure. However, his work keeps him away from his daughter who needed him in school but since he did not show up, Taoze fell behind in school and had to return home. Archen gets frustrated with Yangshu and makes the decision to divorce him. One year later after the divorce, Yangshu becomes famous for his project and Archen starts to have second thoughts if divorce was a good thing or not. But she finds out that a new woman named Go Go has entered Yangshu's life. Archen decides to forget Yangshu and find a new date. But what she doesn't know is Yangshu secretly wants Archen and his daughter back in his life.
Leading characters
- Archen - a master chef in a 5 star hotel restaurant. She is very stubborn about her cook as well as her love life. She refuses to take any answers that don't suit her, but that can be her doom as well. Archen is played by the Chinese Hong Kong actress Yan Ni, who made several movies in Hong Kong.
- Yangshu - a professor in chemistry, he took part in a cancer cure research that will be held in Beijing. But his job caused him to be away from his family and, as a result, in a divorce from Archen. Despite fame he wants nothing more but to return to his family. Yangshu is played by Swedish Chinese actor Li Xin Zhao, Li Zhao grew up in Uppsala in Sweden, he made a debut in the Swedish movie The Way Out (Vägen ut). He continued working in China. His role as Yangshu is his first leading role.
- Ma - she is the mother of Archen and a former actress. She spends her time taking take of her granddaughter Taoze, and trying to reason with Archen, and also trying to survive the craziness of her other daughter Bei Quan. Ma is played by the actress Danni Liang, who is married to Yuanzheng Feng, who also plays a role in the series as Aiming.
- Bei Chuan - older sister to Archen, a woman who never date, always work, and see love as a pessimist thing. Despite that she try to help Archen in her way of happiness. She is played by Qing Yang, a Taiwanese mainland actress.
- Taoze - the daughter of Archen and Yangshu. She is not comfortable of her parents divorce. She is not happy that her mother is dating others or that her dad has a new girl Go Go. She is played by the child actress from Shanghai, Yang Zhiwen.
- Go Go - she is the new love interest of Yangshu (well if you ask her). She finds out about Yangshus divorce during her work at his laboratory, then she put her plan at work. She do anything to get Yangshu away from Archen, one way or another. She is played by Dalian actress He Haoyang, this drama was her acting debut at age 20.
Supporting characters
- Lu Lu - he is the best friend and co worker for professor Yangshu. He is also secretly inlove with Go Go. Despite his love interest, he try to reason with Go Go not to go too far with her feelings, it could turn her world upside down. He is played by the actor Xiaochong Jiang, he has played several TV dramas.
- Teacher Wang - a proud momma boy, he is the main teacher for Taoze, and has a crush on Archen. When he finds out that Archen is divorced, he take actions a little bit too far and loses control of his feelings and change from teacher to stalker. He is played by the famous Hong Kong actor Wu Jiang who became world-famous for his lead role in A Touch of Sin.
- Aiming - a psychologist and an idol look alike. Aiming is the 3rd date for Archen. Archen has a huge crush on him however she will soon learn why he doesn't have children and why he has been single all his life. He is played by the famous Hong Kong actor Yuanzheng Feng who is married with the actress Danni Liang. A fun fact is his character was supposed to be a Daniel Wu look alike but he refused to play the part unless they changed the role to be a Yuanzheng Feng look alike, so he would be an idol of himself.
- Wu De Feng - a professor of architecture, and a man who adore beauty. He is Archens 1st date after her divorce. He is full of charm and has a high respect for Archen, but he loves architect more than he loves people. He is played by the famous Taiwanese actor Anlian Yao.
- Mr Lee - the craziest business owner in the world, he owns the restaurant that has 2nd place in he top 10 list, the 1st place is Archens 5 star hotel. Mr Lee is convinced that if he manages to hire Archen in his restaurant then he can have 1st place. He is played by the Taiwanese comedian Jiantao Hong.
Other characters
- Feng Jia Shui - she is the best friend and co worker of Archen, she has a secret crush on the waiter Tom, she is played by the comedian Luo Wei.
- Tom - the homosexual waiter of the 5 stars hotel and not very fond of Archen. When his mother tells him to get married or he lose his job, he hire Feng Jia Shui to become his wife, but he dislike her because she is inlove with him in real, but business before pleasure. He is played by the Singaporean comedian Luan Yuan Hui.
- Wuran - he is an old school friend of Archen, he hasn't seen her since they were kids, he accidental tells Archen it's properly not a good idea to divorce in her age. He is played by he famous TV Beijing actor Yalin Gao.
- Professor Johan - a Swedish professor and the 2nd in command at Yangshus laboratory. He was supposed to be the 1st in command but after he failed an experiment, Yangshu took over the project and trusted him to finish the third sample. He is played by the Swedish actor Johan Karlberg, he is famous from the Chinese movie The Resistance. A fun fact is the role wasn't supposed to be Swedish, it was supposed to be French, and his name was professor Jean, but Johan couldn't speak French and the name was changed to English John. But after a coffee break the director heard Johan speak Swedish with the actor Li Xin Zhao, and then decided to change the character from English to Swedish and changed again the name to professor Johan.
Cast
- Yan Ni as Archen
- Li Xin Zhao as Yangshu
- Danni Liang as Mother Ma
- Qing Yang as Bei Chuan
- Yang Zhiwen as Taoze
- He Haoyang as Go Go
- Yuanzheng Feng as Liu Aiming
- Wu Jiang as Teacher Wang
- Anlian Yao as Wu De Feng
- Jiantao Hong as Mr Lee
- Xiaochong Jiang as Lu Lu
- Luo Wei as Feng Jia Shui
- Luan Yuan Hui as Lin Tom
- Yalin Gao as Wu Ran
- Johan Karlberg as Professor Johan
Music
The composed music and the song "Qing Ai De" was performed and written by the famous singer Fan Fan, the song hit the music box office in both China and Hong Kong.
The song "Love Will Keep Us Alive" by The Eagles were also used in the dinner scene with Archen and Aiming.
The song Opa Gangnam Star by Psy is played when Miss Ma and Taoze are dancing together, and several Frank Sinatra songs were played in almost every restaurant scenes.
Books
The plot of the TV series is based on two manga books, A Crazy Housewife and A Good Husband.
Colors
The color Blue is used a lot in the background, and some clothes and furnitures and some material is a crystal clear blue color. The blue color reflects to piece and clear sky, and everybody in a clean aura except Archen who never wear anything or has anything of the color blue on her.
References
Chinesemov.com - http://chinesemov.com/tv/2014/Marriage-Cuisine.html