Substitute Princess

Substitute Princess/Princess Stand In/King Flower is a Taiwanese romance comedy. Da Hua just wants brother Guan Jun to fall in love with her...maybe if she was pretty. She's soon given the opportunity after young CEO, Terry's, fiance (and business partner) is severely injured. Da Hua undergoes plastic surgery to look like her and take her place in the company.

The not so typical ugly duckling story plays out in this show. Da Hua's a hardworking and bubbly girl who runs a small market with her mother. She's pretty much roasted in the beginning of the episode by their customers. They go on about how she's the known as the most beautiful woman in the city (sarcastically of course), but it doesn't seem to phase her so much. She doesn't care as long as brother Guan Jun still likes her. Yes. She wants nothing more in the world than to marry her big brother. Adopted brother, yes, but it's still pretty weird. And even weirder is that her mother is 100% in support for them to hook up!

Guan Jun is a troublemaker and he can't hold down a job for more than a month. He apparently spends most of his time gambling and cheating at casinos and making a bad impression on his younger brother, Da Li. He doesn't show any romantic feelings towards Da Hua at all.

Terry is the GM of a large, successful company called Sheng Da Group. In the pilot, he and his fiance, Liang Yan, have just gotten engaged and are finally living in the same house. Liang Yan is a beautiful, talented and holds a powerful position in the company as well. Despite her status, she is still very kind and fair to everyone.

The pilot doesn't show Liang Yan's accident or Da Hua's transformation, but we do get a good background on each character. At the end of the episode, Terry, Liang Yan, and Da Hua meet in the market for the first time.

I think this show is super cute and all that, but I'm a bit concerned about the message it's sending out. So basically, the show is saying that in order to get someone to love you, you have to become beautiful? I already know that once Da Hua goes through with the operation to look like Liang Yan, Guan Jun is definitely going to start liking her. He's not once shown any affection towards her for the 20+ years that they've been living together - hell, he didn't even remember her birthday!
Judging from the opening, it seems like both Terry and Guan Jun pursue Da Hua. So that would mean that Terry ends up falling for her too. I guess that's pretty complicated because he's looking at his fiance but interacting with Da Hua's personality and everything. This show is complicated.
Anyway, I'm not mad at the show, just worried at its message. That's all.

Also, for anyone who cares to watch the show -------------------- I'm team Terry.

RATING

Originality: 4/5
Attention Lock-Ability: 3.5/5
Soundtrack: 5/5
Ep. 2 Worthy? Although the pilot is a bit slow, the next episode is worth watching.