Five stunning ladies at different walks of their lives open a bistro together.
Notable Actors/Actresses
Feng Xi manages the restaurant and she’s also the one who hired our chef, Zhao He Nan (first appearance in Ep7). He hates working for bosses who only care about profit – he cares about the quality of his food. Feng Xi has a boyfriend, Li Xiang, who she dated for ten years. She has been asking for a marriage but he continues to stall while claiming he loves her.
Notable Actors/Actresses
Lan Ying Ying: Bao Xue
Jin Chen: Dai Xiao Yu
Chuai Ni: Si Meng
Sui Yuan: Feng Xi
Wang Luo Dan: You Shan Shan
Zheng Ye Cheng: Zhao He Nan
Chinese Title
北辙南辕
The relationships:
You Shan Shan is our free spirited investor, the angel of the ladies, and always giving the right advice. She’s too good to be true. She has a boyfriend of five years: Lao Ge. He’s much older than her. He’s into craft and music. The relationship they have seems spiritual, if you get me, like, they connect on another level. I love the impromptu indie music collab (Ep9). Is there a name for that? The girls had wondered where You Shan Shan's first pot of gold came from. Is there someone guiding her investments? Or is she really a genius?
Bao Xue meets Yu Song Yan (first appearance in Ep7) randomly on New Year's Eve. They hit it off after she accidentally took his food at a restaurant. It so happens he’s the designer of their restaurant. By Ep12, they are romantically involved. He enjoys extreme sports and that might just be the breaking point of their relationship.
Dai Xiao Yu splits up with her fiancé, Peng Pai, the guy who never properly divorced his wife, making Dai Xiao Yu a mistress and she didn’t even know it. Then she meets Liu Liang Zhou, a photographer and Bao Xue’s friend/bro. He falls in love with Dai Xiao Yu at first sight when she kicks his groin. It’s cute how they have the same birthday. He's definitely smitten with her but she’s still not over hating her ex. I feel bad for Liu Liang Zhou.
Chinese Title
北辙南辕
Network: iQIYI
Recap Grade: D
First Impression: 2.9/5
First Impression: 2.9/5
Mini Recaps
[Summary (Ep1-12))]
The five (or four) ladies who will open a restaurant together:
- You Shan Shan: free-spirited, rich and divorced; she's got the business instinct and gathers her favourite girls to open a bistro.
- Bao Xue: our drama queen and an aspiring actress
- Dai Xiao Yu: sophisticated and mature; recently broke up with her fiancé of five years after finding out he never properly divorced his wife (yikes); she leaves him to return to China where her cousin, Bao Xue, fools her into investing in the bistro.
- Feng Xi: diligent and hardworking; she's been dating her boyfriend for ten years who's not keen on marriage but she is; she's also the first one to come up with the bistro idea and is the first investor.
- Si Meng: sweet but can be bitter; a mother of two children, married for nine years, and presumably unhappy being a housewife with a less than considerate husband; she also writes as a hobby. (For the first 12 episodes, she has yet to invest in the bistro)
The name of their restaurant is 北辙南辕 (bei zhe nan yuan) and also the title of the drama. The idiom is supposed to be 南辕北辙 (nan yuan bei zhe) which means "to act in a way that defeats one's purpose" or more directly "one wants to go south but the the cart is heading north". The girls switched the idiom around to add some flare, and perhaps to reverse the meaning. It's the process and not the ending that matters?
The funniest episode so far is [Ep3]. This big shot actor (cameo: Huang Bo) gets the praise from the director when he replaced all his lines with “1-2-3-4-5” or some random words to fill up the number of characters needed in his lines. This is the advantage of Chinese dubbing their dramas, actors don't need to say their lines, haha. Bao Xue, our budding actress, owns him in her line and emotional delivery but the director compliments the actor instead for his excellence in saying 12345s with so much emotion. That is a skill, indeed 👏.
By the way, the director is a cameo by the director of this drama, Feng Xiao Gang, an exclusive film director until this drama.
The relationships:
 |
| You Shan Shan; Lao Ge |
 |
| Bao Xue, Yu Song Yan |
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| Top: Dai Xiao Yu; Bottom (L-R): Peng Pai, Liu Liang Zhou |
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| Top: Feng Xi; Bottom (L-R): Li Xiang; Zhao He Nan |
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| Top: Si Meng; Bottom (L-R): Du Shi Jun; Wei Lan |
[Summary (Ep13-18)]
You Shan Shan. Lao Ge isn't exactly her boyfriend... He's like her priest. His office is like her shrine, a place for her to find herself. Not sure. She continues to be the one solving everyone's problems.
Feng Xi. Feng Xi's boyfriend breaks up with her because he realizes he doesn't need her to clean up after him. Wtf? Well at least the guy only wasted her ten years. As time goes by, Feng Xi learns to be independent bit by bit by bit by bit by bit. But all I see is her depending on new people, like Zhao He Nan
Dai Xiao Yu. Dai Xiao Yu breaks up with Liu Liang Zhou to be together with Peng Pai. He’s back with sincerity: divorce papers with his ex-wife, his property as her name; his will with her as the recipient. And finally a ring. She knows she’s materialistic and all of this is what she wanted but she hates him because these are things he could have easily given her but he chose to hurt her first. Still, she gives in. She admits to Liu Liang Zhou that she was happier with him but she's more secure with Peng Pai.
Si Meng. Si Meng considers divorce because of Wei Lan (who took questionable sleeping bed selfies with Du Shi Jun). He didn't sleep with Wei Lan. She's destroying Du Shi Jun's family because he kicked her out of the company and so she'll kick him out his home. I don’t like him but I don’t like Wei Lan more. Why hurt another fellow woman and her children for your own anger? Si Meng asks her children if she divorces, who her children will choose. The daughter chooses Dad. Why? Because that way Mom won't be so tired. Aw.
Bao Xue. Bao Xue fights with Yu Song Yan over extreme sports. Yu Song Yan's friend died during bouldering and I'm not talking about indoor bouldering. Bao Xue was worried for his safety and mad that he didn't even have time to send her a single text just to tell her he's fine. You Shan Shan tried to tell her that this man witnessed his buddy's death and needed time to grieve. In reality, I do get Bao Xue's point but the drama's portrayal of her makes me have zero sympathy for this selfish woman.
[Ep19]
[Ep20]
[Ep21]
[Ep22]
[Ep23]
[Ep24]
[Ep25]
[Ep26]
[Ep27]
[Ep28]
[Ep29]
[Ep30] Grandma is to marry Dr. Lv. Zhu Yu Long's cameo – he's Dr. Lv's son. It's funny when Zhu Yu Long's character asks him what should go on the grave: his mother's name or Grandma's. Dr. Lv merrily suggests both: one on the right and one on the left, lol. Unfortunately, Grandma dies before the marriage. Poor gramps.
[First Impression (Ep1-12)] I didn't like the first episode too much, maybe it was because I don't connect with any of the women, but the more I watch, the more charismatic they seem. It’s fun watching them laugh and ad-lib. There seems to be a lot of possibilities in the relationships. I have no idea who they're going to end up with or if they'll even stick to a man. They may not, and they don't have to.
[Ep20]
[Ep21]
[Ep22]
[Ep23]
[Ep24]
[Ep25]
[Ep26]
[Ep27]
[Ep28]
[Ep29]
[Ep30] Grandma is to marry Dr. Lv. Zhu Yu Long's cameo – he's Dr. Lv's son. It's funny when Zhu Yu Long's character asks him what should go on the grave: his mother's name or Grandma's. Dr. Lv merrily suggests both: one on the right and one on the left, lol. Unfortunately, Grandma dies before the marriage. Poor gramps.
It's 2020 – COVID. Period.
New Year's:
Bao Xue is happy with Yu Song Yan
Feng Xi is with Zhao He Nan. She's pregnant ~
You Shan Shan and Dai Xiao Yu are the single ladies spending their New Year's together at the beach somewhere abroad. (I think You Shan Shan is single...)
He Meng's family looks harmonious with her husband and two children.
100 days after:
Dai Xiao Yu says she has someone to spend her days with and tells her grandparent's pictures they don't have to worry about her. Shan Shan?
You Shan Shan receives her present from Lao Ge (which he had said in a previous episode it would be ready in a year). It's a mini rain stick?
Feng Xi and Zhao He Nan are still managing the restaurant.
Yu Song Yan goes bouldering because he promised his friend who passed away that he'd complete the climb for him. Bao Xue doesn't like it but she will respect his decision. He's successful and they hug at the peak.
Remarks
[First Impression (Ep1-12)] I didn't like the first episode too much, maybe it was because I don't connect with any of the women, but the more I watch, the more charismatic they seem. It’s fun watching them laugh and ad-lib. There seems to be a lot of possibilities in the relationships. I have no idea who they're going to end up with or if they'll even stick to a man. They may not, and they don't have to.
The relationship I'm looking forward to the most is Feng Xi and Zhao He Nan's (Zheng Ye Cheng!). I like Liu Liang Zhang (the photographer) too but it doesn’t look like Dai Xiao Yu likes him. As for character development, I'm looking forward to Si Meng's (housewife). I like her for speaking her mind – when she does speak her mind). You Shan Shan is the surreal character, but without her, this bistro wouldn’t exist. I am curious about her, though, if she really does have a mysterious person helping her.
[Actors/Actresses] Sui Yuan (Drolma Suijun) is the loyal maid from The Rebel Princess ~ No wonder I like her smile.
[Dropped (13-18)] I don't want to watch this anymore. The girls don't spend much time together as a group. Mostly, they're with their man and, honestly, that's when they're the worst of themselves. I don't like anyone, except for You Shan Shan, only because I don't feel anything for her – she's way too perfect to relate to.
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