''Hi Working Girl'' () is a 2003 Taiwanese
romantic comedy
Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a sub-genre of comedy and Romance novel, romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount all obstacles. Ro ...
television series directed by Huang Ke-i and Wu Ssu-ta and starring
Jolin Tsai
Jolin Tsai I-lin ( zh, c=蔡依林, p=Cài Yīlín; born September 15, 1980), also romanized as Jolin Cai, is a Taiwanese people, Taiwanese singer, songwriter, and actress. Recognized as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of C-Pop ...
and
Show Lo
Show Lo Chih-hsiang (; born July 30, 1979), is a Taiwanese singer, actor, and television host. Lo debuted as a member of Taiwanese boy group Four Heavenly Kings in 1996 after winning a singing and dancing competition. When the group disbanded ...
. The series premiered on
CTV on March 19, 2003. It is based on the Japanese comic series ''Asakura-kun Chotto!'' () created by Kenichi Oishi and Yumemi Ishiduka, and it tells the story of what happened after Fu I-ling, a staff of the general affairs department of an advertising company, met Cheng Ta-lun, the chief of the department.
Plot
Fu I-ling (
Jolin Tsai
Jolin Tsai I-lin ( zh, c=蔡依林, p=Cài Yīlín; born September 15, 1980), also romanized as Jolin Cai, is a Taiwanese people, Taiwanese singer, songwriter, and actress. Recognized as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of C-Pop ...
) is a pure and innocent girl. She firmly believes that human nature is inherently good, and she believes that there is nothing that cannot be solved in this world. With her "housewife" personality, it is perfect for her to work in the company's general affairs department. But other colleagues in the general affairs department are all weirdos, including a supervisor who likes to scold others, a money digger who loves vanity, and a senior who just wants to marry herself all day long. They all like to bully I-ling and push work to her, but I-ling never complained. She feels that she must be not smart or hard enough. She believes that work and censure are a kind of training and a necessary process in her life.
Until one day the appearance of Cheng Ta-lun (
Show Lo
Show Lo Chih-hsiang (; born July 30, 1979), is a Taiwanese singer, actor, and television host. Lo debuted as a member of Taiwanese boy group Four Heavenly Kings in 1996 after winning a singing and dancing competition. When the group disbanded ...
) changed I-ling's life. Ta-lun saw I-ling's cuteness and strengths, and while he becomes the driving force for I-ling to come to work every day, he is also deeply attracted by I-ling. But the innocent I-ling never thought that she would be favored by Ta-lun, she just hopes that she would be supremely happy to watch Ta-lun silently by his side every day. Even Ta-lun summoned up the courage to show his love, but I-ling, who is a love idiot, couldn't feel it. Ta-lun could only continue to be entangled by the other two girls.
With Ta-lun's support, I-ling shows her enthusiasm as a "housewife" to the fullest. She helped bald clients find confidence, coordinated the infighting among company's executives, and accompanied the boss of a candy company on a Valentine's Day trip, helped a colleague find a ring in the elevator, signed an impossible contract, found a missing advertising star, etc. All kinds of impossible tasks are solved one by one by I-ling, and it is all up to her perseverance, stupidity, and hard work. This not only made I-ling more popular in the company and her life more fulfilling, but also made Ta-lun like her more and fell in love with her deeply.
But I-ling is not brave in the face of her love. She doesn't believe that Ta-lun will like her the ordinary girl, so she lets the opportunities pass by her side again and again, until one day she realizes that Ta-lun is about to leave her if she can't seize the opportunity, so she finally musters up the courage to say "I love Ta-lun".
Cast
*
Jolin Tsai
Jolin Tsai I-lin ( zh, c=蔡依林, p=Cài Yīlín; born September 15, 1980), also romanized as Jolin Cai, is a Taiwanese people, Taiwanese singer, songwriter, and actress. Recognized as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of C-Pop ...
as Fu I-ling
*
Show Lo
Show Lo Chih-hsiang (; born July 30, 1979), is a Taiwanese singer, actor, and television host. Lo debuted as a member of Taiwanese boy group Four Heavenly Kings in 1996 after winning a singing and dancing competition. When the group disbanded ...
as Cheng Ta-lun
*
Megan Lai
Megan Lai (; born 5 December 1979) is a Taiwanese actress and singer who is best known for ''Bromance'', '' Miss Rose'', '' Meteor Garden II '' and ''Mars''.
Life and career
Early life and education
Lai was born on 5 December 1979 in Yon ...
as Tseng Ai-lin
* Wen Wen as Hsia Wei-chi
* Shan Cheng-ju as Chen Liang-kuang
* Renzo Liu as Tou
* Kasai Kenji as Kasai
* Darryl Kuo as Wang Chih-wei
*
Kimi Hsia as A Mei
*
Fu Lei as Chairman
* Chen Hsien-shih as Fist Master
* I Che-li as Fu I-ling's mother
* Ing Tsai-ling as Cheng Ta-lun's mother
*
Lin Mei-hsiu
Lin Mei-hsiu ( zh, c=林美秀, poj=Lîm Bí-siù; born 6 June 1967) is a Taiwanese actress and television host. She strived with her perseverance and later produced signature works and become well known in Taiwan. Lin has starred in various ge ...
as Chen Liang-kuang's wife
*
Andy On
Andy On () (born May 11, 1977) is an American actor and martial artist.
Life and career
On was born on May 11, 1977, in Providence, Rhode Island. He can speak English, Mandarin, and a bit of Cantonese.
Andy On did not graduate from high school ...
as Sun Ta-chieh
* Wang Jen-chien as Li Tien-chueh
*
Ken Chu as Ken Chu
* Pink Yang as Ken Chu's girlfriend
*
Duncan Chow
Duncan Chow (; born Duncan Lai (黎登勤), September 19, 1978) is a Hong Kong-born actor who is popular in Taiwan. Chow was originally a professional windsurfer and a fashion show model, but chose acting as a career in 2001. He rose to fame by sta ...
as Ken Chu's manager
* Hsieh Chi-wen as Chang
* Jason Lee as Che
*
Wallace Chung
Wallace Chung Hon-leung (; born 30 November 1974) is a Hong Kong actor and singer, best known for his work on several Chinese television dramas.
Chung ranked 68th on ''Forbes'' China Celebrity 100 list in 2013, 94th in 2014, 45th in 2015, 31st i ...
as Johnny
* Hou Ya-fang as Chen Yuan-yuan
* Li Chia-chen as Hotel Lady Boss
* Chang Li-wei as Li Yu-chun
* Yuki Hsu as Li Hsiao-in
*
Penny Lin as Cheng Ta-li
* Lei Wei-yuan as Fu I-ling's father
* Hsu Kuei-in as Fu I-li
* Gigi Lin as Sun Ta-chieh's sister
*
Terry Lin
Terrance Lin (; born 6 July 1966) is a Taiwanese singer. He has been nominated for the Golden Melody Awards 5 times for Best Mandarin Male Artist. He is known for his clear and elegant high voice, which utilizes different resonance in his head ...
as Chun Chieh
* Eddie Hsu as A Tuo
* Chang Chi-hui as Chia Chia
* Chen Yen-an as Wu Ya-hui
* Kuo Chang-ju as Cheng Ta-lun's grandfather
Soundtracks
Release
Beginning on March 19, 2003, the series aired one episode per week in Taiwan on
CTV.
Beginning on May 12, 2004, it aired one episode per week in Hong Kong on
Family Entertainment Channel. Beginning on October 1, 2006, it aired three episodes per day in China on
CCTV-1
CCTV-1 (CCTV General Channel) is the primary channel of CCTV, the national flagship terrestrial television network of the People's Republic of China. It broadcasts a range of programs from CCTV Headquarters at East 3rd Ring Road in Beijing and ...
. In addition, the series was released in the formats of
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
and
VCD
Video CD (abbreviated as VCD, and also known as Compact Disc Digital Video), (not to be confused with CD Video which is a type of LaserDisc, Laserdisc) is a home video format and the first format for distributing films on standard optical di ...
in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia.
Critical reception
''Yangzhou Evening News'' commented: "''Hi Working Girl'' is a typical Taiwanese humor, which seems a little nonsensical, but it makes sense when you think about it carefully. Such a television series with simple relationships between characters makes people feel very relaxed, each character has a distinctive personality and is easy to remember."
Sina Entertainment commented: "''Hi Working Girl'' not only won the audience a relaxed smile with slightly exaggerated performance and plot, but also implies a very realistic story. The reason is that it does not use the way of preaching, but shows it to the audience in such a way hidden behind the laughter." ''Bandao Metropolis Daily'' commented: "Because
Jolin Tsai
Jolin Tsai I-lin ( zh, c=蔡依林, p=Cài Yīlín; born September 15, 1980), also romanized as Jolin Cai, is a Taiwanese people, Taiwanese singer, songwriter, and actress. Recognized as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of C-Pop ...
seldom appears in television series and movies, and she has intimate scenes with her rumored boyfriend
Show Lo
Show Lo Chih-hsiang (; born July 30, 1979), is a Taiwanese singer, actor, and television host. Lo debuted as a member of Taiwanese boy group Four Heavenly Kings in 1996 after winning a singing and dancing competition. When the group disbanded ...
in the series, it still attracted a lot of attention from fans. But for Jolin Tsai, acting skills are undoubtedly her 'weak point'. Jolin Tsai, who is proficient in singing and dancing, shows her hands are tied when facing the filming camera."
References
External links
* {{IMDb title, id=24472644
2003 Taiwanese television series debuts
2003 Taiwanese television series endings
China Television original programming
Taiwanese television dramas based on manga
Taiwanese romantic comedy television series