iPartment
 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
| iPartment | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Sitcom Comedy Comedy-drama |
| Created by | Wei Zheng Wang Yuan |
| Starring |
|
| Narrated by |
|
| Opening theme | "My Future Styles" by Amber Kuo(Guo Caijie) |
| Country of origin | China |
| Original languages | Chinese Japanese English Korean |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 124 |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 45 minutes |
| Production company | Shanghai Media Distribution |
| Original release | |
| Network | Season 1: Jiangxi TV Season 2: Guangdong TV Dragon TV Shandong Education TV Ningxia TV Season 3: Anhui TV Hubei TV Shaanxi TV Dragon TV Season 4: Anhui TV Dragon TV Heilongjiang TV Hubei TV Season 5: iQiyi |
| Release | August 23, 2009 |
iPartment[1] (Chinese: 爱情公寓; pinyin: Àiqíng Gōngyù), is a sitcom from Mainland China. It was produced by Shanghai Film Group Corporation and Shanghai Film Studio, aired by Jiangxi TV in August 2009, with 20 45-minute episodes.
The second season switched into a different style approach with episodes aired online, due to its online fan base and polls for upcoming episodes. The second season featured four of the same characters from the first season, with three new characters. The third season followed with the same cast.
The i in the English title is a reference to ài (爱), the Chinese term for "love".
The show is extremely similar to the American sitcom Friends, with the original characters sharing remarkable similarities to the Friends characters. For example, Zhanbo and Ross Geller are both romantically challenged yet successful and intelligent, both have a crush on a rich heiress who has abandoned a loveless wedding and ran away (Wanyu/Rachel Green), both have a controlling older sister with a biting sense of sarcasm (Yifei/Monica Geller) that goes on to marry the humorous-yet-successful member of the group (Xiaoxian/Chandler Bing), etc. Many episodes of iPartment actually directly copy plot lines from Friends, and Chinese viewers who have seen both frequently comment on the similarities. As the series progressed, it also began to implement plot lines and styles from other American shows such as How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory, whose influence it directly acknowledges.
iPartment premiered before the Great Firewall was fully implemented, and there are several references to Western sites that are now banned, such as Google and YouTube, as well as several direct and indirect references to Western icons and events that are relatively unknown in China, such as the NAACP, etc. iPartment was also one of the first Chinese television shows to feature a more urban, Western lifestyle, with main characters engaging in bachelors' parties, one-night-stands, and drinking contests, all of which are uncommon in traditional Chinese culture. The show is known for casually Breaking the fourth wall, with in-universe characters occasionally referring to the events as "seasons" or "episodes" and making snarky comments such as "where have you been the last season?" A specific example is when Ziqiao stars in a steroid advertisement during a non-canon alternate reality arc, only for the steroid ad's tagline to be repeatedly brought up throughout the rest of the canon show, even though there is no way the in-universe characters would have any idea of its existence. However, the show cannot be considered to fully break the fourth wall as characters do not communicate with viewers or realize there are viewers at all.
Premise
The show details the lives of seven youths in their mid-to-late 20s who are neighbors in an apartment complex in Shanghai, "iPartment," which was opened to young couples in love for heavily discounted prices by a wealthy philanthropist who was moved by a wedding that takes place in the first episode. Each person has a profession of their own and often gets into unexpected escapades.
Although much of the show is filmed on location, iPartment also contains a laugh track. The series uses a cinematic-style of approach with fast-paced editing and transitions, much like the British comedy series Spaced. There are also frequent references to more recent events and culture in China.
iPartment tends to combine genres such as drama, mystery, thriller, slapstick and surrealism. The second season leans more to a cinematic feel, with uses of CGI, camera effects and action scenes.[2]
Cast
- Jin Shijia (Kim Jin) portrays Lu Zhanbo,
- A graduate from MIT who recently returned to China. He works as a network engineer. Zhanbo is very intelligent, but also socially inept and clumsy dealing with girls, often described by others as a stereotypical nerd. He likes watching scientific shows, and is a huge fan of Transformers, dinosaurs, and prehistoric items. While he is hot-headed and passionate, he is often too cowardly to actually do what he says he wants to do, a block that he overcomes in Season 4 when he realizes that the key to pushing his limits is support from his friends and family. He first met Wanyu when taking the wrong bus from the airport (he was attempting to find his sister Yifei, as his parents wanted her to take care of him), and fell in love with her. He eventually confessed his love to her at the end of season 1, which she accepted. He later went on a vacation around the world with Wanyu, and was absent for the whole season 2. He proposed to Wanyu in season 3, but she declined to pursue her future in Milano, and they break up despite still being in love with each other. After a bout of depression, he accepts a job offer to work in Milan so he can see her, but his taxi is hit by an oncoming truck on the way to the Italian consulate to get his work visa (miraculously resulting in absolutely no damage except for a cut lip). The doctors refuse to let him out of the hospital in time, and he finally comes to terms with his breakup and decides to stay in Shanghai. He returns in Season 4, but then goes to Africa to work for an NGO called "Everything is OK." He accepts the offer, and does not return, eventually ending up in the South Pole to save the penguins. A brief WeChat post in Season 5 reveals that Wanyu and Zhanbo eventually ran into each other again and are now back together, although they do not appear in the series.
- Zhao Ji (Evonne Zhao) portrays Lin Wanyu,
- The daughter of a billionaire banker. She runs away from home when her father forces her to marry against her will, and meets Zhanbo on the bus in an attempt to find "iPartment," which is officially founded and named as soon as she and Zhanbo get to the apartment complex Zhanbo's sister lived in (leading to her turning to Zhanbo and saying, "see, I told you it exists!"). She finds various work and eventually gets a job as a writer for a fashion magazine. She is smart and charming, but often thinks and acts naively and unrealistically in everyday life due to being raised in a wealthy family. Despite this, she is extremely skilled at economics and the stock market due to her status as heiress to a banking company and insider knowledge, and is also very skilled in fashion for an undisclosed reason. She is a naturally skilled receptionist due to a warm personality and frequent contact with her father's receptionists, leading her to be hired and quickly fired by Xiaoxian as her exceptional skill was putting him out of work as a host. She is into fashion designing and likes Tarot/star sign predictions. She becomes Zhanbo's best friend. In the finale of season 1, she accepts Zhanbo and they go on a vacation around the world together as a couple. Around everyday life though, they appear more like friends than a couple. She eventually decides to go study fashion design college in Milan, and sadly parts with Zhanbo in season 3 because she does not want to interfere with his future, sneaking away to Milan so he cannot abandon his dreams to move with her to Milan. She is absent for the rest of the show, but a brief WeChat post in Season 5 reveals that she and Zhanbo have gotten back together, although they do not personally appear.
- Chen He (Michael Chen) portrays Zeng Xiaoxian,
- A Shanghainese host for the late-night radio talk show “Your Moon, My Heart” and a graduate of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (double major in history and philosophy). He is kind, sensitive but wimpy, often being forced into situations that are out of his control. He is the vice-president of iPartment's Homeowner association, which he often points out to other residents of the complex. Despite his joking and casual nature, he is still relatively successful and much more mature than Zhanbo and Ziqiao, and most of the characters except Yifei and occasionally Ziqiao call him "Teacher Zeng" and generally treat him as an authority figure. His signature catch phrase on the show is: "Good man is me, I am Zeng Xiaoxian." (Chinese: "好男人就是我，我就是曾小贤！") Despite believing himself to be a famous celebrity and local figure, his talk show is very unpopular and he is often ridiculed by his boss, Lisa. He is a germophobe and frequently exhibits feminine behavior due to his wussy personality, much to the annoyance of others. The few fans he does have also never recognize him due to his status as a radio host, meaning his face is never shown. His talk show is primarily a romantic advice show, but he is unprepared to deal with many of the frivolous or complicated questions he is dealt with. He also does not know how to apply his advice to his own life, which is a romantic failure. He has a long-time crush on Yifei, but he never confessed his love to her due to his cowardice. Despite being a screw-up and generally positive guy, it is revealed several times that he suffers from serious issues such as depression, anxiety, critically low self-confidence, and severe intimacy issues due to various past experiences, his coworkers' rudeness, and his position as the comedic relief of the group, which leads to bullying and no one taking him seriously. While the show never dives deep into his issues, they are hinted to be very serious, to the point where he willingly goes through electroshock therapy in front of a support group while drinking vodka and crying about his life. At the end of season 2, he won ¥5,000,000 from a TV program called Who Wants to be a Millionaire, but lost the money due to one of his fans named Huang Baoqiang winning it all away. At the end of season 3, the new co-host of his radio show, Nuo Lan, falls in love with him, but Xiaoxian has a hard choice whether to accept her or continue trying on Yifei, but deep in his heart, he knows that he truly loves Yifei and not Nuolan. He gets together with Nuolan in the fourth season, but always feels that he still likes Yifei. He later breaks up with Nuolan, marrying Yifei sometime before the beginning of Season 5. In Season 5 Michael Chen was unable to be a regular star due to him being an extremely famous and successful actor, but returns occasionally, making the rest of his appearances via video call. It is revealed that Xiaoxian has been sent to do his radio show in the Alxa League of Inner Mongolia in order to help "bring civilization" to the western regions, and reluctantly does so. He spends the majority of the season in a shoddy shack in the middle of the desolate desert, living in spartan conditions with oil lanterns and heavy woolen blankets. However, he returns occasionally to check up on his wife and friends.
- Lou Yixiao (Loura Lou) portrays Hu Yifei,
- Zhanbo's older stepsister. She is a PhD graduate who works as a lecturer at her university. She is tough, aggressive, tomboyish and very competitive, with many of her friends jokingly saying she has the strength worth two men. She is a black belt in judo. She is the most Westernized and mature out of the women in iPartment, and shows no problem engaging in traditionally Western behavior such as pole dancing or one-night-stands. She often bullies her friends around (Xiaoxian most of the time) with her forceful personality, and expresses her sarcasm at their incompetence. Despite her tough behavior, she treats Zhanbo like a blood brother and loves him extremely much, looking out for him and being willing to go to extremes such as mentally breaking him down when she believes that he is not mature enough to join EIO and fears he will get hurt. She is constantly annoyed by Xiaoxian's wimpy and bumbling personality. In various places, you can see that she likes him, but always denies this to the public. In the finale of each season, she gets a moment of love with Xiaoxian, but it always ends without much meaning with neither of the two confessing their feelings for each other. Up until season four, though, she begins to show that she likes him. In episode 7 of season 4, she gets drunk and shouts at Nuolan that she likes him, but only after she asked her many times. She feels envious and sour when she sees Xiaoxian with Nuolan. She kept her love in for 4 years already, but she's feeling really sour at this point, so it's beginning to burst. In the 21st episode, through several 'coincidental' incidences, she finally kisses Xiaoxian, and naturally he kisses back. The only slight problem is that Xiaoxian also happens to be dating Nuo Lan at the time. In Season 5 it is revealed she has married Xiaoxian, and she spends the majority of the season attempting to remodel an apartment she bought at an extremely cheap price, only to realize that the reason it was so cheap was due to a nearly 50 meter long corridor that serves absolutely no purpose. At the end of Season 5 it is revealed that iPartment will be demolished to make way for a Shanghai Metro expansion, and she is forced to leave her two apartments, even though she got them at cheap prices and the compensation will be several times what she paid.
- Sun Yizhou (Sean Sun) portrays Lü Ziqiao,
- A mixed-race (Chinese-Korean) playboy from Sichuan who moved into the apartment next-door at the beginning of the series. Raised by his successful adopted father as a con man and professional swindler, he abandoned his father's profession to pursue a stable future in iPartment. Due to his experiences conning people in the past, he is cynical, jaded, and a great liar, although he still exhibits a positive personality. At the beginning of the series he runs into Meijia gate crashing when pretending to officiate a wedding as a Catholic priest (as he is also gate crashing), and the two take advantage of an extremely discounted lovers deal to move into iPartment despite not being in a relationship. He then pretends to breakup with Meijia, who Yifei and Xiaoxian had mistakenly though was cheating with Sekiya. He is a freelancer, though often thinks of smart ideas to make money or trick his friends into doing his bidding (though also occasionally fail and lead him to trouble). In season 4 he establishes an "encouragement school," using attractive women in encouragement videos for various age groups, which is moderately successful. He graduated from veterinarian school and formerly had a veterinarian's license. He is cunning, irresponsible but very charismatic, and likes to use his charms to flirt with various girls. Despite his irresponsible and selfish nature, he is usually able to seal the deal due to his attractiveness and unorthodox ways of attracting women. Not only is he flirty, but he often gives his friends advice on girls. He uses the fake name “Lü Xiaobu” (named after Lü Bu) when dating other girls. He has a constant love-hate relationship with Meijia, but nearing the end of season 3, while searching for the perfect woman, he realised the person he loved the most is still Meijia. He is one of four out of the seven original cast who returns for season five, and one of three who is present for the entire series. At the beginning of Season 5 he marries Meijia after overcoming the demons of his past, and gets Meijia pregnant. Ziqiao becomes a father despite a horrible fight that resulted from Meijia overhearing him planning a surprise for her and assuming he was cheating, nearly getting an abortion. It is revealed that Ziqiao is actually working with Lisa Rong and trying to start up a biscuit company, which he advertises throughout the season by doing livestreams. The biscuit company is a limited success, and Ziqiao is forced to spend the rest of the season working odd jobs, though he is happy to do so to provide for his family.
- Li Jinming (Kimi Li) portrays Chen Meijia,
- Ziqiao's ex-girlfriend, who moved into the apartment with him to take advantage of a discounted rent deal. She broke up with Ziqiao due to the fact that he drove her up to a mountain and then left her there, forcing her to walk all the way home. She initially worked as Sekiya's assistant due to the fact that she had a crush on him, later as Yifei's teaching assistant (though loses the job due to a clumsy mistake), and later in a pet shop. She is childish, cheerful and ditzy, and gets easily attracted to cute things. She is also horrible at mathematics, and her catchphrase is "1x7 is seven, 2x7 is 48, 3x8 is Women's Day, 5x1 is Labour Day, 6x1 is Children's Day..." (a reference to International Women's Day on March 8, Chinese Labour Day on May 1st, and Chinese Children's Day on June 1). She has a love-hate relationship with Ziqiao, and often gets angry at his laziness or flirting with other girls, and she also had a crush on Sekiya for a short time when he first moved in. She is desperately naive to an inexplicable point despite her experience as a con woman (which is where she met Ziqiao), and loves cute things, handsome men, and manga (she is a Japanophile). and In season 2, she left the apartment and moved to the Northeast (later telling her friends she had moved to Taipei), where she tried and failed to get a job in the fashion industry, instead working for 8 months as a mannequin in a store window. In season 3 she returned with her new boyfriend "iPad," a Malaysian-Chinese artist who she broke up with over a misunderstanding. On the night before she was due to leave to Kuala Lumpur with iPad, she realized she still loved her friends and decided to stay in iPartment. In the end of season 3, she realizes that she still loves Ziqiao, and is hinted to be pregnant with his baby, but in season 4, she is revealed to be not pregnant. In Season 5 she marries Ziqiao and becomes pregnant, but misunderstands a business deal she overheard between her husband and an unknown caller (later revealed to be Lisa Rong), assuming that Ziqiao was cheating on her and nearly aborting her baby in a fit of rage. She successfully delivers the child after they reconcile, and lives happily with Ziqiao.
- Wang Chuanjun (Eric Wang) portrays Sekiya Kamiki (Chinese: Guangu Shenqi),
- A Japanese young man and graduate of Waseda University who moved into the apartment and the heir to an extremely successful Japanese sashimi chain, which he abandons to pursue his manga dreams despite his incredible skill at cooking. He was a manga artist from Yokohama who drew a successful comic strip called the "Three-Legged Cat of Love," (which Meijia was a fan of), but left for China to pursue his career due to the downturn of the Japanese manga industry. He originally moved into iPartment due to Meijia and Ziqiao scamming him into living in their apartment so he could help share the rent bills, taking advantage of his poor Chinese to convince him that his hotel was unavailable. He never figured this scam out, but continued living in iPartment due to his newfound friendships and belief that a Chinese girlfriend would be the quickest way to develop his Chinese skills (which iPartment's romantic atmosphere is perfect for). He is charming and very serious, but when angered, he becomes extremely stubborn and (comically) violent, often taking out a katana and scaring his friends by claiming he will commit seppuku. One of his main stress-relief technique is going to supermarkets and crushing ramen packets, potato chips, and other crunchy items through the bag without paying, which Meijia attempts to get him to stop doing. Despite being extremely gentlemanly and kind, he is not skilled at relationships and frequently came off as aloof due to his serious nature during his early relationship with Youyou. He is still learning Chinese, and often misuses Chinese phrases. His tone pronunciations are also usually in the first or fourth tones due to inexperience. During season 1 he accidentally gets a girlfriend but soon break up. In the beginning of season 2, he falls in love with Youyou and eventually the two of them become a couple. Although he loves Youyou very much, he is often too overprotective, which annoys her. In the season 3 finale, he mistakenly thinks Youyou is pregnant and proposes to her, which she accepts. In Season 5 he returns home to Yokohama and stays there with Youyou to get married. However, due to neither of the two actors returning, the marriage takes place in an elaborate traditional ceremony and the faces of "Sekiya and Youyou," actually body doubles wearing kabuki masks, are never shown.
- Deng Jiajia portrays Tang Youyou,
- Ziqiao's little aunt (the youngest sister of his mother). In fact, she is two years younger than her nephew Ziqiao, and is also from Sichuan. She works as an actress (formerly stage actress), though her movie character always dies without any character development, much to her frustration. Despite her lack of success, she is overly picky when taking parts, which often makes her miss opportunities. She is also disrespectful, and frequently attempts to alter the script to her own wishes. Even outside of the movie set, she likes to act overly dramatic; in one instance she spent a few hours fabricating and acting out a (fictional) story to explain to a stranger about how she and Sekiya met. She is horrible at managing money, as she a compulsive shopper, which she attempts to justify to herself despite the fact that she knows it is wrong and unhealthy. To support this habit she has nearly 18 credit cards, borrowing money from one bank to pay off the other. She is also very bad at keeping secrets, but she always claims that she won't let them out. Although her relationship with Ziqiao is not explored on the show and they do not appear to have an especially close relationship on the surface, she actually cares for him deeply, as she is his only blood relative in Shanghai. This care exhibits itself in strange ways, such as her tearfully convincing Sekiya to lend Ziqiao money when he asks and even buying a wedding dress in his name when she overhears Meijia joking that she would marry whoever bought it for her (despite the fact that neither Meijia nor Ziqiao knew or approved of the purchase, and had not actually expressed interest in each other). She meets Sekiya at the start of season 2, and they eventually become a couple. In the season 3 finale, she accepts Sekiya's proposal, but reveals that she is not pregnant. In Season 5 she goes with Sekiya to Yokohama and stays there with him to get married. However, due to neither of the two actors returning, the marriage takes place in an elaborate traditional ceremony and the faces of "Sekiya and Youyou," actually body doubles wearing kabuki masks, are never shown.
- Li Jiahang (Jean Li) portrays Zhang Wei/Snake,
- A friend of Ziqiao that he met at the bar. He is a trainee lawyer (later full lawyer). In season 1 he was a minor character that Ziqiao found to set up a date with Yifei, but he became a main character in season 2. He moved into the apartment after Ziqiao's party caused him to miss his own wedding, indirectly causing his fiancée to run away with another man. He is kind-hearted and always keen to help others, but very unlucky and also quite stingy, often claiming he is saving money to buy his own house. He is allergic to seafood and ink stamps, and got hospitalized several times when he mistakenly eats lobster and crayfish, and also when he received an entrance stamp when the boys invited him to a nightclub. Throughout the series he has dated several girls, but his friends always end up unwittingly ruining it for him. In season 3 he leaves the apartment and found work as a lawyer in another city, but takes a case as the defendant for a client accused of pirating Sekiya's comic strip. Not wanting to battle his friends in court, he jumps ship and becomes Sekiya's defendant, but Sekiya doubts his legal abilities and hires actors to stage a court victory, enraging Zhang Wei. He later makes up with Sekiya, leaving iPartment to pursue new legal careers. He returns in season 4 to become a lawyer for the Haoda Housing Group, and becomes romantically involved with a fellow lawyer named Weiwei. They end up on opposing sides in a court battle and Zhang Wei loses horribly, the experience scarring him and giving him a stutter. Ziqiao cures him with his encouragement videos, but he becomes overly feminine, further driving away Weiwei. After he is cured he continues chasing Weiwei, this time choosing to only take the side of justice in court. In Season 5 he returns, opening his own law firm in Sekiya's old painting room. He becomes romantically involved with one of Yifei's students named Zhuge Dali, an extremely intelligent and beautiful tomboy who pursues him because she is impressed with his bravery after he attempts to rescue a girl (Curry sauce) that he thought to be committing suicide in a lake. Zhang Wei is given a three months "boyfriend period," during which Dali will perform an evaluation of his boyfriend ability. She leaves him at the end of the three months but soon returns, admitting that she is in love with him despite a nearly 20 year age difference. Zhang Wei becomes a moderately successful lawyer that is highly recommended in the iPartment area, although he never becomes very successful due to lack of advertising.
- Zhao Wenqi (Vanessa Zhao) portrays Qin Yumo,
A gorgeous high-school friend of Yifei who first appears in season 2. She works as an office lady. She is a stereotypical white-collar worker: serious, level-headed but sensitive and easily depressed. She is a spoiled girl, using her beauty to attract rich and successful men. She initially moves to the apartment to hide from her incredibly rich boyfriend, Richard, as she feels that he has been neglecting her due to his business mining diamonds in South Africa. However, she finds texts on Richard's phone of a different girl named Tina and breaks up with him. Later, she finds out that Richard was already married to Tina. Subsequently, she has had a crush on two men but both to no avail. In season 3 she moves to another city, but still occasionally calls everyone to see how things are going. In Season 5 she returns again, having moved on to Yokohama to assist Sekiya and Youyou with wedding preparations. She appears frequently in video calls, giving her friends assistance and keeping them updated with the wedding process.
- Rong Rong portrays Lisa Rong,
Zeng Xiaoxian's female boss and another ex-girlfriend of Ziqiao, she is a cold-hearted superior who dislikes Xiaoxian due to his low ratings and pathetic personality. She is fully aware of his true feelings of disdain towards her, but treats them with amusement due to his inability to stand up for himself. She does, however, have a grudging respect for his work ethic and complete devotion to his job, though it rarely results in success. She opens up to him after realizing that he is Ziqiao's best friend, as she had been another one of Ziqiao's girlfriends and is completely obsessed with him, stalking his social media pages and possessing a picture of him. This leads to a quid pro quo relationship between the two, with Xiaoxian promising to keep her updated on Ziqiao in exchange for work favors. She lives with her grandmother and has a rivalry with her younger cousin over boys, with her younger cousin usually getting to any boys she is interested in first. In Season 5 she moves on into the sales industry, assisting Ziqiao with his biscuit startup business.
- Kenichi Miura portrays Sekiya Kenjiro,
Sekiya Kenjiro is the irritable and grumpy heir of the Sekiya sushimi chain and a wildly successful cook who is estranged from his son due to his insistence on traditional recipes and disappointment over Sekiya entering the manga business. Sekiya dislikes him as well, hating his controlling nature. The two later reconcile when the younger Sekiya comes across his father's trademark cod recipe, realizing that his father had altered the traditional recipe to put sugar in the fish, an idea he had proposed that his father originally refused to do because it altered the traditional recipe, before changing it after realizing how good it was. He later reappears in Season 5, helping his son with the wedding.
- Cheng Guo (Loyce Cheng) portrays Zhuge Dali,
Zhuge Dali is a student of Yifei's appearing at Season 5, an extremely intelligent and beautiful tomboy who pursues Zhang Wei because she is impressed with his bravery after he attempts to rescue a girl (Curry sauce) that he thought to be committing suicide in a lake. It has been implied that she is a descendant of Zhuge Liang. Zhang Wei is given a three months "boyfriend period," during which Dali will perform an evaluation of his boyfriend ability, which frustrates her admirer and junior schoolmate Zhao Haitang. She leaves him at the end of the three months but soon returns, admitting that she is in love with him despite a nearly 20 year age difference. Her mother Zhuge Dasheng is also a lawyer. At the end of Season 5 she is to be arranged to Berlin University for a year.
- Wan Zilin (Catharine Wan) portrays Curry sauce,
Curry sauce is a former net anchor appearing at Season 5, who has been framed by her ex-boyfriend and become bankrupt and banned from her original profession. She seldom uses her original name Shi Jiali due to the indecent homophony of her surname that shares the same pronunciation of excrement in Chinese. She tries several new jobs and finally manages to pass the adult college entrance examination, thus planning to become a college student. She develops a flirt with Zhao Haitang, but neither admits love to the other.
- Zhang Yiduo (Zac Zhang) portrays Zhao Haitang,
Zhao Haitang, né Zhao Lihua, is a student of Yifei's appearing at Season 5 from a rich family who aims to become a great writer. An admirer to his senior schoolmate Zhuge Dali, he is always jealous and hostile to Zhang Wei. As the episodes go on he begins to find his divergence with Zhuge Dali and decides to give up, while developing a flirt with Curry Sauce, but neither admits love to the other.
Episodes
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Wedding Battle" | August 5, 2009 |
| 2 | 2 | "The Super "Big" Scandal" | August 5, 2009 |
| 3 | 3 | "March of Depression" | August 6, 2009 |
| 4 | 4 | "The Revenge of Romance" | August 6, 2009 |
| 5 | 5 | "Love Antidote" | August 7, 2009 |
| 6 | 6 | "Fame In A Snap" | August 7, 2009 |
| 7 | 7 | "Watching Porn" | August 8, 2009 |
| 8 | 8 | "Mysterious Present" | August 8, 2009 |
| 9 | 9 | "The Traffic Jam" | August 9, 2009 |
| 10 | 10 | "Wa" | August 9, 2009 |
| 11 | 11 | "It's A Small World" | August 10, 2009 |
| 12 | 12 | "Life and Death" | August 10, 2009 |
| 13 | 13 | "Memory Fragments" | August 11, 2009 |
| 14 | 14 | "The Boring Weekend" | August 11, 2009 |
| 15 | 15 | "The Halloween Fright" | August 12, 2009 |
| 16 | 16 | "Gossip King" | August 12, 2009 |
| 17 | 17 | "The Teller" | August 13, 2009 |
| 18 | 18 | "You are Evil" | August 13, 2009 |
| 19 | 19 | "Valentine : The Valentine Prelude" | August 14, 2009 |
| 20 | 20 | "Valentine : The Last Valentine" | August 14, 2009 |
| 21 | 1 | "I can Predict the Beginning, but I can't Predict the Ending" | January 24, 2011 |
| 22 | 2 | "Drama Queen" | January 24, 2011 |
| 23 | 3 | "I Am Legend" | January 25, 2011 |
| 24 | 4 | "The Da Vina Code" | January 25, 2011 |
| 25 | 5 | "Family" | January 26, 2011 |
| 26 | 6 | "Raining With A Chance of Diamonds" | February 26, 2011 |
| 27 | 7 | "In the Name of Love" | February 27, 2011 |
| 28 | 8 | "The Drunk Angel" | February 27, 2011 |
| 29 | 9 | "Dinner Party" | February 28, 2011 |
| 30 | 10 | "The Festive Resurrection" | January 28, 2011 |
| 31 | 11 | "The Conversion Fascination" | January 29, 2011 |
| 32 | 12 | "The Best Actress" | January 29, 2011 |
| 33 | 13 | "It's Not Father's Day" | January 30, 2011 |
| 34 | 14 | "Hill of Hope: Cataclysm" | January 30, 2011 |
| 35 | 15 | "The Secret Secret" | January 31, 2011 |
| 36 | 16 | "The Story of the Single Woman" | January 31, 2011 |
| 37 | 17 | "The Lady" | February 1, 2011 |
| 38 | 18 | "The Boss" | February 1, 2011 |
| 39 | 19 | "I'm Millionaire : The Beginning" | February 2, 2011 |
| 40 | 20 | "I'm Millionaire : The End" | February 2, 2011 |
| 41 | 1 | "I'm Millionaire : The New Beginning" | July 30, 2012 |
| 42 | 2 | "Fusion of Sekiya and Ziqiao" | July 30, 2012 |
| 43 | 3 | "Silent Night" | July 31, 2012 |
| 44 | 4 | "This Is A Miracle : The Return" | July 31, 2012 |
| 45 | 5 | "This Is A Miracle : Stay" | August 1, 2012 |
| 46 | 6 | "Nice to Meet You" | August 1, 2012 |
| 47 | 7 | "War of Proposals" | August 2, 2012 |
| 48 | 8 | "2:30 A.M." | August 2, 2012 |
| 49 | 9 | "The King's Scar : The Best Ending" | August 3, 2012 |
| 50 | 10 | "The King's Scar : Life Is A Circle" | August 3, 2012 |
| 51 | 11 | "Counter Strike" | August 4, 2012 |
| 52 | 12 | "The Twist of Fate : Watching the Meteor Shower" | August 4, 2012 |
| 53 | 13 | "The Twist of Fate: Moments We Share" | August 5, 2012 |
| 54 | 14 | "The Scriptures from the Forbidden Summit" | August 5, 2012 |
| 55 | 15 | "Social Network" | August 6, 2012 |
| 56 | 16 | "No Ifs : The Break-Up and the Make-Up" | August 6, 2012 |
| 57 | 17 | "No Ifs : The Truth and the Lie" | August 7, 2012 |
| 58 | 18 | "No Ifs : The Prankster and the Pranked" | August 7, 2012 |
| 59 | 19 | "My Girl" | August 8, 2012 |
| 60 | 20 | "The True Lie" | August 8, 2012 |
| 61 | 21 | "Flying Across the Mists of Mt. Creation : It's Night-Time, Close Your Eyes" | August 9, 2012 |
| 62 | 22 | "Flying Across the Mists of Mt. Creation : It's the Morning, Open Your Eyes" | August 9, 2012 |
| 63 | 23 | "The Matrix" | August 10, 2012 |
| 64 | 24 | "Final Fantasy" | August 10, 2012 |
| 65 | 1 | "There's Only One Truth" | January 17, 2014 |
| 66 | 2 | "Who Said I'm Sick?" | January 17, 2014 |
| 67 | 3 | "In the Name of Father" | January 18, 2014 |
| 68 | 4 | "Roll, Zhanbo!" | January 18, 2014 |
| 69 | 5 | "Inception" | January 19, 2014 |
| 70 | 6 | "Flight 19" | January 19, 2014 |
| 71 | 7 | "A Long River" | January 20, 2014 |
| 72 | 8 | "Love Life" | January 20, 2014 |
| 73 | 9 | "Cold War" | January 21, 2014 |
| 74 | 10 | "Let Me Inspire You" | January 21, 2014 |
| 75 | 11 | "Let's Be Friends, Richass" | January 22, 2014 |
| 76 | 12 | "Escape Plan" | January 22, 2014 |
| 77 | 13 | "The Bro Code" | January 23, 2014 |
| 78 | 14 | "The Play (Part One)" | January 23, 2014 |
| 79 | 15 | "The Play (Part Two)" | January 24, 2014 |
| 80 | 16 | "Superhero" | January 24, 2014 |
| 81 | 17 | "Bachelor's Weekend (Part One)" | January 25, 2014 |
| 82 | 18 | "Bachelor's Weekend (Part Two)" | January 25, 2014 |
| 83 | 19 | "Paladin of The Goddess" | January 26, 2014 |
| 84 | 20 | "When Love Breaks In: Part One" | January 26, 2014 |
| 85 | 21 | "When Love Breaks In: Part Two" | January 27, 2014 |
| 86 | 22 | "The Forgiveness of the Goddess" | January 27, 2014 |
| 87 | 23 | "If I Saw Them Again: Part One" | January 28, 2014 |
| 88 | 24 | "If I Saw Them Again: Part Two" | January 28, 2014 |
Summary
There are seven young adults who have different background, ideals, and identities live in an unlike apartment. Right here, every day there is a seemingly ordinary but fun humorous story, sometimes funny, sometimes bizarre, sometimes romantic, sometimes touching. Hu Yifei is a PhD graduate who is a lecturer at university live with her stepbrother Lu Zhanbo and a late-night talk show host—Zeng Xiaoxian. After Lu Zhanbo graduated from MIT, he meet a girl,Lin Wanyu, who is the daughter of a billionaire banker. Lin Wanyu ran away from home to avoid her engagement, so she have no place to live. She moves in IPartment. The owner of IPartment set the rule for the renter. If the couple move in, rent will have 50 percent off and no fee for water and electric. Lu Ziqiao and Chen Meijia try to save money. They decided pretend they are couple and move into Ipartment. The rent is still expensive than Chen Meijia and Lu Ziqiao's budget so they find a Japanese cartoonist Sekiya Kamiki(Guan Gu) to move in with them. Hu Yifei, Zeng Xiaoxian, Lu Zhanbo, Lin Wanyu, Lu Ziqiao, Chen Meijia, and Guan Gu are have different stories. Together, they use the laughter and roar to convey the life and values of a new generation of young people. The misunderstandings and contradictions they face in terms of family, friendship, love, and interests, status, etc., also tell people that daily life is like a mirror, which can enlighten people to learn how to live, how to appreciate the truth, goodness and beauty in life.[5][6]
The new residents' appearance creates many new stories. The two new residents have completely different personality. One of them is a mystery old man who have complete different lifestyle with the old residents. Another one is an young adult but he always make mistakes and stubborn. In the attitude towards new residents, the seven partners of IPartment are naturally divided into goodwill and opposition. At the same time, the problem of the old tenants is still continuing: Xiaoxian is almost thirty, he still doesn't have a girlfriend. He finally decides to ask Yifei out for dates. Zhanbo intends to formally propose to Wanyu, but his sister, Yifei, frequently hold him back. Under the stimulation of Meijia, Ziqiao invests heavily in stocks. His financial issue become worse. Guangu’s tourist visa is about to expire. In order not to be sent back to Japan without long-term work, he decided to find a Chinese girl and marry her within a week. Young men and women seek to find their own laughter and happiness in their lives.[2][4]
After the grand prize, Xiaoxian continued to live with everyone in IPartment. He brought the bar and became a bar owner. Meijia suddenly came back when the residents of IPartment celebrate the first day open of Xiaoxian‘s Bar, and brought back a handsome man. Yo-Yo reminded that this man may not be the most suitable person for her, and Meijia later found out. Because of the notification, Meijia and Yo-Yo quickly became good friends. Guan Gu and Yo-Yo entered the hot love period. Under Ziqiao's help, Guan Gu and the long relationship were more intimate. Xiaoxian never has the courage to express his feeling to Yifei, but he always feels uncomfortable when he sees Yifei date with other male. Ziqiao and Meijia regained the feeling of being together in the past. After Zhanbo and Wanyu traveled around the world, Zhanbo formally propose to Wanyu, but Wanyu says, "No". Wanyu decided to leave the IPartment and went to Paris to chase her dream. Zhanbo finds a new job and bravely faces life. Yifei, Xiaoxian, Guangu, Yo-Yo, Ziqiao, Meijia, Zhanbo continues to laugh and roar in the IPartment, continue to interpret the happiness of a group of young people, and experience the truth, goodness and beauty in life.[1]
The careers of Xiaoxian and Yifei becomes successful on their work place, but their relationship kinda have an unofficial things going. Although Ziqiao and Meijia get back together again, but Ziqiao still hitting on other girls, it really makes Meijia a headache. The business of Guangu is getting better, but it doesn't fix his relationship with Yo-Yo. Zhanbo still cannot forget Wanyu, but he is also starting to seek for new relationship. After so many things the residents face together, they become closer and began to gradually understand each other. They start to realize the importance of each other in their lives. Ipartment still fill with laughs and roar. Everyone in the apartment learns from each others. The story of IPartment is still continue.[1]
After many years in the long marathon for love, all the old residents of iPartment have achieved their goals, some of them have reinforced their relationships, while others have decided to get married. Everybody's love has entered a new stage, causing the arrival of both new surprises and new frustrations. Some people have awkward encounters while dating, while others go crazy when planning for their wedding. iPartment is like a place with magic, every couple that truly loves each other can be blessed here and live happily ever after. After the romanticness of iPartment spreads further and further, new residents arrive. The new residents bring many new concepts and ideas, making the older residents surprised. Compared to the youthfulness of the new residents, the older residents have faced many years of trials, and have a steadier view on life and love. The new and old residents interact with each other in both positive and negative ways, causing there to be new romantic stories in iPartment.[1]
Reception
The show has been well received by audiences and met with positive reviews since it is one of the few long-running TV shows that encouraged television comedy. The ratings dropped throughout the show's run mainly because of the constant reuse of running gags and jokes. Most of the criticism is directed towards the written material using jokes from Chinese-translated American sitcoms such as Friends,[7] How I Met Your Mother ,The Big Bang Theory[8] and The War at Home.[9]
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 5th China TV Drama Awards | Most Popular Television Series | Won | |
| 2014 | 6th China TV Drama Awards | Top Ten Television Series | Won | |
| Most Appealing Young Actor | Michael Chen | Won |
References
- ^ a b c d "爱情公寓 (电视剧)", 维基百科，自由的百科全书 (in Chinese), 2019-03-26, retrieved 2019-04-24
- ^ "爱情公寓投拍同名电视剧 SNS跨界"触电"_互联网_科技时代_新浪网". tech.sina.com.cn. Retrieved 2019-04-26.
- ^ "上海市2008年7月电视剧拍摄制作备案公示表". 2013-01-08. Archived from the original on 2013-01-08. Retrieved 2019-04-26.
- ^ a b "::电视剧拍摄制作备案公示表::". dsj.sarft.gov.cn. Archived from the original on 2014-01-16. Retrieved 2019-04-26.
- ^ "爱情公寓1剧情介绍 (1-20全集) 剧情百度攻略". gl.baidu.com. 百度攻略. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
- ^ Ashiya Yuji (2015-07-28), 爱情公寓 第一季 第1集, retrieved 2019-04-26
- ^ Is This Chinese Sitcom Stealing Its Jokes from Friends?
- ^ Chinese sitcom accused of scene stealing from cult American TV series
- ^ [1]