The basis for this Singapore drama is about the conflict or the complement between western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine. The male protagonist, Wu Guo En (
Christopher Ming-Shun Lee), was set to become a western doctor, but a choice to save a life instead of being on time to his medical final exam forced a change to traditional medicine. Guo En went to China for six years to study traditional medicine and is now back. His former lawyer girlfriend, Ye Zhi Yi (
Ann Kok), hasn't moved on from their relationship and has struggled somewhat with depression.
During medical school, Guo En's main rival, who usually came in 2nd, was Guan De Wei (
Ix Shen). De Wei has spent six years working at a hospital where his mother, Professor Zheng (
Liyun Lin), is both a hospital administrator and a medical school professor. De Wei is proud that he has never made a surgical mistake, very strict and rigid. Dei Wei did go through tragedy during the past six years when he was unable to save his girlfriend, Moon, from death. De Wei also loves Yang Min Fei (
Jesseca Liu), a doctor he mentored at the hospital, who still works there.
Both Guo En's father, Wu Zhi Xiong (
Shucheng Chen), and Min Fei's father, Yang Li Ming (
Richard Low), practice traditional medicine, but Min Fei doesn't believe it holds much value because her father was unable to save her mother, who died while she was young. Both of the fathers know each other and often verbally spar.
I appreciate the fact that most of the conflict doesn't come from simple communication problems or covering the truth, which is very, very common in Asian dramas. Don't read further if you like being surprised by watching the show.
SPOILER:
Guo En and Min Fei meet, clash, and fall in love. Zhi Yi faces depression and attacks from a disgruntled husband in a legal case.
Professor Zheng sees complementary skills in combining western and traditional medicine, but her son, De Wei, increasingly resists. De Wei views Guo En as a rival he has never beaten and when he finds out that Min Fei has fallen in love with Guo En he is furious. Min Fei finds out she has inherited the same fatal disease that her mother passed away from, AML.
Eventually, De Wei makes a mistake fatal to a patient while in a hurry to meet with a German researcher who might be able to help Min Fei. De Wei tries to cover up to the point that he puts other lives in danger, including one of his interns, Guo Jian Zhong (
Zhen Huan Zhang) whom he lets fall down a hill where he gets hit by a vehicle. De Wei also goes to great lengths to discredit Guo En and causes him to lose confidence.
Eventually, De Wei threatens Jian Zhong's gambling, idiot uncle who retaliates by running him over with a car, also injuring Guo En, who loses his memory of the past six years. Ironically De Wei dies, but could have been saved if Guo En had confidence and had been able to stay conscious long enough to do a tracheotomy.
Guo En gets back together with Zhi Yi because he doesn't remember his relationship with Min Fei. Min Fei encourages this because she expects to die soon. Guo En and Zhi Yi plan their wedding, but Guo En's memory is coming back.
I was disappointed that Min Fei's fate is not resolved, so it must be implied that she died after getting back together with Guo En. Then, Guo En is alone and Zhi Yi has lost him THREE times: once going to China, once when he came back and fell in love with Min Fei, and once again, after planning a wedding, when his memory returned. Anyone would be depressed from that!
I prefer happy endings because I see so many unhappy endings in real life, but I still think this was better than average for an Asian drama, mostly because the majority of the conflicts were not based on "I'm going to lie to you to protect you from heartache, but in doing so create more heartache for you" which is so very, very common in Asian dramas. Even when Min Fei decides to break up with Guo En because she is sick, she tell him that reason straight up.
