contributed by Lijuan (email: subsuper77@hotmail.com)

I grew up on Hong Kong TV serials and wanted to experience something new. I began to borrow Japanese VCDs from cousins and bought "Golden Age" a Korean TV serial that did not impress me very much.

Then my birthday came and I told my friends I only wanted VCDs and nothing else. One of my best friends just went to a VCD vendor in Jurong Point, saw on the cover of "Hotelier"(it was rated number one in Korea).

She grabbed and gave it to me. She has never heard about the show because it did not cause a stir among the Singapore audience. By some luck, I chose to watch "Hotelier" first out of three sets of VCDs. On the first day of Chinese New Year, I watched the first VCD. I was not very attracted to it because only a few characters showed up. I was busy preparing my lesson plan on the second day of CNY (me being a teacher) as there was going to be an observation for my lesson on the following day.

To reduce my stress, I watched the second VCD and my passion for it ignited for a number of reasons: I like Frank Shin who is smart, full of confidence and a bit proud (I don’t like the goody-goody type, like Han Taijun); I like the show’s portrayal of Las Vegas (America is my dreamland although I am a Chinese Language & Literature person) and the music pieces played in the background; and I like the scene in "300 Roses" when Frank first saw Zhen Yin. How coincidental, he saw her just after Leo asked him when he was getting married and he answered, "Right now I like money, wait till I like women" then he heard Zhen Yin screaming for service. The portrayal of their second meeting in the lift was also very vivid.

Zhen Yin rushed into the lift like that and made Leo and Frank jumped a bit (I must say their acting skills are marvellous). I wonder who actually bought the scarf for Zhen Yin after Frank asked Leo to check out her room number ... Leo or Frank himself?

After I watched the third VCD that Friday, I had a very long day on Saturday. I woke up quite early and continued watching till I finished all 20 VCDs that night. I couldn’t help smiling while I watched the show. Just like what one of the Taiwanese enthusiasts said - "she felt very 'xing4-fu2' (totally immersed in happiness in Chinese) watching the show", which are also my sentiments.

After that, I began surfing the net for more information on "Hotelier" I was quite disappointed with the TCS’s site because it gave a very different interpretation of the show, saying it was a love rectangle, with Yunxi in the love-web of Zhen Yin, Frank and Taijun. Then I thought maybe there are different versions in the market, and I bought 2 more sets, which turned out to be the same as my first set(persons who dubbed the show are the same). I then saw the 4th version which bear the same interpretation as TCS, then I guessed the people who set up the site might not have watched the show at all and just conveniently copied from this set. This angered me. It has diminished their professionism through that act.

I also found from the net that the scenes in Las Vegas were shot on 6 & 7 March, 2001 which was not too long ago. In less than a year’s time, the show has already been distributed all over the world. If you have noticed, the date on Frank’s documents were dated April 2001 and in the last episode, all his emails to Zhen Yin were dated 6 June 2001 (an oversight in the show, because some mails should be further back). I marvel at the Koreans' speed. I’m glad that I have watched such a good show. It has enriched my life at this stage somewhat. I have bought some Korean Language cassettes and I hope I can persevere learning a new language by myself, which I have been thinking without action for quite some time already.

Now, I understand what lifelong learning means. It makes one feel young again, especially for those of us who have reached the crisis at age 25.