iPartment (2009)

iPartment (Chinese: 爱情公寓; pinyin: Àiqíng Gōngyù) is a sitcom from Mainland China. It was produced by the Shanghai Film Group and Shanghai Film Studio, and aired by Jiangxi TV in August 2009, with twenty 45-minute episodes.

The second season aired by Webisodes 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 by Chen three new characters. The third season followed with the same cast.

A film adaptation, Love Apartment, was filmed and released in 2018, and featured most of the cast reprising their roles.

The show is generally regarded as one of the most successful Chinese sitcoms of all time, mainly among the Post-80's generation minutes production on Z due to the advent of streaming services and network season is one of the first Chinese shows to depict modern young urban society and references wider Western pop culture phenomenon.

Investors and Producers

The parent company of iPartment is a social networking site, known as "i-Part". It was founded by four Taiwanese, and its main investors are Japanese funds JAIC and CyberAgent

"iPartment" is invested by Love Apartment Company to promote the social networking site of the same name, produced by Shanghai Gaoge Culture Communication Co., Ltd., a TV series jointly produced by Shanghai Film Group, Gaoge Culture, and Xinjiadi Film and Television.

Premise

The show details the lives of seven young adults 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.

Cast

Jin Shijia (Kim Jin) as Lu Zhanbo

Zhao Ji (Evonne Zhao) as Lin Wanyu

Chen He (Michael Chen) as Zeng Xiaoxian

Lou Yixiao (Loura Lou) as Hu Yifei

Sun Yizhou (Sean Sun) as Lü Ziqiao

Li Jinming (Kimi Li) as Chen Meijia

Wang Chuanjun (Eric Wang) as Sekiya Kamiki (Chinese: Guangu Shenqi)

Deng Jiajia as Tang Youyou

Li Jiahang (Jean Li) as Zhang Wei/Snake

Zhao Wenqi (Vanessa Zhao) as Qin Yumo

Rong Rong as Lisa Rong

Kenichi Miura as Sekiya Kenjiro

Cheng Guo (Loyce Cheng) as Zhuge Dali

Wan Zilin (Catharine Wan) as Curry sauce

Zhang Yiduo (Zac Zhang) as Zhao Haitang

Episodes

Season 1 (2009)

Season 2 (2011)

Season 3 (2012)

Season 4 (2014)

Season 5 (2020)

Summary

Season 1

There are seven young adults who have different backgrounds, ideals, and identities, that live in an unlike apartment. Hu Yifei is a PhD graduate who lectures at a university and lives with her stepbrother Lu Zhanbo and late-night talk show host Zeng Xiaoxian. After Zhanbo graduates from MIT, he meets a girl, Lin Wanyu, who is the daughter of a billionaire banker. Wanyu ran away from home to avoid her engagement, so she moves into iPartment. The apartment owner sets a rule: if a couple moves in, they only pay half rent and do not need to pay for utilities. Lu Ziqiao and Chen Meijia try to save money by pretending to be a couple and move into iPartment. The rent is still expensive for them, so they find a Japanese cartoonist, Sekiya Kamiki, to move in with them.

Season 2

Three new residents move into the apartment: Zhang Wei, Tang Youyou, and Qin Yumo.

Season 3

After the grand prize, Xiaoxian continues to live with in iPartment. He buys the bar and becomes the owner. Meijia returns with a man when the residents celebrate the opening of Xiaoxian's bar. Kamiki and Youyou fall in love. After Zhanbo and Wanyu traveled around the world, Zhanbo formally proposes to Wanyu, who refuses. Wanyu leaves iPartment to go to Italy to chase her dream.

Season 4

Xiaoxian and Yifei's careers become successful on their work place. Although Ziqiao and Meijia get back together again, Ziqiao continues hitting on other girls. Kamiki's business is getting better, but it does not fix his relationship with Youyou.

Season 5

The iPartment residents have achieved their goals.

Behind-the-scenes

When filming the kissing scene, because both Wang Chuanjun and Deng Jiajia were shy, many clips were filmed for that scene (the second season).

There is a scene where Wang Chuanjun needs to scare Hu Ge and make him afraid. As long as Hu Ge leaned back, he jumped on the water basin in an exaggerated way to paint (the fourth season).

Deng Jiajia revealed that Hu Ge is a person without the burden of being an idol. In the play, he can play ugly and wretched, and he can do anything (the fourth season).

When Hu Ge first read the script, he immediately fell in love with Dino, a particularly controversial role. Even the director hesitated: "He played this role too badly for his image" (season four).

Wei Zheng has relatively high requirements for the scene, and he can't pass a dozen or twenty shots. The actor refused to get up in the morning, so Wei Zheng asked someone to pry into his room door.

Most of the clothes of the actors in the love apartment are bought by themselves. The costume set only provided a small selection, so each actor would buy a lot.

Zhao Ji was very scared when driving the tractor and filming. She was trying to force a smile and make various actions. When the weather in Shanghai was the hottest, Zhao Ji was tanned after wearing one, and she was sunburned the next day.

The role that the director asked Chen He to audition for was not "Zeng Xiaoxian", but "Lu Zhanbo". But when Chen He read the lines of a good man, he was destined to play the role of "Zeng Xiaoxian".

Teacher Zeng's lines are always long and long. When Chen He forgets his words, he will use Teacher Zeng's signature laughter to delay time to think of words.

Wang Chuanjun was once punished by plugging ears with cucumbers because of too much laughter and affecting other people to enter the role.

Sun Yizhou will do 20 push-ups before each nude scene.

In the winter of December, Lou Yixiao voluntarily asked to re-shoot the water-splashing scene many times because she was dissatisfied with her shooting.

In the finale, the scene where Lu Ziqiao had a room with his sister in the name of Lu Zhanbo was actually filmed in the private room of the five-star hotel. The original script did not soak in the bathtub, but the director went to the private room and thought the bathtub was good, so he filmed in the bathtub. The scene was filmed for six hours, and Sun Yizhou was soaked in the water for six hours .

The subject of Lou Yixiao's audition was the "wedding" scene at the very beginning of iPartment. Due to the many roles, she could only dance in the air. Even she herself thought she was a lunatic at first glance.

Reception

"Love Apartment" presents love stories in the form of sitcoms. The witty and humorous language, the lively rhythm, and the novel and unique expression techniques suit the appreciation taste of college students, and the discussion of propositions such as love, friendship, and life hit the hearts of college students. The play has the obvious feature of "episodic narrative", that is, the stories broadcast in the episodes are not coherent. The whole play is run through by several fixed main characters, each episode has an independent and complete plot, and there is no obstacle to watch from any episode. ("Guangming Daily" review)

"Love Apartment" not only has charismatic characters and more fashionable and vivid lines, but also has more diversity and integrity in the setting of the scene. The use of all new cast members also allows the audience to see the whole scene in front of them while gaining a fresh feeling. Bright performance. (Sina Online Review)

"Love Apartment 2" is bolder in terms of story material, and its rhythm is more compact and smooth than the first season. At the same time, "Love Apartment 2" added more popular elements and time-travel scenes.

"Love Apartment 3" triggered the "idol" era of sitcoms. In terms of quality, "Love Apartment 3" is better than the first two. It not only introduces a large number of novel plots by rearranging the story clues of several protagonists, but also has various imaginations in the techniques. Enrich the viewing experience. "Love Apartment 3" can be said to be more intoxicated in nonsensical jokes, basically only netizens and audiences can understand. ("Jinghua Times" review)

The humorous and modern comedy style of "Love Apartment 4" is deeply loved by audiences of all walks of life. The witty, humorous and contemporary lines in the play have become popular online expressions for young people. (Tencent Entertainment Review)

Produced by Beijing iQiyi Technology Co., Ltd. and Huacekton's Syndicate Film and Television, directed by Wei Zheng, starring Lou Yixiao, Li Jiahang, Sun Yizhou, Li Jinming, starring Zhang Yiduo, Guo Guo, Wan Zilin, and Chen He's special starring urban sitcom " Love Apartment 5" ended on February 11 at iQIYI VIP members. As the final season of the "Love Apartment" series, "Love 5" not only continues the classics to provide fans with emotional satisfaction, but also boldly innovates to bring surprise viewing experience to the audience, drawing a perfect end to ten years of youthful companionship.

Much criticism has been directed towards the reuse of jokes and settings from American sitcoms such as Friends, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory and The War at Home.

As for the comments from netizens, the director said that the creation of "Love Apartment" was indeed deeply influenced by the style of American dramas, incorporating many elements of American dramas, but the story is completely different from "Friends". However, director Wei Zheng also admitted that the play did borrow from "Friends", and believed that "only if there is imitation, can there be a chance to surpass" . In addition to the ambiguity between several young people and the development of love, "Love Apartment" also pays more attention to the combination of young people's life and popular topics . However, some lawyers responded to the explanations given by the screenwriter and director of the play, saying that "referencing" is not an excuse for infringement.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

iPartment's homepage