Cổng Mặt Trời's (Sun's Gate) first impressions

Cổng Mặt Trời (Sun's Gate) is one of the better Vietnamese dramas I have seen in a long time. I wouldn't go so far as to call it the best, because the scripts aren't quite as strong as I'd have like it to be. However, despite its length of 67 episodes, the drama went by quickly, and that was a good sign, proving how addicting this drama was. Sun's Gate drew a wave of young Vietnamese audience back to the TV screen, away from their usual routine of watching Korean/Chinese dramas. The story is simple, it's about a group of 12 young adults in their early twenties going out into the world, with their struggles, tribulations, failures and successes. Yes, there were 12 main actors for this drama, and most of them got equal screen time. The success of Sun's Gate goes back to the story, it's very Vietnamese. The dialogues, the interactions, thoughts, everything was purely Vietnamese. This drama didn't try to imitate the trendy dramas from Korea or HongKong or anywhere else in the world. It was funny, heartfelt, genuine and authentic. With its sincerity in depicting lives of these Vietnamese students from a purely Vietnamese view, no attempt to imitate or use cheap trendy gimmicky situations to draw the audience in, it actually succeeded. The beginning was so hilarious it left me in stitches from laughing so hard, and every time I remember about the drama, I couldn't help but smile. A good Vdrama worthy of recommendation!