Fan Bing Bing as Madam Jin is absolutely gorgeous and Vic Zhou is really cute

I looked on Chinese Hulu's right-hand side today, and found a listing of the top rated and 50 of the most popular dramas in mainland entertainment thus far... and guess which gem I've found? Granted, if you've read the title, you'll already know what I mean. One of Fan Bing Bing's 2009 dramas, underrated I must say, The Last Night of Madam Jin (aka 金大班). Dramawiki definitely gave me a heads up on this months back, but as interesting the casting looked, I could never find it on Youtube or any other streaming sites I usually went to. So I gave up, since no one really provided any recaps or incentives for me to see it. But today, I came across this along with a few other chinese shows I wanted to see - so I decided to give my usual one episode chance, and this drama emerged as a winner. In fact, I'm on episode 6 of Madam Jin already, and I'm still hooked, which is quite a feat for a 1940s setting of a drama.

The plot is what get my continuing interest - Madam Jin was actually a daughter in a very rich family, but she was switched at birth with a girl who had a family-inherited disease. Henceforth, her fate with poverty led her to become a dance hostess at an infamous Shanghai club. This story explores Madam Jin's love life and how her whole life could have been different if she was not switched.
I really liked how innocent and a romantic Vic Zhou's rich boy was, with his flower-bearings and taking her on bike rides to the ice skating rink - but by episode 6, I found his expression of love towards Jin Zhao Li a bit obsessive and distasteful - not going to elaborate. Eric Huang, also, by this episode, has worn off on me quite a bit, with his franticness and his complicated history with a gang. Yet, I still really enjoy Jin Zhao Li's ways of dealign things and look forward to see how Vic Zhou's Yue Ru character will change her life. Their chemistry, if anything, is really nice so far.
The only thing that I'll complain about this drama is, too much smoking! Seriously. Oh, and Eric Huang's role - what is wrong with this guy? He's so hot and caring, and yet he's always slapping the girl he's secretly trying to help (not saying Jin, I mean the ballet girl). She reveals something about himself that he doesn't want to face, and he starts shouting and pushing and slapping her. Then he's like, oh I'm sorry, and begins kissing her/hugs her. I don't want to say that he's a dv man, but what is up with that dude??