Recently I’ve been watching Taiwanese drama series nonstop. My objectives were twofold:
1. To see whether TWDramas had outgrown their status as el-cheapo cousins of J-Dramas.
2. To improve my Mandarin listening skills. To this end, I would be limiting my choice of series to ones with relatively straightforward dialogue. That means no sci-fi, no period pieces, and no politics 
So basically, I would be watching a bunch of juvenile romantic comedies.
Flame-bait opinions, after the jump!
I started out with a bit of research about which recent series fared well in the public eye, and ended up with two contenders: Devil Beside You (惡魔在身邊) and Why Why Love (換換愛). Upon further inspection, they actually appeared to be the same series in different trappings, as they featured the same actors in identical love triangle roles.
In both series, Mike He plays the bad boy with the heart of gold, Rainie Yang plays the indecisive but headstrong heroine, and Kingone Wang plays the seemingly “perfect” love interest. The acting and dialogue in both series were groan-worthy, but Why Why Love showcased a teensy bit more maturity from its actors. This was partially because DBY casted the characters as high schoolers who were clearly too old to be in school, whereas WWL featured them in more age-suitable roles. On the other hand, WWL felt a bit too drawn out for my tastes, with multiple pointless plot twists and inexplicable “misunderstandings” towards the end to pad out the episode count.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the production quality of the series wasn’t half bad – watchable, but nowhere near as glitzy as many J-Dramas. The soundtrack was fairly limited in variety though, and the same insert songs were played over and over in every situation, to the point of annoyance.
Ultimately, I found both WWL and DBY to be extraordinarily cheesy and unsafe for consumption by anyone looking for a meaningful viewing experience. The characters lacked any shred of sensibility, which was incredibly infuriating, but I suppose I shouldn’t expect so much out of a serialized romantic comedy. They do “grow” on you after awhile, but that was most likely due to the prolonged exposure desensitizing my mind. However, the low-level dialogue was very accessible and did help build my vocabulary and interpretation skills.
Single most memorable scene? Most folks would probably refer to one of the key romantic moments, but for me it was the first basketball scene in Devil Beside you, where the basketball captain Kingone inexplicably opens up a can of karate asswhooping on Mike He in the middle of the gym. The sudden shift in camera style from lovecom closeups to chop-socky quick cuts and action angles was flat-out unintentionally hilarious. That, and the fact that it took forever for the rest of the basketball team to run down a short flight of stairs to stop the brawl. Clips of the fight were liberally interspersed between scenes of them running down the longest one-story stairwell EVAH.
I found this trip into TWDrama-land to be informative and useful, but my next journey took a sharp dive into dangerously stupid levels. The horrors of Brown Sugar Macchiato (黑糖瑪奇朵) will be saved for a future post. Speaking of which, does anyone have any recommendations for *good* TWDramas that have good production values and don’t contain overly complex dialogue?
P.S. I didn’t like Meteor Garden at all, so don’t even go there.
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17 Comments
Haha I’ve heard of Why Why Love, but I’ve never seen it and my friends tell me it’s good. I don’t really like Taiwanese dramas – I prefer Jap and Korean ones
NO WAY. STOP THIS BAD BAD THING NOW.
I have seen my fair share of TW dramas, and I have to say WWL makes me want to poke my eyeballs. DBY was funny, and I watched Meteor Garden for the eye-candy.
If you don’t mind some sniffy dorama, I think Mars is pretty decent.
I thought the only reason anyone watches asian dramas nowadays is for the eyecandy. Or to fit in with the RL crowd. Gone are the days when the only ones who did were bored housewives and little children picking up Mandarin/Cantonese…
Thanks for the tip Ten; I’ll look into Mars to see if I can handle the sniffyness.
Concerning DBY and WWL, I find that most people prefer whichever one they saw first, because the second one will feel redundant. I actually watched WWL first, so it gets the first mover advantage in my book.
WAIT, DID YOU SAY BASKETBALL?!?!?!
DBY is in one of my DVDs for so long but it’s in my pile of backlogs still orz. I second Ten in recommending Mars. You might as well check out the manga if you like it. Great shoujo stuff.
atm, I’ve been hearing good things about Romantic Princess, though I have yet to watch it myself. My take on it right now is that “it looks cute and sweet” xD
I am not a fan of TWdramas. Thank you, Jay Chou for being the worst actor in the world and ruining it for everyone.
But that’s not to say I haven’t tried. I’ve tried Meteor Garden and the aforementioned Why Why Love and was instantly put off after the first episode. Now, I generally stick to J-Dramas and K-dramas. Vietnamese dramas, though my language, suck so much, I will never touch one with a 50ft pole. Too much make-up, bad acting, overall crap.
J-dramas and K-dramas are merely better simply for their production values. But not without their downsides: J-dramas have too many guys who try to look good -yet I can still stand them-. K-dramas are the best but play too much by a simple formula -generally something dramatic will happen in the rain-. I am trying to get to my first 2nd episode of a TWdrama with Smiling Pasta so I’ll see how it goes. It’s not bad and it lacks Jay Chou, so it has a glimmer of hope.
If I’d rank ‘em, it’d be K, then J, then TW, then watching paint dry, then Vietnamese anything. My people suck at acting.
Any which way, welcome to a whole other world. At times I’d rather watch a drama than anime.
@Issa-sa – My Chinese vocabulary is similar to that of a child, so I guess I would fit the bill as a “traditional” TWDrama viewer!
@Kabitzin – Don’t be fooled, it’s not what you think!
Its pretty interesting that you are learning/know these languages. Is there any particular reason for it (trying to impress a Taiwanese lady friend perhaps?
)
The only Asian language drama I’ve ever seen was “My Sweetheart My Darling” (I think it was Korean) (yea, you’re probably turned off by that title) I thought it was ok, but dragged on for certain episodes. Thats somewhat a standard for dramas though =3 Oh, and I plan to watch “Water Boys” I and II (J-Drama), but don’t know if I should watch the movie first. I can’t even find the movie actually
Hmmm, I might have to watch this
We’ll see whos the King of Cheese! Show ▼
I started off watching asian dramas by taiwanese dramas- namely “it started with a kiss”. Highly reccomend ISWAK. It starts off slow but by the end it is awesome. “A prince turned frog” is also quite good, though it’s REALLY long (I didn’t finish it actually…) I tried watching Devil Beside you and mars and liked neither.
The madness!
Um… don’t usually watch TWdramas unless i need something to watch in between my Jdramas but I did come across some good ones… but that’s just my opinion.. try Smiling Pasta, Romantic Princess, Queen’s those were my fav’s and I can’t believe you watched WWL and DBY past the first ep lol and stay away from BSM its bad for you health seriously
Sad that you don’t like Meteor Garden. I really did. I liked DBY as well. However, you should try the TW version of Hana Kimi. (You might like the Jdrama version better, though.) And there’s always Fated to Love You, which I haven’t started yet, but the ratings were through the roof. Check it out on dramaWiki.
Hey, you seem to have similar tastes as I do. Meteor Garden was average at best, and I regret having wasted time on BSM. I highly recommend the murder mystery, Bump Off Lover. HIGHLY recommend it. And also watch Love Contract. It can be slow at times, but it’s very nice. Beware: Bump Off Lover is creepy as hell, and Love Contract is not your feel good drama. Both are for more mature audiences.
I was doing some research on this series “Brown Sugar Macchiato” and stumbled on your post.
It was really courageous of you to attempt watching not one, but TWO TW drama series for the sake of improving your Mandarin.
But seriously, how can you stand them???
Everything about those series spells lousy to me. And “Brown Sugar Macchiato” is the lousiest of ‘em all. No offense to anyone who watch ‘em. I mean, it’s a FACT after all…
Keep up your hard work!!
XOXO
Most TWdramas i’ve seen are utter rubbish to be quite honest. Cheesy, formulaic, stupid characters, stuffed full of cliches, etc. The only ones I’ve liked are MARS and one called SILENCE (which no one seems to have heard of but made me cry buckets). CORNER WITH LOVE was ok but by no means great. There’s a new drama called BLACK AND WHITE that hasn’t started airing yet but looks promising if only for the fact that it’s not yet another romcom. If I find anymore *decent* ones, I’ll be sure to tell, but don’t hold your breath.