Carbon Copy Taiwan Drama

May 27, 2018 03:09 am

Hey MDLers,

I feel that the Taiwanese drama industry keeps making carbon copy dramas in the last 10 years. It’s been only a small percentage of T dramas that have stood out for me as being unique and fresh, has a strong plot, handles tropes well and has good production values. To name a few: In A Good Way, In Time With You, Good Wife and My Queen.

Any T dramas stand out for you and why?

Jay

May 27, 2018 03:45 am

I definitely feel like they are struggling with finding ways to put a fresh spin on their idol dramas but if you look beyond those, there are definitely some gems.

I would recommend: Love, Timeless (one of the writers from In A Good Way also wrote this), My Dear Boy (same writer as In Time With You, kind of reminds me of My Queen in a way which I also really liked), An Innocent Mistake (also same writer as In Time With You). The dramas I mentioned above are more focused on characters and I feel they are unique and fresh in their own ways. The focus on characters is important to me because i'm tired of dramas where most of the characters are stock characters. The characters in the dramas I mentioned feel more like actual people and their world feels more lived-in so I become attached to them and invested in watching them develop and grow.

I would also recommend you check out some of Q Series dramas. They gathered some of the top Taiwanese directors/writers along with fresh young actors to produce 8 dramas which are more like miniseries in terms of length. I liked Love of Sandstorm, A Boy Named Flora A and Life Plan A and B the most in that order.

Czakhareina

May 27, 2018 04:10 am

I agree with your list of gem of Taiwan dramas, especially In Time With You. That was one hell of a awesome drama.

As for additional dramas that I really think stood out, there are Autumn Concerto, Fated to Love You, Fierce Wife and recently Perfect Match. But other than those, Taiwan also makes awesome family dramas like Inborn Pair and Love Now.

intimewithyou

May 27, 2018 09:47 pm

I really loved Prince turns into Frog, it was hilarious, amazing music, and I loved the chemistry (although, I get how that can be seen as a carbon copy, from the amnesia aspect). Silence is another one of my unforgettable Tw-dramas that deals with sign language and deafness that stood out for me. This one isn't the type to watch if you're looking for comedy, but just a beautiful, heart wrenching story. The Magicians of Love has this plot point of a fountain with stones, and if you meet each other, it means you're meant to be. I really loved that aspect. It was really nice. But the serie does seem to get really draggy..

I feel bad I haven't watched as many tw-dramas these days, so I don't have many recommendations for you, because I'm so into k-dramas. If I do watch tw-dramas, I usually re-watch old favourites x_x. But I'd have to agree to the ones mentioned above:

+ In Time With You

+ Fated to Love You (this reminds me so much of Prince turns into Frog, it has a lot of the same aspects, comedy, chemistry, and beautiful story line)

+ Autumn Concerto (this one is really a beautiful story, won't have much humor, and has a lot of gut wrenching feelings)

+ My Queen (Hilarious, great chemistry, and I loved the story. I personally prefer the k-drama version, but this one was beautiful)

If I had to pick 1 drama I'd recommend, it would be In Time With You (as you can probably tell from my username haha), but you've already seen it. The next one I'd recommend is Fated to Love You. It has so many different qualities in it that would appeal to a viewer, as well as being not as dated like the rest of my favourites.

If I had to sort them by favourism, it would go by:

In Time With You

Prince Turns into Frog

Silence

Fated to Love You

Autumn Concerto

The Magicians in Love

My Queen

And as you could probably tell, most of these actors are in similar dramas I loved. That's how much I love their acting. I do realize a lot of these are kind of dated, but I really don't know many amazing ones that are not dated at this present time. I hope this helped you out a little bit. ^_^

Dramamamma

May 28, 2018 01:14 am

Thanks for responding to my post. I actually love t-dramas when they are done just right. So I always at least start them to see if they’ll turn out to be a gem.

With your suggestions I think I’ll make a drama list that I can fall back on whenever I want to remember the reasons for my initial attraction to t-dramas.

@jay I’ve yet to see Q series. Will check it out

@czak I’ve seen the ones you suggested. I really enjoyed the first part of love now. The remainder 70 odd episodes? we’re okay.

@intime I’ll check out Silence and Magicians