More than Blue: the Series

"More than Blue:  the Series" (2021) is a sad story, but also inspiring about the strength of love.  Another great series from Taiwan.  It is a story within a story.

Near the beginning we see a young woman pummeling a young man for no discernible reason.  We learn eventually that the boy's father had killed her parents in an accident and she, soon known as Cream wanted revenge.  Soon she learns the boy's father has leukemia and dies.  The boy to be known as K has his mother also die.  Cream realizes they both lack a family and she ironically, perhaps moves in with him, as a family.  Neither wants to admit it, but they end up loving each other.  K. learns he has leukemia like his father and gradually deteriorates.  His concern is to find a good man for Cream.

The story adds a complication.  He picks his dentist, Yang Yu-hsien as the ideal candidate, but he already has a fiancee, Cindy, a photographer.  K persuades Cindy to break up the engagement and then maneuvers Cream to get closer to Yu-hsien.  K manipulates her to marry which she does, only to please him.  A frame over this is that K is a song writer who is poor on lyrics.  Cream laughs at his attempt to put words to an admittedly good melody and comes up with a much better song.  It appeals to the record boss, but the copyright is elusive.  K dies and she disappears after arranging his funeral.

Another frame is three years later when Wang Po han, a manager wants to include the song in an upcoming album.  Chasing the copyright he gets involved with  An Yi-chi, an employee and a single mom.  Her son, An Ke-le, has been told to call his mother his sister.  Ke-le has a heart condition and is conscious of his mortality and his mother's vulnerability.  Po han wants to help, but she is resistant, but he develops a relationship with Ke-le.

Cindy is still involved.  Two singers are also involved and chasing the copyright is a challenge.  For many, you will shed tears, but you will also feel good about love.

As usual in such good films there are a lot of people responsible.  Here are only a few. 

Pei-Ju Hsieh was the director.  He has 8 writing credits, 7 for directing and 4 for assistant director.

Francis Sun was one of the composers.  Although raised in Taiwan he resides in Los Angeles.  He was inspired by an album by Yo Yo Ma of film music by Ennio Morricone  (in my music collection).  Francis  has 113  composing credits, 3 for the music department and 2 for the production department.

Tomm Matthews was the second listed composer.  He  resides in Auckland.  Tomm has 11 composing credits and 9 for the music department.

Randy Che was the cinematographer.  He has 47 cinematographer credits, 58 for the camera and electrical department and 2 for directing.

Yi-Ning Chiang was the editor.  He has 13 credits as editor, 6 for the editorial department and 1 for cinematography.

Fandy Fan played K.  He has 19 acting credits.

Gingle Wang played Cream.   She has 19 acting credits including "The Falls" ((2021), "Light the Night" (2021) and "Wave Makers" (2023).  See http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2023/08/taiwan.html

Po-Chieh Wang played Wang Po han.  He has 47 acting credits including "Life of Pi" (2023) and "Forget You Not" (2025), one of my top series,.  See http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2025/06/forget-you-not-something-from-taiwan.html   

Yu-wei Shao played An Yi-chi.  She has 32 acting credits and 1 for soundtrack.  

 Eleven Yao played Cindy.  She has 39 acting credits.

Figaro Tseng played the dentist.  He performed in a boy band, Comic Boyz for a few years.  Figaro has 34 acting credits and 1 for production design.

Bai Run-yin played Ke-le.  His mother was a translator from Japan and his father was a Taiwanese photographer and an agent for his two children.  Run-yin did his first tv commercial at age 5 after the producer had seen a photo from the father.  He also has done music videos.  When he started doing films he was praised for psychological sensitive roles.  He has also done a Japanese film perhaps because he had been active in martial arts.  In "More Than Blue:  The Series" he won a supporting actor award.

It is available subtitled on Netflix.  It is a tear jerker for sure, but a strong love story.

As usual I have bolded the first mention of films I have seen.  They are not necessarily a recommendation, but generally I found them pretty good.  Check out the links to get a fuller idea of what those films offer.

Taiwan Cinema

 Taiwan is a hot spot.  China covets it and threatens harm to all of us who give it any support.  I believe Taiwan's cinematic history deserves support.  This post is not comprehensive, just reflecting some films seen over the past few years.  The film series that prompted me to do this blog was "Wave Makers" (2023).  A negative factor was that the movie "Gravity" distorted reality to avoid offending China and to gain admission to the Chinese market.

The Wave Makers is a political series, without any reference to the obvious hot issue of China relations.  They may have decided that to get on a streaming service they should avoid offending China.  The series does cover other issues such as the environment, immigration, and sexual harassment at work.  Sexual harassment had become an unspoken issue in Taiwan.

 Ying-Hsuan Hsieh played a politician who had recently lost an election, but was highly regarded as an advisor.  How can a loser help, but she does, partly learning from mistakes.  She was also in Dear Ex playing a widow whose dead husband left his money to a gay lover.

Jaag Huang played another political advisor.   She appeared in "Life of Pi" (2012)

Gingle Wang played the girl who had  been harassed.  She also appeared in "The Falls" (2021)  and  "Light  the Night" (2021).

Leon Dai played the sexual harasser.  He also appeared in "Yi Yi" (2000) and "The Assassin" (2015).  "Yi Yi" achieved international attention.

"A Sun" (2019) is a tough story to watch as a family deals with bad breaks.  The Writer Director Mong-Hong Chung had been a cinematographer including for this film. 

"Dear Ex" (2019) is about a widow and her son who learn their ex husband/father when he died left his (limited) fortune to his male lover.  The film is about a reconciliation.   Ying-Hsuan Hsieh played the widow.

"A Thousand Good Nights" (2019)  A series about an abandoned girl picked up by a station master.  There is a mystery there, but the focus of the story is a tour of Taiwan.  Bor-jen Chen played the adoptive father, also in "Light the Night"  (2021).

"Warriors of the Rainbow:  Seedique Bale" (2011) combined two parts to qualify for Oscars.  It was about indigenous fight off the Japanese.  The indigenous were headhunters believing they had to have an enemy's head to cross the rainbow bridge to the spirit world.  The Japanese controlled most of Taiwan between 1895 and the end of WWII 1945. 

"American Girl"  (2022) about a girl living in America returns to Taiwan during the Sars epidemic.

Man in Love (2021)  Roy Chiu plays an uneducated gangster courting a woman with the hope to leaving his criminal life.

"The Post Truth World" (2023) is a mystery thriller involving a hostage situation.

Light the Night (2021)  Mainline Chinese write negative reviews and lower rating according to Welsh/Mandarin actor Rydian Vaughan.  The series consists of 24 episodes of approximately 45 minutes each, starts off with the discovery of a dead body.  The rest of the series is flashbacks gradually revealing relationships and motivations and the attempt to unravel the mystery.  Lots of complications.   It is well done.  A very lot of smoking from many characters.  

"Eye of the Storm" (2023) Just became available as I was finishing this blog.  Set at a Taipei hospital with the onset of the SARS epidemic.  Everyone is stuck inside the office with lots of sub plots.  At the end the hospital survives, but not every character.

Ang Lee is perhaps the most famous Taiwan film maker.    http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2014/08/chinese-cinema-is-peek-into-their_1.html  Like other Taiwanese film makers he wrote, directed and produced.  Raised and educated in Taiwan he went to America to study film making studying with Spike Lee.  After graduating he spent a few years as a house husband and then struggled.  His wife encouraged him.  Won Oscars as director for "Life of Pi" (2012) and "Brokeback Mountain" (2005).   His Mandarin films include "The Wedding Banquet" (1993), "Eat Drink Man Woman" (1994), "Lust, Caution" (2007) and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2010).  English language films include "Sense and Sensibility" (1995), "The Ice Storm" (1997), "Ride with the Devil" (1999) and "Billy Lynn's Half Time Walk" (2016).

 

Despite the political factor (or maybe because of it) Taiwan has much to offer the world including their film makers.  We need to understand their dilemma that affects us.

A book about Taiwan was an earlier blog selection:  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2021/11/two-trees-make-forest-canada-reads.html

I have seen each of the movies mentioned.