Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

It should be sad that one of Taiwan's most prolific writers ENDED HER LIFE -- not died of old age! Qiong Yao was 86 years old. I was shocked to read this news from Channel News Asia : Well-known Taiwanese romance novelist Chiung Yao has died at the age of 86 in an apparent suicide. The local fire department said on Wednesday (Dec 4) that Chiung was found dead in her home in New Taipei City. Her son said she had left a note instructing her secretary to check on her at noon, news outlet TVBS reported. Despite the secretary calling for an ambulance immediately after discovering her body, Chiung was pronounced dead at the scene. My first exposure to her works was the 2000s drama Romance in the Rain . This was the entry point where I'd also learn of the 1986 version starring Chin Han and Leanne Liu. Leanne's version of Lu Yiping had a stronger impact. Leanne made me wish Barbie Xu were Yiping in 2001. Chin Han made me wish Jerry Yan were He Shuhuan. YouTube also provided a porta...

Back in 2001(that would be 20 years ago) - the Taiwanese adaptation of Hana Yori Dango or Meteor Garden was made. I was thinking about the comments on the chemistry of Jerry Yan and Barbie Xu-Wang as Doumyoji Tsukasa (Daoming Si) and Makino Tsukushi (Dong Shan Tsai) in the said TV series. I still feel Barbie has been the best Tsukushi ever and Jerry portrays every side of Doumyoji (an insecure bully who changes for the better) oh-so-well. Meteor Garden's first season aired in the same year as the remake of Romance in the Rain which the 1986 version starred Chin Han and Leanne Liu . I decided to try watching the 1986 version (even without understand almost all of it) and decided to only see the similar scenes between the 2001 and 1986 versions. So, I wonder was Chiung Yao trying to make her 2001 remake a high budget or what? I even wonder what if Jerry and Barbie were Shuhuan and Yiping instead of Daoming Si and Shan Cai back in 2001.  Meteor Garden got so popular that a second seas...

It's ironic that while I really can't find myself to relate to Qiong Yao's old school series because Liu Xue Hua is old enough to be my mother, I still find the soundtrack nice to listen to. Just because I can't relate to anything that's really that old doesn't mean I couldn't enjoy the soundtrack. What's better is that with the digital age retouching a lot of old school music, you can listen to them in clear digital format than just what I'm showing above. As a person who loves classical music, I don't see any reason why I can't enjoy old school entertainment soundtrack from Qiong Yao's world. True that I usually prefer modern Chinese or Taiwanese television drama but any good quality music is good quality music. Classical music are centuries old but they're still nice to hear. With the wonders of the digital age, one can listen to old school songs with better quality than what people during their era had.

After reading this entry by Jole Cole , I am wondering is it really that worth it journeying back and forth into Qiong Yao's World or stories that somewhat follow her style? My first exposure to Qiong Yao's World was the 2001 version of Romance in the Rain prior to the 1986 version. While the 2001 version of Romance in the Rain wasn't all that bad but the 1986 version really had some issues. Worse, the novel has been pretty much a story focusing on what goes around comes around. So much of the stories actually show what's wrong with Chinese culture back then compared to today. Even while watching the 2001 version of Romance in the Rain, it can be shown how double standard was common among men. The story involves Lu Zhen Hua who freely marries then divorces any woman he desires then later, he beats his latest wife Xue Qin up when he discovered she had an affair with a smuggler named Wei Guang Xiong. Even if Xue Qin's affair was not justifiable but she certainly ...

After watching some Qiong Yao series both new and old, I decided to reimagine what if Jerry Yan and Barbie Xu-Wang became Qiong Yao cast members after Meteor Garden II . After watching Romance in the Rain's two versions namely the 1986 version and the 2001 version, I really thought Jerry and Barbie should've been Shu Huan and Yi Ping . But what if they became a couple for all six TV series let's say Romance in the Rain happened in 2002, no Meteor Garden II and we'd be having Jerry and Barbie play the characters that were once assigned to Chin Han and Leanne Liu/Liu Xue Hua. These TV drama shows are Romance in the Rain, The Unforgettable Character, After Many Red Sunsets, Seagull's Home, Courtyard and Red Love. Starting with Romance in the Rain (which I'm most familiar with), the two might get more or less a softened-down version of the sadder versions of the story. Barbie as Yi Ping would be able to deliver more or less the same performance as Leanne did in t...

While watching Romance in the Rain (2001 version) and the 1986 version, I really could raise the issue of NOT ENOUGH CHEMISTRY. I did learn that Qin Han and Liu Xue Hua were the leading stars of "After Many Sunsets", "Romance in the Rain", "Seagull's Home", "The Unforgettable Character", "Courtyard" and "Red Love". That was six whopping series where the chemistry stood out. Now it's time to discuss my bigger problem on the chemistry with Leo Ku and Vicki Zhao. I'm a fan of Vicki Zhao but I really have all the trouble in the world adjusting to Leo Ku's performance as Shu Huan. Just seeing him as Shu Huan was not my type. Sure the show got some awards and Vicki deserved them. But Leo Ku? I really couldn't help but poke at him too much with his role as Shuhuan. After seeing the 1986 version, I really have to say that as much as I prefer most of the cast of the 2001 version but there was really a serious...

It's a sad fact that older Qiong Yao dramas do not have subtitles compared to the modern ones. But I'll admit that even if I was more used to seeing Liu Xuehua playing as the mother of the leading guy or leading guy, I'm still interested to see her older roles as a leading lady. My first impression to see them was watching them on Taiwan TV. Even if my knowledge of Mandarin or other languages is very limited (considering I'm more of an English speaker), I dug whatever limited knowledge I had while I could actually understand a bit, a bit and it became the time I forced myself to study Mandarin. After my Meteor Garden hype (and thankfully, no Meteor Garden III because the second part was already one that made me tear my heart off), I still wanted a Jerry Yan and Barbie Xu type of pairing. When I started watching Vicki Zhao's version of "Romance in the Rain", that's where I would have heard that Liu Xuehua used to play the leading lady parts while Qi...

Whenever I start backtrack watching with Qiong Yao drama and films, nothing has been more absurd with how I tend to actually like Qin Han and Liu Xuehua's pairing even if the former is pretty much, 13 years older than the latter but man, they do have good chemistry!  Provided I've watched modern series more than I did with older ones, I could actually write more about certain actors and actresses I wished were drafted into Qiong Yao's World! Jerry Yan and Barbie Xu Wang would be the first two.  While I would admit Meteor Garden II can be a pain to watch due to my eyes getting swollen then (insert funny scene) moments then more swollen eye moments, I thought about it that they do have the chemistry of Qin Han and Liu Xuehua at more than one level.  Jerry Yan is debonair in his acting and Barbie Xu Wang is the only actress I felt could cry as beautifully as Liu Xuehua.  I felt it that when I looked at Ting Yuan Shen Shen with Qin Han screaming, "Han Ye!!!!!" und...

I remembered an old article that called Meteor Garden as, "Having a plot that's older than your grandmother's dentures." Now I thought of that statement to how it also applies to heartbreaking, tearjerking Chinese series and it's a real challenge to sit through them and battle my emotions. After watching Meteor Garden, there was Meteor Garden II that was pretty much a tearjerker with badly timed comedy (ex. Shan Tsai's parents) that either piss you off or make you laugh. Meteor Garden II still made me cry to a certain extent especially when Lei reveals all his repressed feelings or Shantsai plays what I call the "Liu Xuehua card" so well, I feel Barbie Xu Wang is the only actress so far I felt could cry as beautifully as Liu Xueha could, a comparison I made only years later after I saw the series. When I think of how Jerry and Barbie were as a couple, I simply thought they were five stars for chemistry. The second season of Meteor Garden actuall...

I guess even after she's long gone due to her old age, I still can't forget her, can I? Well, I would like to recall the time my paternal grandmother would borrow Betamax at a local video store every week by the bundle. I would remember the fond memory of going there to borrow cartoons while she watched Chinese films. Chinese entertainment was something very foreign to me considering that I didn't take interest in the subject back then. If I can recall my memory correctly, she would be borrowing mostly Wuxia shows. I didn't know who Andy Lau and Idy Chan were back then so I didn't really care. What was funny was that when I first saw Magic Kitchen at the age of 19 then a couple of Andy Lau movies, I was able to recognize Andy Lau's face because I saw him while my my paternal grandma watched those videos. It was that old fashioned TV set, betamax and me not being particularly interested in them but a part of them burned into my mind. I also remembered some of t...

One song that was used for both the 1986 version and the 2001 version of "Romance In The Rain" was the song "The Unforgettable Past".  The Mandarin title is "Wang She Nan Wang" which was based on an oldies song called "Long Long Ago" which was written in 1883 by Thomas Haynes Bayley.  The translation of the lyrics is as follows: Can you remember when we first met in that late March? The unforgettable past, the unforgettable past We were leaning against each other in the light breeze and sweet scent of flowers The unforgettable past, I could not forget I like the way you sing me those old songs again   The unforgettable past, the unforgettable past And it is so sweet of you to tell me those old stories The unforgettable past, I could not forget Now that you have come back, I will not be sad anymore The unforgettable past, the unforgettable past I will forget how you had left me behind and wandered alone for so long  The unforgetta...

Looking at "The Unforgettable Character", I thought the following would have been a badass cast for the remake... Jerry Yan and Barbie Xu as the leading cast. Jerry Yan and Barbie Xu have the charm of Qin Han and Liu Xuehua respectively. Barbie Xu doing her piano scene in Meteor Garden, I guess they could let her do the scene again (just dub over the song) and let her sing the songs. Jerry and Barbie could have made a great Lu Youwen and Tu Hsiaoshuang. Qin Han and Liu Xuehua could act as both of Jerry Yan's parents. It would be nice to have a leading couple of the original cast return to acting as parents of the leading guy. Qin Han is pretty much old enough to play Jerry Yan's father. Liu Xuehua paired up with Qin Han again in a way different scenario would still work out. It was really a great casting error to cast Tang Qi as Qin Han's grandmother (aging makeup was used on her), she could have been better cast as Jerry Yan's grandmother, Qin Han's MOT...

Karma hits hard doesn't it?  Lu Zhenhua married and divorced eight women, he married a woman young enough to be his daughter namely Wang Xueqin.  How did this karma work?  Although it wasn't the main focus but I thought this was a plot driver in the whole series.  Both the 1986 and 2001 version kept the affair, although both had slight variations. In both the 2001 and the 1986 version, Yiping discovered the whole dirty affair.  This was going to be a secret weapon considering that she's hated Xueqin so much.  At the same time, Zhenhua was getting what he deserved but not that I condone to Xueqin's two timing.  I thought this was an affair that really got everything to fix with the theme, "What goes around, comes around." 1986 Yiping (the Yiping that made me wish 2001 Yiping were acted by Barbie Xu instead of Vicki Zhao) went out with Erjie for ulterior motives.  Both versions wanted to uncover the whole dirty affair between Xueqin and her lo...

While I started watching mostly contemporary Chinese entertainment, I should remember that they also introduced me to some old school actors.  For example, Liu Xuehua was introduced to me because she frequently played motherly roles.  Qin Han frequently played fatherly roles.  It made me think, "Why is so and so ALWAYS landing on a major part?"  Qin Han being the Jade Emperor in Cowherd and Weaver Girl is a major part.  Liu Xuehua always plays an important parent or even the main antagonist (she would have made a really strong Daoming Feng in Meteor Garden).  It would be rude not to credit the older days of the senior actors right? I would admit the very first Qiong Yao-based production I saw was the 2001 version of Romance in the Rain.  I started reading reviews and the names "Qin Han" and "Liu Xuehua" were tagged into them.  And it got me surprised saying, "Woah I didn't know Qin Han and Liu Xuehua were once an on-screen item."  It compe...

Now this sounds odd that while I usually review contemporary films and movies, I would also end up actually liking Qin Han and Liu Xuehua in Chinese drama.  Odd?  Not really. the 1986 version of Romance in the Rain was sad and everything but Qin Han and Liu Xuehua were really charming even if their age gap was 13 years.  Qin Han and Liu Xuehua had a couple of projects together and the one I'm only really familiar with was Romance in the Rain.  The others were Across the Water and Courtyard Deeply which I'm a little more familiar with. It's not hard for me to compare Qin Han and Liu Xuehua to both Jerry Yan and Barbie Xu as a couple, although the two of them only had a year difference with Barbie being older.  Now Jerry Yan and Barbie Xu were only paired twice... but as the same characters.   Meteor Garden II felt like a Qiong Yao drama to me.  My older kin loved Meteor Garden II better than the first season.  After watching Qin Han and Liu X...

Knowing that Qiong Yao's literature has been remade like "Romance in the Rain" and she did have the "My Fair Princess" novels too (which are most likely not adapted in the past).  So if "Romance in the Rain" had a remake from the 1986 version (but set in different ways), remember some of Qiong Yao's novels were also made into movies.  I really want this to happen because the next generation must also know of her classical literature and old Qiong Yao movies and films are very hard to find, plus subs are hardly found among them! Her novel "The Unforgettable Character" which the Chinese title really meant "Across the Water" or "Zai Shui Yi Fang" had both a movie and a TV series.  What was weird was that Qin Han starred as the leading guy in both the movie and the TV series!  I haven't seen any of the movies yet though I have thought that some of Qiong Yao's biggest stars were actually big time stars like Vick...

Aside from Shuhuan and Yiping, another couple that Jerry Yan and Barbie Xu could have played as are Peiwen and Hanye of Ting Yuan Shen Shen.  The story of Ting Yuan Shen Shen as far as I've heard involves Peiwen who thought he had lost his one true love Hanye, he goes blind in the fire, he wanders around trying to look for the "ghost" who was there.  A mysterious woman shows up and could it be that his beloved Hanye was still alive all that time?  So just had me thinking what if Jerry Yan and Barbie Xu played the parts? My imagination has Zhen Xiu Zhen as Peiwen's mother, Jerry Yan as Peiwen and Barbie Xu as Hanye... I haven't completely seen Ting Yuan Shen Shen which Liu Xuehua and Qin Han were the leading roles.  Looking at a few clips, Barbie Xu would be very fit to play the part of Peiwen's long lost love Hanye.  Jerry Yan would be able to pull Peiwen's part.  I think Jerry Yan would have been able to express the part of Peiwen's narratives s...

They feel like Qin Han and Liu Xue Hua chemistry-wise... While watching both the 1986 version and 2001 version of Romance in the Rain after watching Meteor Garden, I just thought that Jerry Yan and Barbie Xu would have made a much stronger Shuhuan and Yiping for this reason. My entire reason would be Jerry Yan has Qin Han's debonair type of appeal, performance and appearance. Although Barbie Xu doesn't look as gorgeous as Liu Xuehua was in her younger days, but the acting of the former was pretty strong in Meteor Garden. I would probably think of possible reactions that could have happened with the character of Yiping. Watching through Qin Han's and Liu Xuehua's performance made me think... DANG! SHUHUAN AND YIPING SHOULD HAVE BEEN ACTED BY JERRY YAN AND BARBIE XU! Looking at the scene in Meteor Garden where Shantsai was beaten up and accused unfairly, Daoming Si going near her to help her... so what was the point? I pretty thought that scene looked better than ...

Qiong Yao was a talented writer, misunderstood early on but her writing style was a revolutionary, talented writer who published 200 articles back as a High School student.  Unable to enter College, she got married to her ex-husband and had one son.  However the marriage landed in divorce in the 60s where she started to write depressing novels as a result of that traumatic experience.she relied on writing as her only income though later, she became a screenwriter.  She had to continue writing in order to survive.  And her circumstances also proved a bit of what her writing could do especially during the 1960s.  Taiwan during that time was still at a dark era, recovering from the civil war and she beautifully weaved the circumstances into her writing, as well as what she knew of China back then to make her novels come to life. What I like about some of her writings (Okay I haven't read them all) is that she's not afraid to address the weakness of both genders....

Knowing some of Qiong Yao's novels were usually set in China during the feudalistic times where chauvinism and harsh family dictum were the norm, Romance in the Rain is a commentary that shows the flaws of an unequal, unjust and harsh society. Women back then in the old Chinese society prior to women knowing their rights were not treated so well. Having had ancestry from China, I have also consulted with my elders about how life in China was especially for women. Romance in the Rain is a novel on women's rights. The whole story is set in 1930s China (or later in 1960s Taiwan depending on the version) where Lu Zhenhua a famous general in Northeastern China has taken up to eight brides who all resembled each other in some way. Yiping was born in the eighth marriage and later, Zhenhua moves to Shanghai. He had laid aside his first eight wives leaving Yiping and her mother Wenpei in poverty while he lives lavishly with his ninth wife Xueqin (who was an opera singer he married he...