Missing the old Cantonese and Taiwanese dramas

         I remember growing up and originally watching the old Cantonese dramas about gambling kings and sword quests. The actors and actresses were beautiful, the acting was admirable, and the characters dynamic. So it was something new to me when, about a couple of years ago (or maybe it was a decade?) that Korean dramas started becoming popular, and eventually overtaking screen time for Vietnamese families I know. It was a big deal- and after awhile, I started hearing rumors about Chinese and Taiwanese actors committing suicide because their dramas weren't as highly received as the Korean ones.

"Princess Pearl"

The factors were many and the differences vast. First of all, Chinese and Taiwanese actors tend to recycle their famous actors to the point where they appear in almost all the main dramas. You start seeing the same "moldy faces" as my mother puts it, and though seasoned, their acting becomes predictable. The same villain from that 1920s Japanese invasion of China later acts as the generous protagonist with long hair in another epic sword-quest drama. The audience grows bored, and hence resort to the fresh, young, and often surgically altered faces found in Korean dramas. At the same time, Taiwanese dramas tend to be more outlandish, comical, and sometimes even ridiculous in their exaggeration of character reactions, so when K-dramas introduce straight-forward and (tamer?) realistic scripts, the audience is swayed to the switch.

Also, what about those Cantonese dramas? Unless it's a ancient/fight/quest type of drama, in my community, it's like they dropped off the face of the earth. It saddens me that the actors from twenty years ago are struggling to fit all the roles required for the young and up-coming generation of viewers, because you can't always have a forty year old taking on a mid-twenties character- it just doesn't translate visually.

"Monkey King: Journey to the East"

"The Legendary Four Aces" displaying their "We need to be replaced one day...?" look.

That isn't to say that there aren't anymore highly received Cantonese and Taiwanese dramas now (and I'm mainly referring to Taiwanese, because I hear so little about the Cantonese ones), like the vastly popular "Fated to Love You," strangely addictive "Devil Beside You," and "It Started with a Kiss," or my other personal favorites: "Love Keeps Going," "Easy Fortune, Happy Life," "Knock Knock Loving You..." the list goes on. Lately, I've been mainly watching Korean dramas, but what I seriously miss is the intensity and depth of character the old Cantonese dramas had. It was pleasantly surprising to find some of it in "Knock Knock Loving You" though. The characters weren't so straight-edged or easily stereotyped; under extreme conditions, good guys can transformed into villains, and vice versa. I'm not trying to bash any nations' dramas, but only saying that I would like to see more original storylines, more multi-faceted characters, and maybe some fresh faces.

 

"Fated to Love You"

 "Knock Knock Loving You"