In the Taiwanese drama "We Are Not Kind Enough", the relationship between the characters is complex and the plot is gripping. Xu Weining, as an important figure in today's Taiwanese drama industry, is deeply loved by the audience for her superb performances, while Ariel Lin, who was once the queen of ratings on the small screen, returned to the screen after a five-year break and is still radiant.
The two actresses, although they once had different artistic paths, now show remarkable chemistry in the same episode, especially when dealing with emotionally charged scenes.
The female protagonist is strong, and the male protagonist is not inferior, and the role played by Xu Weining can be called a benchmark figure in contemporary Taiwanese dramas, with delicate and profound emotional expression. And Ariel Lin's addition has added a touch of color to the series, and her acting skills have become more mature after years of tempering. Even Rene Liu has made a cameo appearance, which adds a lot to the plot.
Despite the show's 43-minute length, viewers were eager to find more easter eggs in the 49-minute runtime as the end credits scrolled, only to spend six minutes watching the credits. The investment in this drama is obviously expensive, and its excitement makes "We Are Not Kind Enough" a masterpiece of the year in Taiwanese dramas, and it is definitely worth watching.
Douban currently has a score of 8.8 points for "We Are Not Kind Enough", and it seems that this drama is indeed worthy of its name as the "drama king". Supposedly, I should blow a rainbow fart for this show. However, when I pondered its contents, I found its mediocrity and obvious flaws to make it even more difficult to assume the role of a trumpeter.
At least judging by the two episodes that have aired so far, it simply doesn't deserve an 8 rating.
Before the plot is launched, the value of this drama should be confirmed. "We Are Not Good Enough" unfolds the story from the perspective of two heroines, who met ten years ago. Ten years later, Jian Qingfen, played by Ariel Lin, has married early, and Zhang Yijing, played by Xu Weining, has been single until forty.
Jian Qingfen envied Zhang Yijing's chic and freedom, while Zhang Yijing longed for Jian Qingfen's stability and happiness.
From here, it can be seen that the theme of this play is actually very clear. As Montaigne mentioned in his essay collection, marriage is like a bird in a cage, the bird outside the cage wants to enter, and the bird in the cage wants to come out.
This reflection on the difference in perception of happiness and life choices gives the plot a subtle tension. Let the audience see two kinds of group life through two characters, so as to think about what they need. Compared with the entertainment enjoyed by the series, its practical significance to the audience is actually more worthy of praise.
After the two people reunite, they see each other's real lives, think of what they have and don't have, and finally reconcile with themselves. This is the greatest value of "We Are Not Good Enough".
Start splashing. Compared with the two heroines, Zhang Yijing made it better. In other words, Zhang Yijing looks more fresh. Zhang Yijing's swaying and suspicion are presented well enough. She is a freelancer, and when she is short of money, she takes on projects and works hard, and when she is free, she plays the world. It looks very beautiful, but for a long time, this dream of being single first was punctured by Sister Qin, who starred in Liu Ruoying's friendship.
Sister Qin's few words broke the original peaceful atmosphere, and people couldn't help but turn their heads sideways. In a moment of casual chat, she suddenly mentioned the fact that she was fifty years old and about to retire.
"You're going to retire at fifty, have you ever wondered how old you might be to live? Seventy, eighty, ninety? Have you saved enough money from fifty to eighty? I tell you, at least twenty million. She continued, her voice full of worry and reminders, "20 million still have to ensure that you don't get sick, you may have to travel, participate in weddings and funerals, can you afford those red envelopes and white envelopes, not to mention that 20 million also takes into account your taste, is it enough?"
NT$20 million, or about RMB 4.5 million.
"But I don't have any children. Sister Qin suddenly said again.
"Then there is even more hopelessness, are you sure that you can save 20 million before you are fifty years old? and then retire? And let me remind you, people will grow old, and money will depreciate. This sentence seems to make the whole conversation even heavier, bringing up all kinds of uncertainty and worries about the future.
After some deliberation, Yi Jing felt as if she had been reinvented and began to doubt her life. She thought about the huge "pension" of 20 million, and then looked at the balance of more than 6 million in her account, and felt a deep helplessness. She once refused to make clothes for herself and decided to start a frugal life.
While eating at the restaurant, she was told that one person could only sit at the bar and was not allowed to sit at the table. In addition, she also received a call from her sister, who decided to quit her job because of her boyfriend's relationship, hoping to enjoy the world of two.
All of this drama pushes Yijing to think about the question: Is she really wrong to be single? According to her age, forty instead of twenty, from thirty to forty, she believes that at least once there has been a night in which she must have deeply doubted her choice. For a man who has been through so many trials, it is clear that there is still some strength to deal with this chain of events.
After thinking of herself, thinking of her old age, how should she go in the future? At a certain moment, maybe because of a person, or because of something, she suddenly understood everything and came to the present with determination.
Taking a step back, she may have never really experienced such a thought process, but doesn't that show that she has the tenacity to be unwavering from the outside world?
In the ten years from the age of thirty to forty, was it the first time that a statement like Sister Qin's appeared in her ears? Obviously not. Up to now, she has categorically rejected too many worldly distractions.
Therefore, Sister Qin's handling of this piece is untenable at all.
Such a powerful female figure should not make her doubt herself with a few innocuous words.
Step into Ariel Lin's performance world again. The first episode shows a microcosm of her life.
The first nine minutes of the opening can be described as a dramatic climax, and the tension is comparable to that of a disaster movie.
This is not the life dilemma of the character Ariel Lin in the play, but the difficulty of the production of the series, almost to the point of outrageousness. The director and screenwriter of this play, Xu Yuting, has written many profound scripts.
But it must be pointed out that Sister Xu's directing skills, especially her precise control of the scenes, are really different from her screenwriting talents.
Incredibly, at the beginning of a series, the director seems to be teaching the audience a big lesson in philosophy.
The nine-minute time is completely through Ariel Lin's dictation, and in the way of self-description, she taught the audience her life experience outside the play for many years.
The charm of the drama lies in the integration of profound ideas into the story, so that the characters pursuing their dreams can communicate naturally, and it is by no means a lecture hall of philosophical concepts that the director forcibly instills in the audience like this play.
"We Are Not Good Enough" begins with a flashback. In the opening nine minutes, Jian Qingfen complained about the boredom of her married life, as well as her nostalgia for her rival back then, emphasizing how comfortable life should be now. Nine minutes later, the screen shifts back to the day the two officially met ten years ago.
So why don't you start the whole drama directly from here, and let the story start from the real beginning? Aside from the problems at the production level, let's look at the character of Jian Qingfen. When talking about Zhang Yijing above, I said that this is a character that looks more fresh. On the other hand, it is the boring and old-fashioned character setting of Jian Qingfen. Jian Qingfen-style female characters have grabbed a lot of them in mainland urban dramas.
A puffed mother-in-law, a house without privacy, a husband who has lost his halo, and a wife who has lost her passion for her current married life.
In the depths of this story, the character of Jian Qingfen is like a classic microcosm in urban drama, and her existence is almost a reflection of the kind of plot that the audience is familiar with. The trivial joys, sorrows, and sorrows in life are like commonplace, and they are staged every day.
However, in this context, in order to increase the dramatic tension, the screenwriter often arranges some cheating plots, trying to let the female characters find a new meaning in life through these plots.
In "Our Isn't Kind Enough", Jian Qingfen's role is not just a simple moral yardstick, she is more like a mirror in the eyes of the audience. For those who are tired of traditional married life, this kind of plot is especially intimate. Therefore, when she was asked to intervene in Zhang Yijing's love life in order to increase the highlights in the play, although the audience was surprised, they took it for granted.
The turning point in the play is actually almost all on Zhang Yijing's calm and deep performance. The screenwriter cleverly used the setting of "moral stain" to make Jian Qingfen's character more fleshed out, and her behavior seemed to have enough motivation. She not only snatched Zhang Yijing's boyfriend, but also tried to break the shackles of passively accepting fate and looking for a stage that truly belongs to her.