The Fierce Wife (2010)

I'm surprised that this drama hasn't gotten any review yet, considering that it was one of the more popular dramas in Taiwan in 2011.I guess I'll have to give the first one myself because I really loved the drama. It was one of the better ones worth watching. Oh, but before that, I just want to give a warning. The Fierce Wife is not a drama you'd want to see if you strongly prefer your dramas to have a conventional happy ending because the story revolves around marital infidelity. It is an unflinching take on the destructive consequences of infidelity on a beautiful and happy family and how a man lost it all after neglecting to cherish a wife who treated him like a king and their daughter when he exchanged what he had for a brief, exciting affair with the younger cousin of his wife.

I'm not into Taiwanese dramas but I loved this one. Some people who finished The Fierce Wife complained that it was infuriating and moved at a snail's pace. In my opinion, they never got the whole point. This is a story about GROWTH. It is about a woman who found her self-worth after the breakdown of her 10-year marriage. It was slow because the writer and director took much care in developing the conflict in the story and building up the anticipation in order for the viewers to gain a better understanding of the relationships and motivations.

The lead character An Zhen is everything that a man could ask for in a wife. She was loving, thoughtful, sweet and self-giving to a fault. It was obvious from the very start that she was that "type" who would give up everything for her man in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, her husband never appreciated her for who she was nor her efforts because he was so used to having her around, pandering to his every whim and his every need. He abused her love, destroyed her trust and even became so thoughtless as to force her to divorce him while she was recuperating from a car accident at a hospital. Thus, the journey of An Zhen is what makes the drama engaging and uplifting. Indeed, she had become "fierce" but not in the way that most people would think. No she did not become this femme fatale on a mission of revenge against her husband and his mentally-unstable mistress. She became fierce in a way that she was able to find her inner strength and proved that boring, homely wives like her can go beyond the stereotypes and reach boundaries beyond their expectations. I loved not only her physical transformation (Sonia Sui is gorgeous!) but also her emotional transformation.

My favorite side characters in the drama are easily the women: Rui Xuan, the funny sister-in-law, and He Ai Lin. I liked Rui Xuan because she provided comic relief alongside her husband. He Ai Lin...well she never gave a good first impression but she grew on me. She was the typical beautiful and successful career woman who never seemed to get a break until she married the man who was not her type but who treated her so well. They provided such a strong support for An Zhen and dealt with Wei En like no other woman could!

I just have one gripe: I wish that the character of Wei En was given more layers and that the reasons for the affair were more fleshed out. I didn't really like how she was merely designated as a "psychotic" self-centered mistress worth hating. It was necessary to make the viewers understand why the affair took place on a much deeper level. Was there another reason to the affair aside from the fact that Rui Fan was bored and experiencing some sort of mid-life crisis? When is enough truly enough? What truly went wrong? Not everything can be clearly defined as purely black or white after all. In life, we often deal with and make choices based on grey areas.

Would I recommend this drama though? Yes, definitely! But this calls for a more mature way of thinking since it is a journey in itself. Also, the ending (which i LOVED btw) is not really meant to resolve the main conflict in concrete terms. I'd recommend this simply because the drama proved to me that you can be strong without being bitter and that you can be kind without being a doormat. It's a human story that anybody can relate to. Also, the performances of Sonia Sui and James Wen were really great and their chemistry was good even though they played an estranged married couple.

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