Pu Kou Shan Liang Te Wo Men (2024)

Heavy, but thought provoking and brilliant acting

I was really excited about seeing Ariel Lin on Taiwanese drama again after so many years and this did not disappoint. As always, Ariel Lin never fails to delivery, this time as a lonely and repressed housewife. But the other casts were also brilliant like Ann Hsu, who I felt so much pity for her character that she is portraying. Mike He and Kai Ko were brilliant too.

The next part is a spoiler:

I know there are some people who hate the ending, saying why the writer/director has to kill Ann Hsu’s character with cancer when she is already so pitiful as she lose her bf to a third party and being lonely for much of her age until she seemingly found a guy that loves her but lost again due to her illness. I feel like this cruelty is in line with the tone of the drama which is for audience to reflect on their life. I have read so many young adults, at their prime, and career-headed but in the end neglected health or hit by cancer suddenly. I think Rebecca’s death is a good reminder for us to reflect our relationship with work.

Next, there are people who hate Ariel Lin’s character because she is so annoying and she is finding trouble for herself by always being jealous to Rebecca. But to be fair, her character is really not likable but there are also people who are like her as she has really bad imposter syndrome. I have some myself and I find myself so annoying when the syndrome hits. But I think it’s refreshing that a writer is daring enough to write such a not likable character as the FL.

The music is amazing in this show. The soundtrack is fully created by award winning songwriter Tanya Chua and the way she wrote the soundtrack was so different. She had four different songs in the soundtrack that she wrote for the four leads and she described them as writing from the perspective of God where the songs serves as a form of good wishes for the characters like Love you for you is a song that hopes Rebecca can love herself more while Equatorial is a song for Jian Qingfen that wishes she can find that inner equilibrium. And the background music are all offshoot from the six songs with lyrics, making this soundtrack very interesting and refreshing for a drama.

I think the only problem I have with the show is while the script is really good, I think the writer has struggles making certain directorial choices. While the drama is mostly realist in nature, it tries to incorporate surrealist moments like the reconciliation between the two FL in the end felt more like a surrealist dream where both find ways to cure their inner demons. But realistically, it’s hard to imagine two enemies able to spend so much vulnerable time like this. The surrealist tone felt very off from the realism it tries to go for as a whole. And also, the first time the FLs meet after so long felt like a theatrical speech rather than drama. It’s so unnatural and again not consistent with the overall realism.

Overall, there’s so many thought provoking and reflective moments. But it can be preachy for some and it’s better to watch this when you are not busy because I would imagine a stressful person would want something lighter to watch. But I think it’s a really good show as a whole!

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