A Taiwanese Tale of Two Cities (2018)

This drama had a rough start, but it really grew on me. The truth is I loved this like it was an 8/10. It really was a gem with how refreshing it was compared to other mainstream Taiwanese dramas. This was a heartfelt story about two different girls who experience two different cultures. One girl dreams of visiting San Francisco since she was a child. The other girl always wanted to visit Taipei to get in touch with her roots and Taiwanese identity. When they finally arrive in these cities, they realize they are different from what they imagined them to be. I just love how the writers depicted the culture shock and cultural differences of both cities. I particularly loved how they portrayed Jo's internal struggle of being a Taiwanese American and having to juggle between two identities. The drama was by no means perfect though. It had a rocky start that was almost cringeworthy. It was a slow paced drama that would skip around a lot and use a substantial amount of flashback scenes as fillers. There were also a lot of pointless scenes that made me cringe. While the main cast did a solid acting job, some of the supporting actors were a little awkward. I loved this drama for the cultural representation, but the plot however, was somewhat of a downer.

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This movie is long overdue for me to finished watching. But I finally finished watching it.

First of all... if you don't like a slow paced drama then turn away from this immediately.
This drama is quite slow in some of the episodes... but overall the stories are interconnecting to each other.. so if you skip some episode.. you gonna end up getting confused.

Story line was quite ok for me.. a bit slow but I get the point the writer was trying to show. It really shows how each characters grow throughout the series.
What I love about this show is probably the Jo-Dian Ming couple.. without them.. the drama is quite boring to be honest.
Although the main character is Nian Nian.. but I do find her a bit annoying and kinda selfish in away.
Why? well.. this is a spoiler so turn away if you don't wanna know.

Nian2 met with some difficulties both in her relationship, job and losing her father was the final blow to her. She became denial. Although she found peace at the end of the drama but was quite disappointing that she or rather the drama didn't really show her continuation of her relationship with Ryan.
I do agree with Nian2 on "American dream" as I had that when I was younger but sadly never get to realized it.

Jo and Dian Ming couple were very real for me.. what they faced through are real in our real life.. and both of them portrayed their characters well.. I thought Jo will be the wild and playgirl kind but instead she showed a caring and selfless lady. and meeting Dian Ming was the biggest turn in her life.

I love how Nian2's step mom is always cheerful and lively no matter what hardship she faced. She was a strong, caring and dedicated woman to her step daughter and husband.

The rest of the characters complete the drama.
For me.. it was indeed a slow paced drama.. but it kept me wondering what will happen next. Some scenes are really funny and entertaining. This drama also give me some understanding of Chinese culture in Taiwan (I'm a Chinese as well but not from Taiwan). Also I love how they gave explanation of the Taiwanese culture over there (food, musics, surrounding areas and many more).

Looking forward for the next projects for the 4 main characters in the movie.. hope they'll do another drama together again.
Cheers^^

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