Born for the Spotlight (2024)

Inside the lives of female actors...

I am a massive Taiwanese Drama fan because I find them to be particularly naturalistic. By that I mean that the ACTING is rarely visible. The characters are played as true to life, rather that as tropey stereotypes or parodies of real people. There is an interest in telling true to life stories, regardless of the chaotic settings. Don’t get me wrong, there is still a whole lot of over the top stuff coming out of Taiwan - I’m looking at you Trick or Love! But even the OTT shows tend towards realism in the supporting characters. And this show, Born For the Spotlight, is a great example of the more naturalistic style, that I have come to love Taiwan for.
The gist of this is the real lives of female actors, be it washed up wunderkind or newbie wannabe. The story is set around the production of a couple of a tv shows and finally a movie, starring all of the female actors we follow. But the shows and the movie are background to the day-to-day interactions and relationships of these women.
Each episode manages to balance the perfect mix of comedy and pathos, in the typically realistic way, that I find TW-Dramas deliver. I personally, found no particular overall message or moral, for me, in this drama. But, despite the fact that their lives are completely removed from my reality, I found each of the characters VERY relatable. Angst, fear, despair, triumph, joy, and all of the day to day moments that each of us experience in whatever we are pursuing, are all laid bare, with each of these women. It is a satisfying watch from start to end.


*** Spoiler ahead***
My one irksome point is the undertone of portraying the youngest of the group as a kind of Lolita type. She uses her seemingly innocent sexuality to gain position and power. I do find this quite problematic. AS with any proper reading of Lolita as a character, we should be very aware of the power differences between Shih Ai-Ma (Emma) and those she interacts with. The power imbalance could have been more openly acknowledged, to make the portrayal more fair, BUT the positive here is that the assumption is; the audience is smart enough to figure this out for themselves.
Definitely worth a view! Highly recommended.

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A great watch, a good binge, lots of fun at 12 eps of 50mins ea. A workplace drama set in the film industry with an ensemble cast of 4 to 9 actresses (depending on where you are in the plot). Not a female-buddy show or a 9-to-5 show. Two main themes are that life is too short to hold grudges against friends or to reject sincere romantic love. As so often in shows placed in the entertainment world (perennial crowd-pleasers), those who work at creating illusions and dreams do not often have an easy time in their private lives.

A nuanced script creates 3-dimensional characters, imperfect, often funny, struggling as we all do to balance work and love, to live a human life. The estrangement and reconciliation of the friends who are the two main characters ties the show together. The plot's focus moves through the whole ensemble cast, starting with a coming-of-age story about the youngest actress and ending romantically for another. In between 2 women rescue fading careers, 3 people retire and 1 comes back from retirement, there are 2 or 3 divorces, 2 breakups, 2 affairs, 2 true love stories and, all the actresses learn and grow in their careers and as persons.

The frame is the the intense rhythm and stress of directing and producing two movies in sequence by a husband and wife team. The work ethic of these successful actresses means that their personal lives are put on hold during shooting and once the films wrap they have to deal with whatever problems have arisen meanwhile at home. The movies are plays-within-plays, their plots reflecting these women's lives superficially. The show concentrates on what happens behind the scenes.

My favourite out of these 9 equally talented actresses and their characters is Cheryl Yang as Chou Fan, living in semi-retirement in a filthy hotel room. She is brittle and difficult, unfiltered and vulnerable. She was the offender in the wedding debacle that caused the rift with her best friend, she is past-her-prime (maybe) and unknown to a younger generation. My favourite scene? Her, standing in a dumpster, receiving an impulsive confession from a younger guy standing in the adjacent dumpster. Of course.

I feel as if saying that women might enjoy this show more is like saying that The Hunt For Red October is best appreciated by men and enlisted personnel. However there is very little bromance (there is one cute scene though) in the show as opposed to the central group of female friends frequently letting off steam over snacks and drinks. Imagining being the lover of a fabulously beautiful actress but meeting up with a real person instead of the fantasy is an underlying theme which is easily accessible to men, and the mess an affair can make of one's life is of universal interest. In the end this is a very good show about friendship, about making movies, and about the crazy pressures of being a female celebrity. I predict it will be a future classic in this genre.

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