2 Taiwanese telenovelas on Netflix You Should Watch

2 Taiwanese telenovelas on Netflix You Should Watch

By Rick Olivares

Japanese and Korean telenovelas or televisions shows might be the rage, but there is more to Asia than those two countries.

While I am a fan of Japanese television series Terrace House and Tokyo Midnight Stories and thoroughly enjoyed Korea’s Descendants of the Sun, Crash Landing Into You, and Itaweon Class, in recent months, I have cast my taste buds elsewhere.

On a recent trip to Singapore, I picked up a DVD of Ramen Teh; a beautiful film about a chef who chances upon a notebook of his late father’s musings and old photos and he returns to the Lion city to piece together the story of his life. 

But it is with tremendous happiness that I discovered some Taiwanese telenovelas a few months ago that have struck a deep chord inside of me, and because of that, I wholeheartedly recommend (and are available on Netflix).

A Thousand Goodnights (2019)

A 20-episode series about a daughter who finishes her late father’s aborted journey throughout Taiwan and in the process discovers his story and herself. Films or television series about journeys of discovery aren’t new. There are a lot of really good ones. 

To name a few, there are the American films Into the Wild, The Way (that I absolutely adore), the Reese Witherspoon film Wild, Lost In Translation, and On the Road. There’s the Australian film, Tracks, and the French film, Amelie. There’s Brasil’s Central do Brasil. And India’s The Darjeeling Limited.  

A Thousand Goodnights is a series had me in the first few minutes which in my opinion – is crucial lest I lose interest. Having veteran and respected Taiwanese actor Bor Jeng Chen already grabbed by attention. I saw him last in Back to 1989 (that is the second of my recommendations) where he had a cameo appearance as Mr. Wang, a tough businessman.

After Bor’s character of Tai Chia-Ho passes away at the start of a journey he has long planned after his retirement as a train station master, it is up to his daughter, Tai Tien-Ching, played by the pretty Cindy Yu-Han Lien, to complete it. she is joined by Nicholas Teo who plays Cheng Nuo; himself a troubled young man who was helped by Chia-Ho during his formative years.

The lovely Ai-Ning Yao plays Tien-Ching’s younger sister, Tian-Yu who herself has her own concerns when she drops out of school. Li Chung-Lin plays Wu Po-Sen, a young man burdened by his father’s expectations while he wishes to pursue his musical dreams.

I love how A Thousand Goodnights is set outside Taipei and in the countryside particularly rural Shuangxi. The drone camera footage adds to the beauty of the film from the lush vegetation to the beautiful mountaintops to the train tracks and train rides to country living. Food also plays a prominent role. While, not a comedy – and we all know laughter is a way into a person’s heart – so is food. A Thousand Goodnights is like a love letter to Taiwan; a travelogue that travel companies should do well to take advantage. Through Tieng-Ching’s eyes, she learns too of Taiwan’s culture and history; everything is neatly tied in without making it look contrived.

What will also well-up your eyelids are aside from the wounded relationships people have, is how the series is spiced with wisdom. That and the lovely soundtrack. 

A Thousand Goodnights is simply and majestically beautiful.

Back To 1989 (2016)

A drama that runs a marathon of 34 episodes that will have you riveted to your chair. It’s equal parts Somewhere In Time and Back to The Future. 

The basic plot revolves around Chen Che (played by Marcus Chang) who is accidentally and mysteriously thrown back in time from 2016 to 1989 after another contentious altercation with his mother, Chen Ya-Juan (played by Mini Tsai). Che has had these questions about his biological father that his mother has refused to divulge all these years.

Che is surprised to be in 1989, and right in the middle of his mother-to-be’s life as a young adult who is pressured to go abroad to pursue a higher education by her dominating mother. Che befriends Ye Zhen-Zhen who is played by the winsome, lovely, and talented Ivy Shao who will absolutely steal your heart. She also plays a main role in 2017’s The Perfect Match (that is also available on Netflix) and 2019 Sweet Combat where she sings the title song.

At first Che hides his past but eventually reveals it to his grandfather (Zhang Chen-Guo who is played by Yin Zhao-De) and Zhen Zhen who both help him cope then try to change history.

Filled with dramatic twists and turns, Back To 1989 is another treatise about going back and changing the past. We’ve seen Avengers Endgame touch on this. There was Edge of Tomorrow starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, X-Men Days of Future Past, the Ethan Hawke film Predestination, Looper, the Terminator films, and Interstellar to name but a few. The difference is, Back to 1989 is a television series with more time to extrapolate. 

Despite being cautioned about the Butterfly Effect, Che and Chen-Guo realize that for all their meddling, what is history remains history. And yet, what started out as a time travel story ended up as a titanic love story. About true love for the ages. About friendship and doing what is right. 

Watching this, I am greatly reminded of Johann von Goethe’s famous saying, “That is the true season of love, when we believe that we alone can love, that no one could ever have loved so before us, and that no one will love in the same way as us.”

When I first saw Back To 1989, as soon as I finished it, I re-watched the entire series again… immediately. I have not done that before. Consider me struck. The soundtrack is a lovely one too. Even if you do not understand the words, the melodies are just perfect. 

If A Thousand Goodnights and Back To 1989 are your introduction to Taiwanese telenovelas, then welcome to the club and have a great time watching and searching for more.