From the ICONIC 2005 Taiwanese series 王子變青蛙 (The Prince Who Turns into a Frog) with its ambitious fulfillment of all classical elements (two exceptionally hot guys, collision-based amnesia) to the highest-grossing LGBTQ+ film in Taiwanese history, Your Name Engraved Herein, we can’t wait to watch our way through Netflix’s lineup of Taiwanese shows and movies.
TV SHOWS
Triad Princess 極道千金 (Netflix Original Series)
Language: English dubbed available, but we recommend the original Mandarin audio
Subtitles: English and Traditional Chinese subtitles available
Synopsis: Growing up in the shadow of her Triad father, Angie craves an independent life of her own. Defying her father’s wishes, she takes on a gig as an undercover bodyguard for a famous actress at an agency, where she must navigate the unfamiliar world of glitz, glamour and even love. (Source)
Watch if: You saw a poster of Taiwanese musician-actor-broccoli-headed-heartthrob Jasper Liu in the MRT station ten years ago and still think about it every so often. Taiwan’s most adorable boyfriend? I’ll be the judge of that.
Two Fathers 兩個爸爸 (2013 Taiwanese TV Series)
Language: Mandarin Chinese
Subtitles: English and Traditional Chinese subtitles available
Synopsis: When two single men both get the same call, it changes their lives forever. Tang Xiang Xi (Weber Yang), a successful attorney, and Wen Zhen Hua (Lin You Wei), a quiet florist, both dated the same woman in their past. One day, they each get a call from the hospital saying that a baby girl is born and the girl’s mother left without a trace after providing both their names. Unsure who the real father is, Xiang Xi and Zhen Hua make the courageous decision to raise the girl together.
Seven years later, the two good-looking bachelors are the proud dads of the adorable Tang Wen Di (Le Le), but how long will their domestic bliss last? (Source)
Watch if: You were a fan of Freeform’s 2012 series, “Baby Daddy.” Do not recommend watching with your parents if they’ve been hinting at a self-diagnosis of grandbaby fever.
When I See You Again 他看她的第2眼 (2013 Taiwanese TV Series)
Language: Mandarin Chinese
Subtitles: English and Traditional Chinese subtitles available
Synopsis: Xia You Qian is brilliant, handsome, and rich. But unknown to most, ten years ago, he was an unattractive, geeky student who was constantly bullied by fellow students in his hometown, Pu Lang Village. One girl, though, named An Xi, shows him a rare kindness and he begins to fall in love with her. However, when he tried to profess his admiration for her, she lashes out after receiving some unfortunate news. Heartbroken by her rebuke, You Qian leaves Pu Lang village and vows to never return. As fate would have it, he eventually does, representing a private equity firm to scout the village for property development… where he reunites with An Xi.
Watch if: You, too, glowed up in the last decade and harbor secret revenge fantasies. (Same, except my “after” more closely resembles Jasper Liu’s “before”)
A Thousand Goodnights 一千個晚安
Language: Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese Hokkien
Subtitles: English and Traditional Chinese subtitles available
Synopsis: To carry out her dad’s wish and discover her roots, Dai Tian-qing embarks on a journey around Taiwan and finds love and redemption on the way. (Source)
Watch if: Nicholas Teo. That’s it, that’s the pitch.
Detention 返校 (Netflix Original Series)
Language: Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese Hokkien
Subtitles: English and Traditional Chinese subtitles available
Synopsis: Based on a video game set in the period of martial law known as the White Terror in Taiwan, Detention entwines the suffocating political situations under martial law and heart-stopping legends of local deities, portraying a labyrinth of unspeakable oppressions.
The series opens at Greenwood High School in 1999. Transfer student Yunxiang Liu (Lingwei Lee) enters a forbidden area of the school grounds, where she encounters the ghost of Ruixin Fang (Ning Han). Fang reveals the hidden history of the school over the past 30 years, including how a group of students and teachers were persecuted as they fought for freedom in the era of censorship. (Source)
The Devil’s Punisher 天巡者
Language: Mandarin Chinese
Subtitles: English and Traditional Chinese subtitles available
Synopsis: A baker by day and demon fighter by night, a reincarnated deity must jog his amnesiac lover’s memory of their millennium-long romance. (Source)
The Victims’ Game 誰是被害者 (Netflix Original Series)
Language: Mandarin Chinese
Subtitles: English and Traditional Chinese subtitles available
Synopsis: The Victims’ Game revolves around the forensic scientist with Asperger’s syndrome Fang Yi-jen (Joseph Chang) and the investigative journalist Hsu Hai-yin (Ann Hsu), investigating a case involving Fang Yi-jen’s daughter.
A Taiwanese Tale of Two Cities 雙城故事
Language: Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese Hokkien, English
Subtitles: English and Traditional Chinese subtitles available
Synopsis: The story is based on the arrangements of a Taiwanese girl living in Dadaocheng, Taipei, and a Taiwanese girl who grew up in San Francisco, USA. From two perspectives, they depict contemporary people’s attitudes and life perspective, presenting sparks of different cultures.
Pili Fantasy: War of Dragons 霹靂
Language: Taiwanese Hokkien
Subtitles: English and Traditional Chinese subtitles available
Synopsis: As turmoil looms in the Martial World, and the Eight Wonders of the Evil Dragon unleashes dark forces, who will emerge as the new warrior legend?
MOVIES
Little Big Women 孤味
Language: Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese Hokkien
Subtitles: English and Traditional Chinese subtitles available
Synopsis: In the Taiwanese melodrama “Little Big Women,” a matriarch and her three adult daughters grieve a complicated loss. Early in the film, the sisters learn that their father, long absent from their lives, has passed away. Embracing sentimentality in every scene, this occasionally endearing and often cloying film examines what it means to mourn someone who was already gone. (Source)
Watch if: You’re a sucker for big Taiwanese matriarch energy. This is definitely a tearjerker, so maybe block out the entire afternoon for this.
A Sun 陽光普照
Language: Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese Hokkien
Subtitles: English and Traditional Chinese subtitles available
Synopsis: The film begins with an act of violence that sparks a series of woes for the four-member Chen family. Three of the Chens seem like humdrum working-class Taiwanese: father A-Wen (Chen Yi-wen) works as a driving instructor, mother Qiu styles hair at a nightclub, and elder son A-Hao studies to retake his med school entrance exam.
Younger son A-Ho (Wu Chien-ho), however, doesn’t fit the mold. In an act of revenge against bullying, he and his delinquent friend Radish attack a boy nicknamed Oden at a soup restaurant (there’s a dark joke here for those who know their Asian soups). A-Ho lands in juvenile detention, and A-Wen disowns him.
The Chen family’s woes don’t stop there though. Qiu learns A-Ho has impregnated a teenage girl named Xiao Yu, Oden’s father chases A-Wen for victim’s compensation, and silent cracks begin forming in A-Hao’s psyche. Thirty minutes in, A Sun has introduced a sprawling cast of characters, each with their own challenges and proclivities. (Source)
Dear Ex 誰先愛上他的
Language: Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese Hokkien
Subtitles: English and Traditional Chinese subtitles available
Synopsis: A teenager, Song Cheng-xi (Huang), becomes trapped in the middle of a bitter feud between his mother (Hsieh) and a free-spirited man (Chiu), who is both the lover and insurance beneficiary of Song’s recently deceased father (Chen). (Source)
Your Name Engraved Herein 刻在你心底的名字
Language: Mandarin Chinese
Subtitles: English and Traditional Chinese subtitles available
Synopsis: As martial law ends in 1980s Taiwan, two male students, Chang Jia-han (A-han) and Wang Bo Te (Birdy), fall in love amid family pressure, homophobia, and broader social change. A new student, Birdy, arrives at an all-boys Catholic high school, where he and A-han soon become fast friends; both are musicians in the school band, where they engage in antics while exchanging long glances. The school’s priest and band leader, Father Oliver, reminds the students to “profiter du moment” (live in the moment), leading A-han to deepen his bond with Birdy. The two boys take a trip to Taipei—ostensibly to mourn the death of President Chiang Ching-kuo—and grow closer through their adventures in the capital. Despite mutual interest, the pair remain hesitant to act on their budding attraction. The introduction of co-educational schooling adds a wrinkle to their relationship, as the arrival of female students irrevocably transforms classroom dynamics. Birdy catches the eye of a female classmate, who offers the hope of socially-acceptable heterosexual romance, but A-han holds onto his affection for Birdy. Repeated incidents of conflict and reconciliation draw the pair together and break them apart, before fate finally takes them in different directions. (Source)
Watch [because]: Your Name Engraved Herein is the highest-grossing LGBT film in Taiwan’s history.
Secret 不能說的秘密
Language: Mandarin Chinese
Subtitles: English and Traditional Chinese subtitles available
Synopsis: Enchanted by a pretty pianist and the haunting melody she plays, a musical prodigy falls in love. But a secret soon threatens to derail their romance.
Cities of Last Things 幸福城市
Language: Mandarin Chinese
Subtitles: English and Traditional Chinese subtitles available
Synopsis: This is a story about a common man who has extraordinary events in his mundane life. The film depicts the protagonist’s turns of events in three eras, three seasons, three nights, in the same city, as told with reverse chronology. (Source)
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