A Good Wife

The pace and production are very much in the daytime television soap opera tradition--camera lingering in close-ups, tears, bright lighting, hospital scenes, etc. But the story deals with the role of women in society and in marriage, and how women's personal development can be held back by tradition. What I like is that the characters are not two dimensional. Yi-Zhen is not perfect, but she maintains her integrity. I thought that the actress did a good job of portraying the developing coldness in her marriage. Shao-Wen is not a bad husband--he is supportive, honest, and in his way loving--but he doesn't understand what his wife is going through until the end. I was pleased that this avoided many of the cliche's one often finds in this type of television. I didn't predict how it would end. I think that the screen writing and acting were very good. I would have preferred more varied lighting on the sets (why didn't Shao-Wen and Yi-Zhen turn the lights off when they went to sleep?). I also thought that Yi-Zhen's hair and make-up were too perfect during the daytime scenes--at times it almost felt like she was wearing a mask and wig. Her natural attractiveness was on display when she was writing in her diary. The subsidiary characters were each interesting. Xiaoqing as the driven career woman was well portrayed, as was Nina Pan (the actress playing Nina must have enjoyed playing the slithery, tactile vamp). The mother in law was also very well done.

This Taiwanese TV drama turned out to be a pleasant surprise, upon discovering it on Netflix recently. Although marital infidelity has been "done to death" in television and movies worldwide, the writers of "A Good Wife" took the time to fully develop the two lead characters, the tormented wife Yi-Zhen (beautifully portrayed by Tian Tsin) and the out-of-touch husband Shao-Wen (convincingly played by Christopher Lee). This story manages to avoid the clichés and simplicity of so many other shows by methodically uncovering the layers of motivation, inspiration and unresolved disappointment of the two main characters. The temptation the wife encounters to have an affair is not out of pure physical desire or even boredom, but rather because her husband is so blind to his family's needs and demands, he's totally lost touch with his wife's needs. He is not a bad person...just too oblivious to be self-aware of the neglect his wife has endured during their 7-year marriage. Most of all, the gradual pace allows the viewer to feel the frustration and pain from each character's perspective...no simple "good" or "bad" person here. For anyone who has had challenges with a relationship or marriage (who hasn't?!), you will likely find emotions and words which will seem very familiar, both spoken and unspoken. Though the show is not perfect (e.g. very repetitive background music, some secondary characters are a bit simplistic), both the sincere storytelling and excellent performances by the two leads makes this show worth watching.

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