Yan Shuang Fei (1999)

It's nice to watch a series that makes you sad, not angry. There are no villains here, just people with a lot of emotional baggage trying to figure out their own lives. The story is sweet and bittersweet. Just get your boxes of tissues ready. And maybe some hot tea, too.

These days we don’t often see a love quite like that of Chengyan and Zhan Yin. Both were somewhat mentally-disabled, but they were the most charming dimwits ever. They were simple to the point of almost childlike, so their families felt the need to protect these two lovebirds from themselves. This interference ultimately led to tragedy. Stephanie Hsiao and Jonathan Chen played off each other really well. They can’t seem to keep their hands off each other, so much so that I wondered if they were dating in real life.

Sunny Tu was actually very pretty, but they made her Kaiyan so matronly that she looked like Chengyan’s mother instead of her twin. Her hair and outfits were very unflattering. Her looks mismatched with Louis Lin, who was painfully stiff and awkward here. There was supposed to be a romantic tension between the two, but it seemed like Louis and Sunny were trying their best to avoid having to touch each other.

Shi Yu was such an underrated actor. His Tianwen could’ve been so much more if the writers gave him a chance. On the outside, he seemed silly and superficial, until the scene where he was holding Chengyan’s baby and a single silent tear slid down his cheek. In that one moment you understand the depth of his feelings for Chengyan, even though he never said it out loud. That alone was the most unexpectedly touching scene, and Shi Yu hit just the right note without overdoing it. It was simple but more moving than watching Zhan Yin rolling on the ground and crying his eyes out.

The mood of this series is perfectly captured by its wistful theme song, ‘Red Bean’ by the legendary Faye Wong. It reminds you that everything has an end, and neither meeting nor parting is forever. Tissue, please.

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