Hey Girl
I finished Born for the Spotlight recently, and it's pretty darn good. I would say it's probably the best (non-rewatch) drama I seen all year.
The drama is about several actresses in varying stages of fame and their intertwined relationships.
Cast and characters
The main focus is on Chou Fan, played by Cheryl Yang (My Queen, Do You Love Me as I Love You, Light the Night 1-3, Oh No! Here Comes Trouble).
Chou Fan was a very famous actress but, as she has gotten older, has not accepted a role in 3 years. She blames the lack of good roles on her outspoken nature, having offended many directors and actors. She's also had a falling out with her former best friend and is just living out in a posh hotel trying to hide from her stalker.
Chou Fan's former best friend is Hsveh Ya Chih, played by Hsieh Ying-Xuan (The Making of an Ordinary Woman, Little Big Woman, Wave Makers, Imperfect Us).
Ya Chih has transitioned from acting into agent. Together with her director husband, they run their own studio. At the beginning of the drama, they haven't had a big hit yet. Part of the plot is them producing two potentially award-winning films.
Both Chou Fan and Ya Chih are friends with hot young actress Li Hsin Ni, played by Annie Chen (Love Around, Love Now, More Than Blue, Tears on Fire, Terrorizers), and older soap actress Claire, played by Hsieh Chiung Hsuan (Miss Rose, Meet Me @ 1006, The World Between Us, On Children, Dear Tenant, The Victim's Game, Light the Night 1-3, Mom Don't Do That!, The Pig the Snake and the Pigeon, Lovely Villain, Prince of Wolf)
Claire is a long-time actress and has accepted most any role that came her way in order to pay off her husband's debt and to raise her daughter, TB. That left TB feeling like her mother had neglected her in order to pursue acting and she writes about their rocky relationship in a new movie she's directing.
Hsin Ni was a former adult film star turned legit actress. She is signed with Ya Chih's studio. At the same time, she is dating some rich guy that already has a fiancee.
Newcomer Emma Shih, played by Chole Lin, has natural talent for acting and is very ambitious. All she needs is to get a decent role and be recognized.
The story covers her from playing bit parts as a corpse to her big break.
I would like to add that the drama was written and directed by Yen Yi Wen, based on her own experiences as an actress. Yen Yi Wen was the director of The Making of an Ordinary Woman (also a very excellent drama) and is probably the most known to me for playing Chen Yun Ru's mom on Someday or One Day.
Pros (because this drama has no cons)
Girl Power
I feel like western production like to talk about how progressive and feminist they are. But a lot of the things I've seen (ie. Barbie) feel very preachy. Anything where women really uphold other women have to be exaggerated with dramatic music and/or slow-mo (ie. Avengers: End Game). Whereas, a lot of the Taiwanese dramas I've seen recently just treats female friendship as matter-of-fact. Maybe it can be chalked up to the fact that there are a lot of women writing and directing dramas in Taiwan.
In terms of this drama, Chou Fan and Ya Chih's friendship was very strong as told in flashbacks. Despite both of them being famous and around the same age, they don't tear each other down to compete for roles or awards. Even though their eventual fallout happened at Ya Chih's wedding, their fallout wasn't over a man.
In present day, Ya Chih hosts regular get-togethers with Claire and Hsin Ni where they just sit around, eat, and chat about whatever. Claire and Hsin Ni also maintains their friendship with Chou Fan, having not picked a side after the fallout.
There is a scene that I thought was very good, in which all the actresses in their new production is having dinner with one of the producers.
He's a skeevy guy and starts asking Hsin Ni about one of the dace/stripping scenes in her adult films and asking her to recreate it. Chou Fan shuts him down by playfully doing a very unsexy dance to take the focus off of Hsin Ni. Ya Chih sees what she's doing and joins in. It's a very good scene and it's followed by Ya Chih going to see the producer the next day and demanding that he not treat her client that way. Again, all of it portrayed in a very matter-of-fact way.
To treat things fairly, there are also backstabbing, nepo babies, underhanded deals, and casual sexism. It would be disingenuous to portray the entertainment business as just girl-power. But I feel this drama does it in such a way as to not pass judgment or be preachy.
Romance
It's drama, so there has to be romance. Probably the only one worth writing about is the romance between Chou Fan and hotel boy, "Liu Meng". She's a bit of the manic pixie girl to his ho-hum guy. It comes complete with a girl publicly declaring her love scene. It's one of the less realistic parts of the drama. But I'll allow it since their relationship is not a main part of the drama.
OST
As the kids will say, the OST is fire.
Next time I post, I'll talk about Love Game in Eastern Fantasy.
The drama is about several actresses in varying stages of fame and their intertwined relationships.
Cast and characters
The main focus is on Chou Fan, played by Cheryl Yang (My Queen, Do You Love Me as I Love You, Light the Night 1-3, Oh No! Here Comes Trouble).
Chou Fan was a very famous actress but, as she has gotten older, has not accepted a role in 3 years. She blames the lack of good roles on her outspoken nature, having offended many directors and actors. She's also had a falling out with her former best friend and is just living out in a posh hotel trying to hide from her stalker.
Chou Fan's former best friend is Hsveh Ya Chih, played by Hsieh Ying-Xuan (The Making of an Ordinary Woman, Little Big Woman, Wave Makers, Imperfect Us).
Ya Chih has transitioned from acting into agent. Together with her director husband, they run their own studio. At the beginning of the drama, they haven't had a big hit yet. Part of the plot is them producing two potentially award-winning films.
Both Chou Fan and Ya Chih are friends with hot young actress Li Hsin Ni, played by Annie Chen (Love Around, Love Now, More Than Blue, Tears on Fire, Terrorizers), and older soap actress Claire, played by Hsieh Chiung Hsuan (Miss Rose, Meet Me @ 1006, The World Between Us, On Children, Dear Tenant, The Victim's Game, Light the Night 1-3, Mom Don't Do That!, The Pig the Snake and the Pigeon, Lovely Villain, Prince of Wolf)
Claire is a long-time actress and has accepted most any role that came her way in order to pay off her husband's debt and to raise her daughter, TB. That left TB feeling like her mother had neglected her in order to pursue acting and she writes about their rocky relationship in a new movie she's directing.
Hsin Ni was a former adult film star turned legit actress. She is signed with Ya Chih's studio. At the same time, she is dating some rich guy that already has a fiancee.
Newcomer Emma Shih, played by Chole Lin, has natural talent for acting and is very ambitious. All she needs is to get a decent role and be recognized.
The story covers her from playing bit parts as a corpse to her big break.
I would like to add that the drama was written and directed by Yen Yi Wen, based on her own experiences as an actress. Yen Yi Wen was the director of The Making of an Ordinary Woman (also a very excellent drama) and is probably the most known to me for playing Chen Yun Ru's mom on Someday or One Day.
Pros (because this drama has no cons)
Girl Power
I feel like western production like to talk about how progressive and feminist they are. But a lot of the things I've seen (ie. Barbie) feel very preachy. Anything where women really uphold other women have to be exaggerated with dramatic music and/or slow-mo (ie. Avengers: End Game). Whereas, a lot of the Taiwanese dramas I've seen recently just treats female friendship as matter-of-fact. Maybe it can be chalked up to the fact that there are a lot of women writing and directing dramas in Taiwan.
In terms of this drama, Chou Fan and Ya Chih's friendship was very strong as told in flashbacks. Despite both of them being famous and around the same age, they don't tear each other down to compete for roles or awards. Even though their eventual fallout happened at Ya Chih's wedding, their fallout wasn't over a man.
In present day, Ya Chih hosts regular get-togethers with Claire and Hsin Ni where they just sit around, eat, and chat about whatever. Claire and Hsin Ni also maintains their friendship with Chou Fan, having not picked a side after the fallout.
There is a scene that I thought was very good, in which all the actresses in their new production is having dinner with one of the producers.
Click to viewHe's a skeevy guy and starts asking Hsin Ni about one of the dace/stripping scenes in her adult films and asking her to recreate it. Chou Fan shuts him down by playfully doing a very unsexy dance to take the focus off of Hsin Ni. Ya Chih sees what she's doing and joins in. It's a very good scene and it's followed by Ya Chih going to see the producer the next day and demanding that he not treat her client that way. Again, all of it portrayed in a very matter-of-fact way.
To treat things fairly, there are also backstabbing, nepo babies, underhanded deals, and casual sexism. It would be disingenuous to portray the entertainment business as just girl-power. But I feel this drama does it in such a way as to not pass judgment or be preachy.
Romance
It's drama, so there has to be romance. Probably the only one worth writing about is the romance between Chou Fan and hotel boy, "Liu Meng". She's a bit of the manic pixie girl to his ho-hum guy. It comes complete with a girl publicly declaring her love scene. It's one of the less realistic parts of the drama. But I'll allow it since their relationship is not a main part of the drama.
OST
As the kids will say, the OST is fire.
Next time I post, I'll talk about Love Game in Eastern Fantasy.