Fragrance of The First Flower Season 1 Thoughts
I was reminded of this show when I saw that Enno Cheng had a new song last week - and it had a cover with the two main characters of the first season of Fragrance of the First Flower, released in 2021. It turns out that season 2 just premiered, and it's premiering both on GagaOO Lala as well as Netflix! I remember signing up for a free trial years ago when the show came out, as I was intrigued by how good Taiwanese queer dramas were getting - and I wasn't disappointed then, and I'm not when I rewatched it again this weekend.
Source: Portico Media Centre. Ting-Ting on the left, and Yi-Ming on the right. The kid in the centre is Yi-Ming's son, Xiao Zhe.
It's a very short series - 6 episodes, at roughly about 15-20 minutes for each episode here. The length is definitely due to their smaller budget, but they did well with what they had. It's almost a character study of the main character, Yi-Ming, and her realization that her present situation with her husband and child did not live up to her expectations from her high school days.
A quick summary of the show, if you're curious and have no idea what's it about: Yi-Ming, the titular character of the show, gave up her father's dreams of her leaving Taiwan to study in Canada, after she met her husband and got married. She has a child, and, she now has everything she has 'said' she wanted in high school. Ting-Ting, her high school volleyball teammate, has an obvious crush on her until their reconciliation when they met at a mutual friend's wedding. A short affair occurs, and this ignites something in Yi-Ming.
Now, the plot of the story is nothing too special, I would say. It's a very understated show - and I only use that word because Netflix categorized it as so, and I think I actually do agree with that label. It's a very quiet show, with only music coming up occasionally - they do tend to reuse the theme song for a lot of the scenes, but it's mainly focused on the quiet moments the characters have with each other.
I like this show a fair bit, and it's a nice change from watching Thai GLs, which, if I could make a comparison, would be a closer genre to Spanish telenovelas. I'm not really aware of how the Taiwanese WLW scene looks, aside from the Who'll Stop the Rain movie, which is also coincidentally another understated-like movie.
The only nitpick that I have would be that I do think Ting-Ting can act a little immaturely, a characteristic of her that seems to maintain from high school up until the present. She has a very upbeat type of personality, but in certain scenes I do feel like she can be too impulsive when it came to Yi-Ming (although I guess you could say it's all about how Yi-Ming is the only one that brings out this side of her etc.) - which does get on my nerves just a tiny bit. This does improve in the second season though, as it seems like Ting-Ting had some character growth during the time skip that the show had between the seasons.
After rewatching the first season (since it's so short anyways, and I wanted to refresh my mind), I went ahead and watched the two episodes of the 2nd season, and I think it's pretty interesting to see the topics they're trying to touch on. It seems like they're now delving deeper into Yi-Ming's acceptance of her sexuality and her new reality - one that includes courting Ting-Ting and becoming comfortable with having a girlfriend. Although this is legally accepted in Taiwan, the community she belongs to can still frown upon queer relationships.
I'm looking forward to seeing how this one goes! New episodes for the 2nd season will be releasing every Tuesday :) Something else to distract me while I wait for the new Severance episodes!
Ah! Quick note that it seems like the first season of the show is free for now on GagaOOLala too (you'll need to sign up for an account).
[25/100] for #100DaysToOffload