- Title: Love in Taipei
- IMDb: link
Adapted from Abigail Hing Wen’s 2020 novel, Love in Taipei is a coming of age story centering around introverted pre-med student Ever Wong (Ashley Liao) in the summer after her high school graduation being sent from Ohio to Taipei to take part in an exclusive summer cultural program which the students call Loveboat because of all the partying and hooking up that goes on during the summer.
The film will chronicle Ever breaking out of her shell with the help of her roommate (Chelsea Zhang), perusing a dancing dream with the help of her Aunt Shu (Cindy Cheung), and falling in love not once but twice (albeit in a far more chaste Disney-ish version than that of the original novel). While not initially pleased about making the journey to her parents’ home country, Ever connects with her heritage as well as discovering new parts of herself while growing into the woman she will become by the end of the film.
Love in Taipei is pretty much exactly what you’d expect, and there’s no surprise about which likely suitor (Ross Butler or Nico Hiraga) she will ultimately end up with. While the toned down version of Wen’s original story feels a bit too much Hallmark or Disney in tone, with the more complicated sexual and jealousy-related elements removed, there’s still a perfectly serviceable (if ultimately not all that memorable) story here about self-discovery which may interest younger female viewers in particular.
