Taiwan Will Finally Air War Drama Coming Home with Vic Zhou and Janine Chang

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In the limited Russian Roulette of Taiwan actor and actress pairings, Vic Zhou and Janine Chang doing two dramas together already not that surprising. I loved both their characters in Black & White, and was rather disappointed they didn’t have even a what-if love line. A few years ago Zai Zai and Janine filmed Coming Home, a Taiwan-Mainland China collaboration war drama set during the latter days of World War II. The drama is gritty and intense, with a huge push for authenticity with the characters in Taiwan speaking both Taiwanese and Japanese (since it was nearing 50 years of Japanese occupation by then), and even having language barriers when the Taiwanese soldiers were conscripted by the Japanese to fight in Mainland China against the KMT Chinese army. Zai Zai plays a doctor who volunteers to join the Japanese army when his older brother is conscripted to fight, in part to avoid dealing with the fact that he is in love with said brother’s fiancée played by Janine (and she also loves Zai Zai). After he returns home from the war, he gets accused by the KMT of being a spy for Japan having served in the Japanese army. Great – the guy can’t win either way. The drama has already aired in China but I didn’t watch because it was fully dubbed in Mandarin. The original voices required Zai Zai and Janine to speak their dialogues in Taiwanese and Japanese as necessary, and I felt like forced dubbing for this drama would destroy its cultural importance. The drama is set to air in Taiwan this month without dubbing and I’ll check it out then. Or maybe not, war stories really are not my cup of tea. Zai Zai and Janine have been out promoting the drama in Taiwan and they are looking so cute together. The drama airs daily on FTV after the Lunar New Year holiday.

Previews for Coming Home:

Comments

Taiwan Will Finally Air War Drama Coming Home with Vic Zhou and Janine Chang — 15 Comments

  3. wow…I thought this drama was dead since I’ve heard absolutelt nothing about it in so long…wasn’t it supposed to air last summer?

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  4. I’m not a big fan of war dramas as its depressing.. As much as I want to see Vic act again I might skip. Unless eng subs are available

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  9. I know it! He really is the young Tony. It’s too bad that he and janine don’t end up together in real love life. they look just a perfect match.

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  11. Did anyone like watching this series? IMO the series itself could be better written. Despite the good acting from various actors, there are too many annoying characters, esp the female ones, which are often meek or whiny, except for Vic’s traitorous, gold-digging aunt. Janine’s character doesn’t have much of a character development. Long suffering and sweet from beginning to end. Vic’s younger brother, Jie (Lego Li), is often annoying and overwhelmingly impetuous until nearly the end of the series. Vic’s love interest, Wen, is a bit too childish for too many episodes and has or is dubbed with a very child-like voice. Her character isn’t particularly interesting either. Some of her major good points are her significant other (Vic Z) and her father (Wang Xueqi). The series has decent direction and production values. But there’s too much drawn-out tear jerking melodrama, which makes the series repetitive at times (made me do something else instead of watching at times). It’s not easy to be or stay drawn to the war plots also.

    Did Lego Li ever portray a likeable character? I’ve never seen him in anything before. Not particularly fond of his acting actually.
    The actresses did a reasonably good job, but I still skipped scenes.

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