《Wave Makers》
The Taiwanese drama “Wave Makers” was directed by Junyang Lin, with Liying Jian and Yan Shiji serving as screenwriters. The cast includes Ying-Hsuan Hsieh, Ching Wang, Jian-Wei Huang, Liren Dai, Yen-Fei Chen, Peisha Lai, Gen-Yen Tsai, Chih-Chin Lee, Xue-Liang Bu, Huiru Pan, Gangda Pan, Weijie Hu, Huaiyun Zhan, Liling Liao, Jingtine Xia, and Yingxuan Gao.
The plot of the series centers around Wen-Fang Weng, who comes from a political family. After losing her re-election bid as a councilor, she joins the Public Party as the deputy director of the publicity department and spokesperson. Leading a team of publicity staff, she faces many challenges in upholding her ideals and beliefs while putting them into practice. At a critical moment before the presidential election, can this group of young staff members rise to the occasion and help their candidate surge ahead? “Wave Makers” will be available on Netflix starting from April 28, 2023.
By depicting the work of political staff, the audience can gain a deeper understanding of the collaboration and competition between different roles in elections, as well as how media and publicity are used on the political stage, which are essential elements in Taiwanese elections. Therefore, this drama is expected to showcase Taiwan’s unique election culture and political ecology to the world, and to help more people understand Taiwan.
The first episode begins with a campaign rally, which is a large-scale event that is often seen in actual elections. Although the actual election campaigns may be even more spectacular, the TV drama has done its best to depict it. The episode mainly takes place at the central headquarters of the New Power Party, including the introduction and setting of characters, daily strategy meetings, and PR and marketing responses to real-time events. In addition, it also shows the responsibilities of various personnel, such as photographers, video editors, designers, and social media managers. Although I have not worked in any political party, marketing operations have similarities across different industries, and in elections, the emphasis is on packaging the candidate, as the success of the election depends on their victory.
Overall, “Wave Makers” is a high-quality television series with no major issues. The performances of all the characters, including the main actors and supporting cast, are impressive, and there are no characters that are particularly disappointing. The dialogue, cinematography, and character development are all of a high standard, making it a television series that is definitely worth watching.
However, when it comes to the theme of elections, it falls short of the expectations that the had at the beginning. The entire series only focuses on a few issues from start to finish, while in reality, an election could be dominated by one issue for two weeks or more. The publicity department’s tactics for attack and defense are also not particularly effective, and if it were not for the explosive Zhao Changze incident, the candidate from the Just Party would not have been elected.
The writer may have wanted to avoid controversy by not including current issues that Taiwanese people are concerned about, such as housing prices, power shortages, inflation, and cross-strait relations. However, this is a pity as it missed the opportunity to show the real situation in Taiwan to overseas audiences. Nonetheless, at the end of the day, a drama is just a drama, and the production team decides the direction it takes. Perhaps they did not consider targeting a foreign audience when making the show.
These are just personal thoughts, but my expectation for both election-themed dramas was to get a glimpse of the election culture in different regions. Unfortunately, “queenmaker” did not meet my expectations, and in “Wave Makers” I only saw a part of it. Nevertheless, this does not affect the fact that it is a good drama. I offer these insights for everyone’s reference.
《Wave Makers》OST
最後更新日期： 2023/05/11