Taiwan's romantic antics sweep through mainland

The latest episodes of the Taiwanese romantic TV drama "In Time with You" have sparked a romantic storm sweeping through the Chinese mainland. This renewed love for on-screen romance comes not long after the box office-hit "You Are the Apple of My Eye" scooped up a number of Chinese film awards, such as the Asian Film Awards, the Hong Kong Film Awards and Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards, in early 2012

"In Time with You" explores the age-old storyline of love and friendship, what happens when the two meet or intertwine, and whether or not old friends can eventually become lovers. The romantic TV drama is currently keeping its fingers crossed for Taiwan's Golden Bell Award nominations, hoping to be among the chosen ones in eight dominant categories, including those of best actor, best actress and best screenplay.

The philosophical layers beneath the show's real-life settings have also resonated well with mainland audiences, who share the same cultural roots as their cross-Straits compatriots do.

Additionally, the popular TV show has lent a helping hand to Hunan Satellite TV Station by restoring the station's long-coveted top spot on the mainland's prime time viewer ratings listing (after its initial launch).

Chinese newspaper Today Morning Express complimented the series for being "an ethereal on-screen piece of art that appropriately represents the Taipei ambience without falling into over-emotional over-acting in an over-intensified commercial atmosphere".

However, when the critics turn towards the mainland's own cultural productions, their facial expressions seem to change quite a bit-upside down, with a frown.

Engulfed by an increasing number of commercialized and superficial productions that have seemingly illogical plots and simply want to make a quick buck, mainlanders are growing more critical of the local entertainment market. The mainland market is most definitely inferior to that of Taiwan, which has so far done a far better job at portraying the distinctiveness and subtlety of Chinese culture.

Huang Shixian, the famous film critic and veteran professor with the Beijing Film Academy, once scathingly criticized the mainland market's frantic pursuit of box office cash and blamed its insiders' for having too little concern over cultural values.

He dubbed the phenomenon cultural anemia and severely condemned the widely-acclaimed blockbuster "Let the Bullets Fly".

"That film is ludicrous enough to take out all the historic background and turn a tragic novel into a bandit spree," Huang said, "Overwhelmed by commercialism, it has trampled the original works and the spiritual values under the lure of entertaining demand, represented by sensual pleasure and without any regard for history or culture."

Nevertheless, that bandit thriller has netted over 600 million yuan (US$95.12 million) since its premiere at the end of 2010 and received various academic awards, including the heavyweight Asian Film Awards and Golden Horse Awards.

Cultural critics however rarely buy into the notion of seemingly illustrious achievements.

"I don't like much of the mainland movies, which can only be described in one word: Huge." Taiwan entertainment doyenne Li Lieh said.

"Despite the huge investments and stellar casts, they have absolutely nothing to impress the audience with," she said, "The audience will eventually grow tired of that ever-continuous cycle."

Based on her decades-long acting career, Li said that the content of a story is the major factor which drives the audience's true joy. She insisted that if you have a good script, you're half-way there already. A script and screenplay can make or break any on-screen production.