Zu colorful, too loud, too garish and too overloaded – all this is the Taiwanese comedy series with the unwieldy title “Mom, Don’t Do That!”. And yet, no, because of that, it can bring a lot of joy to the viewer. Based on the book “My Mother’s Interracial Marriage” by author Chen Ming-min, the series tells the story of three women from three generations – the eponymous mother Wang Mei Mei (with predatory charm: Billie Wang) and her two daughters Ru-rong (Alyssa Chia) and Ruo-min (Chia-Yen Ko) – who have lost something: Mei Mei their partner, their daughters their father.
Their relationships are also complicated. Not just among themselves. Mei Mei tries an affair. Her daughter Ru-rong, author of numerous romance novels such as “Marry a Rich Man” or “Five Athletes and a Locker Room”, has no one but a lot of indignation for her supposedly naive mother. The baby Ruo-Min is dating the horrid ne’er-do-well Cha (Austin Lin), whom Ru-rong calls a bug and a parasite.
Three women and a bet
And so, out of an argument in which everyone outdoes each other with accusations that the other doesn’t have his life under control, the bet is born that the one who first successfully catches a man will finance her peace and quiet and an overseas trip paid for by the losers gets while the others are supposed to kneel repentant at their father’s grave.
Straight away, Mei Mei makes herself twenty years younger on a dating portal, while Ru-rong, who makes ends meet with a job as a teacher, first tries to sell her mother the story of a lesbian love. Only Ruo-Min bravely holds on to her smiling “parasite”, who soon lives as the fifth wheel in the Wang household.
Admittedly, our viewing experience of Taiwanese soap operas or comedy series is limited. In addition, “Mom, Don’t Do That!” had to be viewed in the original with subtitles – which, however, does not detract from the fun. On the contrary, it is quite possible that the series, seen through a kind of exoticism and language filter, is viewed with more leniency than one would allow an American or German production.
Because actually everything is initially unusual to exhausting: The speed of the war of words is reflected in the passing of the subtitles, while trick elements such as animated flowers, filter effects and slow motion are applied in such a thickness that one’s head should be spinning. At the same time, almost every gesture, every sentence, every facial expression is accompanied by a cartoon noise effect – horns, whinnies, whistles – as if the makers didn’t trust the humor in their work. The amazing thing is that all the technical stuff works here because it is subject to meticulous timing and makes abstract feelings and emotions visible like a kind of “augmented reality” instead of just concealing bad punch lines.
You can get thrown out of it. Anyone who gets involved will experience how Taiwan’s creative people deal with the topic of coping with grief. Because of course the deceased head of the household hovers over everything his family does.
Scenic spectacle with love lesson
However, the high density of effects can only work thanks to the acting performance and the interaction of Billie Wang, Alyssa Chia and Chia-Yen Ko. When Chia’s eyes dart back and forth in an irritated manner during an argument with Ko, as if three versions of her playing partner were standing in front of her, then one almost thinks the two really grew up together. But the whole thing is not a chamber play that only unfolds in the three ladies’ cluttered apartment. Mom, Don’t Do That! is a scenic extravaganza that has learned as much from Japanese anime, Chinese ghost movies and video games as it has from American cartoons and teen series. The surreptitious advertising moments for a Japanese mini-market chain can be overlooked because it really has a firm place in everyday life in Taiwan.
Apart from the consumerist delusion, the inclined audience also learns something about love: “I love you”, the older one explains to her little sister, “can have two meanings: either, I want you to do something for me. Or, I want to do something for you.” So what can the viewer do for this series? watching her.
Mom, Don’t Do That! runs on Netflix, but currently not in the German offer.
