Sound of Colors (2006)

Read this if you're here for Wallace

Here we go: the first and only review for this long-forgotten, dust-covered idol drama from the days when Ruby Lin and Wallace Huo were still in their 20s and probably didn't imagine they'd end up married with a daughter ten years down the road.

I was compelled to watch this drama solely for Wallace Huo, I have no qualms in admitting that. I've watched almost everything he's been in and I'm particularly interested in the less popular dramas he shot during his "idol" days. There is no English subbed version of this that I know of, so be prepared to put whatever Mandarin you know to use, make use of Google Lens and skip a lot of the secondary couple's subplot involving the main leads' siblings which looked boring af anyway. It's a simple enough story so it won't be hard to understand at least 80% of what's happening.

That's still not 100%, so I say that as a caveat to this review. If you're completely into Wallace and/or Ruby, of course this is worth a watch. It's a bit of a curiosity item for the sole reason that these two ended up together in real life. If you don't already have a deep interest in either celebrity, skip it entirely. The drama is a mixed bag leaning towards a hot mess.

The Positive:
There really is a powerful love story at the core of this drama. When distilling the core of the story structure, it's probably one of the most beautiful love stories I've ever come across because of the poetic nature of it, despite the extremely sad and dragged out ending. Wallace was, as expected, pure eye candy--long, blond, crazy hair notwithstanding--and it's hard to look away if you're particularly entranced by his physical beauty.

The Bad:
Pretty much everything else? Wallace Huo got some pretty terrible dubbing in this which made the audio mixing sound crappy in parts. This is explained because despite the two leads being from Taiwan, it was a Mainland-Taiwan co-production, and it was actually shot in Nanjing, which explained why I was puzzled all the way through because the city certainly did not look or feel like Taipei.
Ruby Lin is adequate in the role but her one-note acting gets tiring really fast, especially because there's not a lot you can do with a blind character who'll be staring into space like a deer caught in the headlights all the time, not unless you possess superb acting skills. I didn't find her convincing in the role, but passable. Wallace is a little green in his role, but because he's got a natural charm to him, he manages to bring the swoon-worthy quality that he's known for.

The Ugly (and really Ugly at that):
A scene depicting an injured animal which was done in a way that was unnecessarily graphic really threw me off. There's also a scene where Wallace's character slaps a female (his best friend from childhood) which I found to be completely unacceptable, even accounting for the year this was shot (2005) and the circumstances of the scene. Already his character was pretty awful to this girl only to add insult to injury. Nothing justifies hitting a woman in anger. Nothing. The drama did not address this properly which is an indictment of Taiwanese society in the mid-2000s and I hope it's something that has changed for the positive.

There are two theme songs that are repeated ad nauseam throughout the entire drama. It's a short drama, but it still became incredibly repetitive, especially considering the drama could have easily been 5 episodes shorter.
All in all I have very mixed feelings towards this. It was worth a watch for me in particular, but unless you're a diehard Wallace Huo fan with loads of patience and endless curiosity, I wouldn't give it the time of day. It’s the sort of drama that relies extensively on endless convenient coincidences and leaves many plot holes unaddressed so you need to watch it with your brain turned off.

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