Yong Jiu Grocery Store (2019)

Nostalgic

This was such a great little drama. I had never heard about it before and I'm glad I came across it.

The drama features good acting, story, cinematography, and OST which pairs well with the story. The story is not told lineally and uses flashbacks as one of its main storytelling devices. I greatly enjoyed it in this show because all the regulars got a backstory and it showed how characters developed into who they were in the present. The ones who did not get a fully fleshed out background story, still received a little attention in the future. This was one of my favorite things as it really helped me care about each and every one of them. Even the most hateful one had my sympathy, for about 2 seconds, but still had it.

It was also interesting for me to see similarities in the way the characters grew up, going to the corner store, getting cheap candy and thinking it was the best, and playing in the streets with friends. The traveling grocery van Jun Long came up with is especially nostalgic. It brought back memories of "la guaguita del pan" from my childhood. Its main product was the bakery bread, but it was like a traveling grocery store. We would all run to the corner while yelling, "we we we", so it would stop when we wanted to buy something. The prerecorded message was similar too.

My main complaints are that, even though I enjoyed the flashbacks, they repeated some of them one too many times, some closures were half arsed, and that extra scene after "the ending" was unnecessary. Especially, if there is no season 2, even almost 5 years later.

Leia Mais

Simple yet realistic

“Sometimes, I feel that each and every one of us is like a wandering planet. Only because we both got lost were we able to meet.”
I guess it’s a fate that our male lead went back to his childhood place to continue running his grandfather’s store.
This story is about opening and closing chapter of your life. Opening for new memories and remembering what it was like going back to your childhood place, closing for the wounds to heal, for the words left unsaid and for the questions left unanswered.
The place itself feels like us viewers(in my opinion) as we can witness the story from the grandfather’s life to the grandson. The store itself watched the people as they come and go of this countryside.
The relationships of our main lead to all the people in the town is superb. They are taking care of each other, specially our elders to him, guiding him and explaining to him what to do for the store. I love how the elders remind him of the memories he had lost and how simple and nice the life at the countryside. We can also in the first five episodes the struggle of our male lead to make decisions that will affect the rest of his life. And overall, the people at the town feels like a one whole family as they know each other very well.
The acting for this drama is good but needs improvement, sometimes I don’t get the emotion of each characters. I don’t feel the chemistry of the two main leads sometimes. But the acting of the people who are portraying the grandfather’s life is on point. As being said, that is the one who standout for me in this drama.
The OST in this drama is decent as well as the BGM. And the male lead can sing too! I love his voice when he was singing in this drama. (may be a spoiler or not)
If you want a healing drama again, then this is a nice rewatch for you. It’s light and heavy at the same but it will give you the healing feeling that we are all looking for when we are feeling down. So for me, whenever I feel like that I’m sure I’ll pick this drama for a rewatch.

Overall 9/10 the actings can be improved but the story is what I love the most is the friendship of the boys in this drama. It is also lesson that we can all learn and remember. The forgiveness that we are asking for will be given to us at the right time. The healing after asking for forgiveness is a satisfaction that we can all have watching this drama.

Leia Mais

Ok, I am a sucker for feel-good Taiwanese dramas that center around the joys and challenges of family reunions. Yong Jiu offers rich storytelling in its explorations of city v. country life, the building of community, and the impacts of generational trauma. This drama delivers with amazing writing, beautiful cinematography, the perfect soundtrack, and a cast that really made me believe in and root for each of the characters. Its storyline is based off a comic of the same name.

This series has a slightly episodic format, with each episode (sort of) spotlighting one family/one individual. I enjoyed seeing the parallels and the contrasts between different generations and different families - helping me to reflect on my own personal life. By the midway point of the series, I really felt like a part of the community. Their depiction of Taiwan as well is fantastic - as actors easily flow between Taiwanese and Mandarin, and the script acknowledges current issues in the country (racism/xenophobia, gentrification, aging population).

However, the ensemble cast in multiple generations also becomes a downfall - early on and even later in the series, it can be easily to lose track of who is whose younger counterpart. For a 10 episode series, there was a lot packed in. Secondly, the pacing felt a little uneven. While the first 5 episodes are very slice-of-life, the next 5 episodes are much more drama heavy-hitters. Even then, I personally was there for the ride and did not mind the change in pace.

And without giving anything away - I was blown away by Roy Chiu's presence in this drama and would love to see a season 2!

Leia Mais

Genuine slice of life drama without to much additives

This drama, is more drama less romance and allot of slices of life coming together true the good, the bad and the day to day life.

In this drama we re invited in to the stories of two non consecutive generations of friends and lovers in the countryside showing friendship that has lasted generations and while life may change over time the strong friendship will remain. The drama incorporates allot of different types of (mis)fortunes but seemed to find a way to value the simple in life without falling for cliches like what doesn't kill makes you stronger but rather I get by with the help of my friends... And actually admitting that all things in life have expiration dates including love.... This drama will probably make you feel a range of emotions all from hate, loss, sorrow and fluff.... but not to much of anything which is why it gets an 8.5 and not a 10.

To be clear there is ALLOT of drama, allot of potential cliches made real by breaking them and allot of everything... and more stuff you would not imagine to see here uncovered slowly, slowly as the drama progresses. All the characters are well written, not all are lovely but non are annoying or unnecessary for the plot and though we get to see allot of very different life stories it is actually pretty cool to see how they all come together in this one little grocery store.

To be honest I was looking for something adapted from a Taiwanese Menua , I did not know what to expect, this was definitely not it but I am happy I watched it.

Leia Mais