On Children

First episode only: perhaps in Taiwan the mother's monstrous character resonates with people's experience, but it's hard not to feel she is comically one-dimensional. Everything is made in that slick professional style that has become so uniform, but the writing, acting and characterisation is very weak, and everything is dragged out in a completely unnecessary way, with a tediously high frequency of shots that linger on people's faces looking miserable and downhearted. One episode was plenty.

Comment based on the first two episodes: no doubt a theme worth psychological discussions - parents' taking power over their children - and one that Chinese (and probably Eastern Asians in general) can resonate with quite well. Basically comprehensible psychological depictions, but gaps in the plot and ill-organised metaphorical scenes render the result of its attempts to show a "stream-of-consciousness" more mystical than intriguing. The story can definitely be told better within 90 minutes.