Singapore’s Mediacorp and Taiwan’s Eightgeman start shooting their first drama co-pro – All Is Well – in January 2019, with two separate but connected 20-episode story lines unfolding across the two countries.
All Is Well hinges upon the real-life hacking of ATMs across Taiwan in 2016. Parallel plots, both sparked by the same cyber-crime that occurs in the first episode of each series, play out in the two countries, where events diverge in dramatically different directions.
Ultimately, the 40-part drama is an exercise in collaboration born of a new regional creative order bonding over shared Chinese culture.
Describing the series as a “thrilling tale of murder, mystery and mayhem”, veteran Taiwanese director/producer, Wang Shaudi (Q Series, A Boy Named Flora A), says the drama addresses family ethics and hope for the next generation as well as modern challenges to Chinese culture.
“The world is getting smaller especially when humans are creating more rubbish. We have to think of a way to face the future... there are a lot of challenges to our Chinese culture,” Wang says.
Mediacorp describes the All Is Well project as part its effort to engage with “the extended creative ecosystem beyond the shores of Singapore”. Production in Singapore will be spearheaded by senior executive producer Leong Lye Lin (Reach for the Skies).
In Taiwan, where Taiwan Television (TTV) will air the show from late-August 2019, the approach is rooted in an effort to draw on common backgrounds, common culture, and the will to highlight common social issues.
“From my point of view, no matter what we are doing, we are not doing for ourselves, it’s not about us. It’s about people, it’s about life,” she says.
Wang says crafting an original script split between Taiwan and Singapore was All Is Well’s biggest challenge.
“We had to think how to separate the story line into two but still keep the connection,” she says, adding: “I will say this is the most difficult script ever”. Now on script revision five, Wang says there are likely to be...
Singapore’s Mediacorp and Taiwan’s Eightgeman start shooting their first drama co-pro – All Is Well – in January 2019, with two separate but connected 20-episode story lines unfolding across the two countries.
All Is Well hinges upon the real-life hacking of ATMs across Taiwan in 2016. Parallel plots, both sparked by the same cyber-crime that occurs in the first episode of each series, play out in the two countries, where events diverge in dramatically different directions.
Ultimately, the 40-part drama is an exercise in collaboration born of a new regional creative order bonding over shared Chinese culture.
Describing the series as a “thrilling tale of murder, mystery and mayhem”, veteran Taiwanese director/producer, Wang Shaudi (Q Series, A Boy Named Flora A), says the drama addresses family ethics and hope for the next generation as well as modern challenges to Chinese culture.
“The world is getting smaller especially when humans are creating more rubbish. We have to think of a way to face the future... there are a lot of challenges to our Chinese culture,” Wang says.
Mediacorp describes the All Is Well project as part its effort to engage with “the extended creative ecosystem beyond the shores of Singapore”. Production in Singapore will be spearheaded by senior executive producer Leong Lye Lin (Reach for the Skies).
In Taiwan, where Taiwan Television (TTV) will air the show from late-August 2019, the approach is rooted in an effort to draw on common backgrounds, common culture, and the will to highlight common social issues.
“From my point of view, no matter what we are doing, we are not doing for ourselves, it’s not about us. It’s about people, it’s about life,” she says.
Wang says crafting an original script split between Taiwan and Singapore was All Is Well’s biggest challenge.
“We had to think how to separate the story line into two but still keep the connection,” she says, adding: “I will say this is the most difficult script ever”. Now on script revision five, Wang says there are likely to be more.
Wang is well aware of the impact of digital/social media on the viewing environment and says filmmakers have to think of the new media environment.
“The future environment for airing programmes is different,” she says. “Nowadays people watch content through mobile phones, or record... you don’t make TV for people to come home to for a certain time,” she says, adding that “the good thing is that people are interacting, discussing ideas online”.
All 40 episodes of the high-concept drama – starring Blue Lan, Joanne Tseng, Elvin Ng and Desmond Tan – will be available on Mediacorp’s streaming platform Toggle. The 20 Singapore episodes will be stripped Mondays to Fridays on Mediacorp’s Chinese Channel 8 at 9pm from late-August 2019, followed by the Taiwan series on Channel U at 10pm on the same nights. Rights are shared by Mediacorp and Taiwan Television.
Published on ContentAsia's eNewsletter, 11 December 2018 - 6 January 2019