Genre Family, Drama Opening theme 五天几年 by Freya Lin (林凡) | Directed by Xu Fu Jun 徐輔軍 Original language(s) Mandarin | |
Starring Sonia Sui
James Wen
Chris Wang
Amanda Zhu Country of origin Republic of China (Taiwan) | ||
The Fierce Wife, or in Singapore, The Shrewd Wife,(Chinese: 犀利人妻; Tongyong Pinyin: Xi Li Ren Qi) is a 2010 Taiwanese drama starring Sonia Sui (隋棠), Wen Sheng Hao (溫昇豪), Chris Wang (王宥勝) and Amanda Zhu (朱芯儀). It was a TTV (Taiwan Television) (台視) and Sanlih E-Television (SET) (三立) co-presentation, and was directed by Xu Fu Jun (徐輔軍). The filming started in October 2010, and was first broadcast on 5 November 2010. It’s been on the air ever since.
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Before The Fierce Wife was produced, both Sonia Sui and Wen Sheng Hao had acted in two TTV productions, The Year of Happiness and Love (那一年的幸福時光) (2009) and PS Man (偷心大聖PS男) (2010). The Fierce Wife, The Year of Happiness and Love, and PS Man all feature youth idol.
On 9 June 2011, The Fierce Wife, described as “the most talked about TV show in Taiwan,” entered the Japanese market, renamed Does Marriage Guarantee Happiness (結婚って、幸せですか). It was broadcast on BS Nittele (BS日テレ) in Chinese with Japanese subtitles, every Thursday at 2300 in high definition (1080i), six times as high as in Taiwan. The whole TV series was divided into 34 episodes in Japan, and the DVDs in both Chinese and Japanese went on sale on 20 June 2012.
The TV series was a big hit in 2011. “Xiaosan” or “Little Third” (小三), “the other woman” in the story, has become a popular euphemism thanks to the show. Also, merchandise has sold well in Taiwan and abroad. The popular drama was nominated for a number of Golden Bell Awards (Taiwan’s Emmys). Some controversial parts of the story received heated discussion, and the producer Wang Pei Hua (王珮華) decided to make it into a feature movie set four years after the main female character Xie An Zhen (謝安真) get divorced. A press conference to announce the film adaptation The Fierce Wife: The Final Episode (犀利人妻最終回：幸福男‧不難), was held on 20 January 2012. The film was released on 17 August 2012.
Synopsis
Xie An Zhen was a happily devoted house wife to Wen Rui Fan, a handsome young man Vice President of a cosmetics company. Married for over 10 years, and with a 5-year old daughter (Wen Yu Meng) she literally lives to serve her family while letting her image and wardrobe fall through the cracks. One day her mother asks her to please take in her cousin (Li Wei En) who lives in the United States and was returning to Taiwan on her uncle's behalf. An Zhen accepts without hesitation since she always wants to help out others. An Zhen welcomes Wei En and her cat (Oliver) with open arms, even helping her get a job at Rui Fan's company. Soon after, Wei En starts seducing Rui Fan who reluctantly refuses her only to end up accepting her advances and filing for divorce from An Zhen. Feeling the guilt of doing what he did to An Zhen he leaves her the house, money, car, and Custody of Meng Meng. An Zhen going into a depression, finds herself learning how to live again from Lan Tian Wei, a handsome young rich guy who is a perfectionist and top Manager of the Car company where Rui Xuan (Rui Fan's sister and An Zhen's best friend) gets her a job. He teaches her that there is life after Wen Rui Fan and that she needs to get over it and focus on what really matters in life. Lan Tian Wei ends up falling in love with An Zhen although An Zhen is oblivious to it. Towards the end, as Rui Fan and Wei En's relationship crumbles due to him being jobless because of what he did to An Zhen and Wei En's childish ways their relationship goes sour and An Zhen is kind of falling for Lan Tian Wei. Rui Fan wants to reconcile with An zhen after him and wei en are officially over but An Zhen refuses and focusus on getting back Lan tian wei who leaves abroad to do a Wilderness challenge.