Stepmother Xu Duoduo aka The Blended Family is a contemporary series that was shot and set in Xiamen, China. The story centres around Xu Duoduo (Tong Yao), a young television drama screenplay writer who meets plastic surgeon Wen Shuping (Wang Zhifei) in a series of amusing encounters before eventually falling in love and marrying the much older man.
Unfortunately, Wen Shuping comes with a lot of baggage. He is a divorcee who has twin daughters (Liu Zhenjun), one of whom lives with him and the other lives with his ex-wife Song Xiaomin (Cao Yanyan). Wen Shuping also has a stepmother of his own, Wang Qiurong (Liang Danni), who also lives with him. His ex-wife has also remarried and is also a stepmother to a difficult young son Xia Tian (Hu Jianxing), who is her current husband’s (Zhang Yeshi) son by his previous wife. Although Song Xiaomin is no longer married to Wen Shuping, she uses her twin daughters as her reason for regularly interfering into Wen Shuping’s affairs.
Xu Duoduo is an optimistic and good natured TV drama scriptwriter. She lost both her parents two years before we meet her in the drama series and has formed a surrogate family with her producer and close friend Qian Jinyu (Zhao Yue). Qian Jinyu treats Xu Duoduo like a younger sister and can be overprotective of her. The two are very different in personalities with Xu Duoduo placing more emphasis on love and familial ties and Qian Jinyu placing more emphasis on money. Perhaps because of this, they work very well together.
While there are three different stepmothers who come from different age groups and circumstances in this series, this isn’t a series that is trying to make any grand statements about stepmothers. It doesn’t compare or judge the different styles of parenting stepchildren. Instead, it prefers to focus on the idea that time, sincerity and love will eventually bring sensible people together. This series doesn't want to be a serious or heavy watch and the tone is light even when they touch on more serious issues. It is closer in nature to a classic romantic comedy except that they have more characters and some elements that we see more often in family dramas.
Lighting is very bright and flat in the series but that's normal for series of this nature and budget in China. Production values are decent for a series that doesn't have big names. This was several years before Tong Yao did Like a River Flows and Nothing But Thirty where she won major TV awards for. Pacing is pretty good for the most part. Characters and their progression are also consistent to the setup and the world the drama is set in which is good because they often mess that up in Chinese language drama series.
The cast in this series is in general good to competent. I quite enjoyed watching Cao Yanyan even though she wasn't a very likeable character. Liu Zhenjun who played both twins also did a pretty good job differentiating between the two.
Tong Yao and Wang Zhifei
are fantastic together and although they have a large age gap, they make for a very
convincing couple. They are the biggest reasons why this series is so watchable
because pretty much all their scenes together are very fun or comfortable to watch.
They also have a number of memorable scenes together too. I particularly love scenes
like when they do a dine and dash [EP 11 ] or when she read out a
“self-criticism” to Wen Shuping [EP 18/19] etc.
Wang Zhifei was also very good. Wen Shuping was
supposed to be much older than Xu Duoduo and had been through more in life.
However, Xu Duoduo brings out the boyish and playful side of this character.
Wang Zhifei’s Wen Shuping felt dependable and worldly but also had an easy charm
and a twinkle in his eye especially when he and Xu Duoduo are together. He also has some nice lines where he articulates some nice insights about life which is a nice touch because it emphasises that he's a dependable man who can give Xu Duoduo the sense of security that she is looking for.
This series is by no means a must watch but I am of the opinion
that if you’re a Tong Yao fan, you don’t have a reason not to at the very
least try this series. She’s marvellous in this series. My only quibble is that
I don’t like some of the clothes they chose for this character later in the
series but it’s a minor quibble. If you’re not a Tong Yao fan, you might still
enjoy this series. It’s a light and easy watch which will fit in quite well
between heavy series.
Tong Yao is very natural
in this series. She was almost certainly directed to go bigger in this series because
she’s more animated than she usually is but she still made it work. She was so
natural that at moments I found myself wondering if this is her true nature in
real life because it didn't feel like she was acting at all. It's a refreshing change for those who've only watched her in the last few years. If anyone who has only
watched her in the last few series wondered if she can do comedy, well,
wonder no more. She can and she’s very likeable too. For example, in the scene
when she first meets her brother-in-law in the mall [EP 6], her comic
timing is on point.
P.S.
For those who like trivia. This isn’t the
first time that Tong Yao and Wan Zhifei have worked together. They were also in
Life of Tiger and Dragon (龙虎人生) which I’ve yet to watch so I don’t
know if they have any scenes together. Also, the director for this drama is Lin
Ke (林柯) with whom she also worked with on
A Unique Militiaman (民兵葛二蛋).
(For links to interviews & other reviews of Tong Yao's work, please CLICK ME)
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