Prince of Wolf 狼王子 Review

⭐️⭐️⭐️

The 2016 Taiwanese drama, starring Derek Chang as Du Ze-Ming, Amber An as Tian Mi-Mi, Samuel Gu as Jian Hao-Wei, and Lin Min-Chen as Chen Shu-Pei.



Brief summary: When Du Ze-Ming was a small child, his family lost him in the mountains while camping, but a merciful wolf pack adopted him and he survived. More than twenty years later, Tian Mi-Mi is an aspiring photographer and is drawn to the wolf legends that haunt Wolf Mountain. Seeking the wolves and legendary places on that mountain, Mi-Mi stumbles across Ze-Ming, a young man who apparently knows his way around the woods, but not around people! What should she do about this boy who seems to only belong in the narrow place between civil society and an almost savage upbringing?



The concept for this drama was a good idea. The Tarzan-like theme isn’t one that goes out of style. However, it wasn’t executed as well as it could have been. Most of that could be blamed on the poor quality of production, and occasionally the acting. Taiwan is still a little behind the wave when it comes to TV dramas, but I think we can still appreciate all the efforts to make this drama better.



The music influence was a little too great. One bad thing happens, and the music seizes the opportunity to exaggerate. This is characteristic of older American melodramas, hardly a unique technique, but it can appear to fall short of the trend when compared to the more contemporary style of tv dramas. I found it to be a little distracting, but I didn’t let it keep me from finishing the show.



I was impressed with the skill of the male lead, Derek Chang. He played the role well, and somewhat redeemed all that which I found tedious in the plot and production. Good job! 👌🏻



There seemed to be a lot of structure around honesty as a moral concept. Secrets and lies were the driving force behind the antagonism. There wasn’t any peace until the truth came out, however dramatic it did so.



I wasn’t expecting the ending to happen like it did. The final episode, particularly the first 27 minutes, really threw me for a loop. Don’t worry, just get past that first half hour. It’s not what you think.



“Prince of Wolf” could have been better if it were a little less melodramatic, but considering the low budget Taiwanese dramas are already limited to, the show wasn’t half bad.