{ "id": "epy1q90918", "slug": "islanders", "title": "Islanders (亲密之海)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series", "label": "Series and fictional screen worlds", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_international_serials", "label": "International serial drama and telenovelas", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_international_serials" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia", "label": "East Asian drama series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.hong_kong_taiwan_drama", "label": "Hong Kong and Taiwanese serial drama", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.hong_kong_taiwan_drama" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_international_serials", "label": "China · 2021 and later: International serial drama and telenovelas", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_international_serials", "path": [ { "id": "geo.chn", "label": "China", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021", "label": "China · 2021 and later", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series", "label": "Series and fictional screen worlds", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_international_serials", "label": "International serial drama and telenovelas", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_international_serials" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Islanders (亲密之海) is a 2025 Taiwanese drama series adapted from Hu Ching-fang's novel Archipelago (群島), directed by Ler Jiyuan and Tsai Po-chang, starring Christopher Lee, Wu Kang-ren, Rima Zeidan, and Yu Tzu-yu; 7 episodes, premiered July 18, 2025 on CATCHPLAY+, with ten Golden Bell Award nominations.", "snippet": "Islanders (亲密之海) is a 2025 Taiwanese drama series adapted from Hu Ching-fang's novel Archipelago (群島), directed by Ler Jiyuan and Tsai Po-chang, starring Christopher Lee, Wu Kang-ren, Rima Zeidan, and Yu Tzu-yu; 7 episodes, premiered July 18, 2025 on CATCHPLAY+, with ten Golden Bell Award nominations.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.hong_kong_taiwan_drama", "markdown": "# Islanders (亲密之海)\n\n**Islanders** (亲密之海) is a 2025 Taiwanese romance drama television series adapted from the writer Hu Ching-fang's (胡晴舫) novel *Archipelago* (《群岛》), co-directed by the Singaporean director Ler Jiyuan (吕吉元) and the theater director Tsai Po-chang (蔡柏璋), and starring [Christopher Lee](https://www.edgepedia.org/christopher-lee) (李铭顺), Wu Kang-ren (吴慷仁), Rima Zeidan (瑞玛席丹), and Yu Tzu-yu (于子育).[1](https://edsays.catchplay.com/tw/article-4895-ofqoisls) Its seven episodes follow the intertwined romantic and sexual relationships of four urban characters across generations, set against the rise of social media in 2010s Taiwan.[1](https://edsays.catchplay.com/tw/article-4895-ofqoisls) • [2](https://tvcat.cc/vod-detail/2025791018)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Native title | 亲密之海; English title Islanders; also known as 群岛[2](https://tvcat.cc/vod-detail/2025791018) |\n| Source | Adapted from Hu Ching-fang's novel *Archipelago* (《群岛》)[1](https://edsays.catchplay.com/tw/article-4895-ofqoisls) |\n| Directors | Ler Jiyuan (吕吉元) and Tsai Po-chang (蔡柏璋); screenplay by Tsai Po-chang[1](https://edsays.catchplay.com/tw/article-4895-ofqoisls) • [2](https://tvcat.cc/vod-detail/2025791018) |\n| Format | 7 episodes, roughly 41 to 50 minutes each; produced over four years[3](https://www.linetv.tw/drama/17649) • [4](https://news.now.com/home/entertainment/player?home=1&newsId=612398) |\n| Premiere | July 18, 2025 on CATCHPLAY+ (Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore); first two episodes screened April 13, 2025 at the Golden Horse Fantastic Film Festival[1](https://edsays.catchplay.com/tw/article-4895-ofqoisls) • [2](https://tvcat.cc/vod-detail/2025791018) |\n| Main cast | Christopher Lee, Wu Kang-ren, Rima Zeidan, Yu Tzu-yu, Yusuke Fukuchi[5](https://www.primevideo.com/-/zh_TW/detail/0Q5HX3TZ1QL4IT1WNDPPG13J0H?tr=us) |\n| Recognition | Ten nominations at the 61st Golden Bell Awards; selected for the 2025 New York Asian Film Festival[3](https://www.linetv.tw/drama/17649) • [6](https://www.marieclaire.com.tw/entertainment/tvshow/87255) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Premise\n\nThe story centers on Li Hsien-hung (李宪宏), played by Christopher Lee, a successful cultural-enterprise chairman who is married with two children, maintains a long-term affair with his business partner Hsiao-wen (晓雯, Yu Tzu-yu), and begins a passionate relationship with the much younger Lin Li-lien (林莉莲, Rima Zeidan), a free-spirited woman who keeps him at arm's length.[5](https://www.primevideo.com/-/zh_TW/detail/0Q5HX3TZ1QL4IT1WNDPPG13J0H?tr=us) • [7](https://news.tvbs.com.tw/entertainment/drama/2933630) His personal assistant Chen Han-jung (陈汉荣, Wu Kang-ren), who has secretly loved him since their student days, waits at his side throughout.[5](https://www.primevideo.com/-/zh_TW/detail/0Q5HX3TZ1QL4IT1WNDPPG13J0H?tr=us) • [4](https://news.now.com/home/entertainment/player?home=1&newsId=612398)\n\nThe narrative spans 2003 to 2013. In 2003 Chen Han-jung meets his first love at school and devotes himself to Li Hsien-hung; a decade later Li has shifted his business focus and drifted from his earlier ideals. In 2013 Taiwan faces sharp social division, and generational rifts, amplified by social media, drive a new wave of conflict.[2](https://tvcat.cc/vod-detail/2025791018) A dinner-table remark by Li triggers a generational dispute and a social-media pile-on that costs him his standing, and he must maneuver public opinion to regain his voice while facing a major business decision and escalating conflicts among lovers and family.[5](https://www.primevideo.com/-/zh_TW/detail/0Q5HX3TZ1QL4IT1WNDPPG13J0H?tr=us)\n\nThe title's \"sea\" stands for the distance between people: each person is an island, watching the others but unable to truly connect, a condition the series treats as intensified by the internet.[4](https://news.now.com/home/entertainment/player?home=1&newsId=612398) The production describes the show as exploring struggles among desire, love, loneliness, and control through four characters' different emotional needs.[7](https://news.tvbs.com.tw/entertainment/drama/2933630)\n\n### Cast and characters\n\n- **Christopher Lee (李铭顺)** as Li Hsien-hung, 50, chairman of a cultural-enterprise group, outwardly calm and self-possessed but tormented by desires he cannot control; he holds a wife and a girlfriend at the same time.[6](https://www.marieclaire.com.tw/entertainment/tvshow/87255)\n- **Wu Kang-ren (吴慷仁)** as Chen Han-jung (阿荣), Li's assistant, who has loved him since school and later becomes his closest aide.[4](https://news.now.com/home/entertainment/player?home=1&newsId=612398) • [10](https://www.mirrormedia.mg/story/20250710insight007)\n- **Rima Zeidan (瑞玛席丹)** as Lin Li-lien, glamorous on Facebook yet lonely, drifting in and out of intimacy, a figure the synopsis calls a portrait of the younger generation.[2](https://tvcat.cc/vod-detail/2025791018)\n- **Yu Tzu-yu (于子育)** as Hsiao-wen, Li's general manager and long-term lover; in the finale, after 25 years of quiet devotion, she ends the relationship by telling him \"I don't love you anymore.\"[13](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/202508040117.aspx)\n- **Yusuke Fukuchi (福地祐介)** as Shih-chieh (世杰), the university senior Li-lien admires, whose reunion with her inflames Li's jealousy.[5](https://www.primevideo.com/-/zh_TW/detail/0Q5HX3TZ1QL4IT1WNDPPG13J0H?tr=us)\n\nThe supporting cast includes Tsai Ken-yen (蔡亘晏) as news anchor Hung Li-fang, Lee Chih-cheng (李至正), Lee Shao-chieh (李劭婕), Hu Wei-chieh (胡玮杰), Huang Hsiang-ting (黄湘婷), and Chang Chia-lun (张家伦) as Tsung-te, a classmate of Li-lien.[5](https://www.primevideo.com/-/zh_TW/detail/0Q5HX3TZ1QL4IT1WNDPPG13J0H?tr=us) • [9](https://meet.eslite.com/tw/tc/article/202507170002)\n\n## Production\n\nThe adaptation originated with producer and screenwriter Wu Tsung-yu (吴宗祐), who raised the idea with Hu Ching-fang when she was chairperson of the Taiwan Creative Content Agency promoting diversification of literary IP.[8](https://www.mirrormedia.mg/story/amp/20250710insight005) The series was produced by CATCHPLAY's Innersync Films (影响原创影视) with co-production credit to Hsin Hsi Enterprise (鑫囍创业), and took four years to make, with location shooting in Taipei, Hualien, New York, and Alaska.[1](https://edsays.catchplay.com/tw/article-4895-ofqoisls) • [4](https://news.now.com/home/entertainment/player?home=1&newsId=612398)\n\nFor Tsai Po-chang, a theater director, the series was his first experience directing for the screen; Hu Ching-fang herself makes a small cameo appearance.[9](https://meet.eslite.com/tw/tc/article/202507170002) Lee and Wu were Wu Tsung-yu's first choices for their roles at the script stage.[10](https://www.mirrormedia.mg/story/20250710insight007)\n\nThe series is explicit by Taiwanese television standards. The main poster shows the four leads bare-chested in one bed under the tagline \"when happiness and desire cannot be told apart,\" and Zeidan called it the most explicit work of her career; Lee said the script was the most charged with erotic tension he had encountered, and Yu Tzu-yu called it the hardest shoot of her acting life.[11](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/202506260184.aspx) • [1](https://edsays.catchplay.com/tw/article-4895-ofqoisls) A review on the UDN reading site described it as a contemporary fable that pairs unusually bold erotic depiction with a repressed interior life, weaving an intricate web of relationships, cold social-media opinion, and themes of exile and generational difference.[12](https://reading.udn.com/read/story/124409/8873450?from=udn-next-newnews_ch1014)\n\n## Release and reception\n\nThe first two episodes premiered at the Golden Horse Fantastic Film Festival on April 13, 2025, where screenings sold out and positive word of mouth spread online.[2](https://tvcat.cc/vod-detail/2025791018) • [1](https://edsays.catchplay.com/tw/article-4895-ofqoisls) The full series began streaming on July 18, 2025 on CATCHPLAY+ in Taiwan, Indonesia, and Singapore, with weekly Friday releases, and was also carried by LINE TV, Hong Kong's Now TV, and Amazon Prime Video.[1](https://edsays.catchplay.com/tw/article-4895-ofqoisls) • [3](https://www.linetv.tw/drama/17649) • [13](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/202508040117.aspx) It was the second Taiwanese series to appear on Amazon Prime Video, after *The World Between Us II* (《我们与恶的距离II》).[9](https://meet.eslite.com/tw/tc/article/202507170002)\n\nThe series was selected for the 2025 New York Asian Film Festival, which the magazine [Marie Claire](https://www.edgepedia.org/marie-claire) described as the first and only Taiwanese series chosen in the festival's 24-year history, and it entered Netflix's Top 10 in Taiwan.[6](https://www.marieclaire.com.tw/entertainment/tvshow/87255) It received ten nominations at the 61st Golden Bell Awards.[3](https://www.linetv.tw/drama/17649) The finale's storyline, in which Wu Kang-ren's character, unable to have the love he wants, visits a gay sauna, and Yu Tzu-yu's character renounces her 25-year devotion, drew wide discussion of women's emotional situations on social media.[13](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/202508040117.aspx) A *Lianhe Zaobao* reader review praised Wu Kang-ren's layered portrayal of Chen Han-jung's inner world, singling out his confrontation scene with Rima Zeidan in episode 4.[14](https://www.zaobao.com.sg/entertainment/story20250808-7288187) Reviewers noted the series' slow pace and absence of conventional dramatic climaxes, suited to viewers willing to watch attentively.[4](https://news.now.com/home/entertainment/player?home=1&newsId=612398)\n\n## References\n\n1. [都市情慾台劇《親密之海》7月18日首播！李銘順、吳慷仁、瑞瑪席丹、于子育詮釋世代激情, CATCHPLAY+ 編看編談 (2025)](https://edsays.catchplay.com/tw/article-4895-ofqoisls)\n2. [亲密之海, 电视猫](https://tvcat.cc/vod-detail/2025791018)\n3. [親密之海, LINE TV](https://www.linetv.tw/drama/17649)\n4. [金馬影帝吳慷仁金鐘視帝李銘順共演年度矚目台劇《親密之海》曖昧不明這麼近那麼遠, Now 新聞 (2025)](https://news.now.com/home/entertainment/player?home=1&newsId=612398)\n5. [親密之海, Prime Video](https://www.primevideo.com/-/zh_TW/detail/0Q5HX3TZ1QL4IT1WNDPPG13J0H?tr=us)\n6. [《親密之海》好看嗎？吳慷仁李至正大尺度激情、李銘順三角戀, Marie Claire 美麗佳人 (2025)](https://www.marieclaire.com.tw/entertainment/tvshow/87255)\n7. [吳慷仁新作挑戰情慾尺度！《親密之海》「震撼台詞」首度曝光, TVBS (2025)](https://news.tvbs.com.tw/entertainment/drama/2933630)\n8. [時代情迷1／重量級小說拍成台劇《親密之海》探索情欲與社群浪潮, 鏡週刊 (2025)](https://www.mirrormedia.mg/story/amp/20250710insight005)\n9. [2025下半年必追！台劇《親密之海》改編獲獎小說《群島》揭秘 5 大看點, 迷誠品 (2025)](https://meet.eslite.com/tw/tc/article/202507170002)\n10. [時代情迷3／《親密之海》金鐘視帝飆戲 吳慷仁暗戀李銘順默默守候, 鏡週刊 (2025)](https://www.mirrormedia.mg/story/20250710insight007)\n11. [「親密之海」多幕親密戲 瑞瑪席丹從影最大尺度, 中央社 CNA (2025)](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/202506260184.aspx)\n12. [〖影評〗《親密之海》身體尺度與情感深度雙重破格, 琅琅悅讀 (2025)](https://reading.udn.com/read/story/124409/8873450?from=udn-next-newnews_ch1014)\n13. [台劇「親密之海」最終回 于子育忍痛斷愛, 中央社 CNA (2025)](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/202508040117.aspx)\n14. [我要大声说：《亲密之海》吴慷仁演技令人拍案叫绝, 联合早报 (2025)](https://www.zaobao.com.sg/entertainment/story20250808-7288187)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › International serial drama and telenovelas › East Asian drama series › Hong Kong and Taiwanese serial drama*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/islanders", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/islanders.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Islanders (亲密之海)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/islanders. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Islanders (亲密之海)](https://www.edgepedia.org/islanders)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/islanders](https://www.edgepedia.org/islanders). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Islanders (亲密之海)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/islanders. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Islanders is a 2025 Taiwanese drama series adapted from Hu Ching-fang's novel Archipelago, directed by Ler Jiyuan and Tsai Po-chang, starring Christopher Lee, Wu Kang-ren, Rima Zeidan, and Yu Tzu-yu; 7 episodes, premiered July 18, 2025 on CATCHPLAY+, with ten Golden Bell Award nominations." }