General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Exclusive Love (独占接班人)

Exclusive Love (獨佔接班人) is a 2025 Taiwanese BL (Boys' Love) romantic comedy television series about a reluctant heir to a funeral services company who is placed under the strict training of the firm's ace funeral director, while a second couple's story unfolds in the wedding-planning business.¹ It was produced for LINE TV in partnership with Haiwang Tianxi (海王天璽) and iQIYI International, premiered on 14 February 2025, and ran for 12 episodes until 25 April 2025.²^•¹ Taiwanese media described it as Taiwan's first drama series with funeral directors as its subject.³

Key fact	Detail
Original title	獨佔接班人 (also romanized Du Zhan Jie Ban Ren; English title Exclusive Love)¹
Format	12 episodes of about 30 minutes each, roughly 6 hours total; genres BL, romance, LGBTQ+¹^•⁴
Broadcast	LINE TV and iQIYI International, Fridays at 8 p.m. from 14 February to 25 April 2025²
Main cast	Mao Chi-sheng, Chang Chia-sheng, Hsu Wei-tse, Pu Ching-heng, Sun Mai-chieh, Chi Hsin-ling, Cheng Li-yu²
Director / writer	Chiou Hau-Jou (邱晧洲); screenwriter Lan Meng-he¹
Distinction	Taiwan's first drama series themed on funeral directors³
Music	Theme song 《微光》 performed by the four leads; ending song 《想和你》 written and composed by Hong Kong singer AP Pan Yu-chien⁵
Reception	8.9/10 from 8,052 users on Rakuten Viki; topped LINE TV's drama chart at premiere⁴^•⁶

Spoilers

Premise

The series pairs two worlds that rarely meet on screen: funerals and weddings.¹ Wang Zhan (王湛), played by Chang Chia-sheng, is the second-generation heir to the Hong Ze funeral services company, but he is terrified of ghosts and blood and has avoided the family trade while chasing a dream of becoming a singer as a street performer and livestreamer.⁵^•⁶ His older brother Wang Ying-xiu (王英修, Yu Ke-hong), the company's chairman, assigns Tang Tu-zhi (唐篤知), played by Mao Chi-sheng, as his mentor for a three-month succession training program.⁵ In the opening episodes Tang has Wang Zhan abducted by teams of men in black, bundled into a sack, and moved into forced cohabitation for the boot-camp training; an accidental drunken kiss then shifts the relationship.⁶

A second storyline follows Zhang Yi-qing (張以慶, Hsu Wei-tse), a heartbroken wedding consultant at a classic wedding planning firm and Wang Zhan's college roommate, who takes charge of the wedding of Tu Jing-he (涂井和, Pu Ching-heng), the friend he has secretly loved for years, with the aim of sabotaging it.⁵ The series frames both couples against the contrast between mourning and marriage, with the stated core concept of "cherishing the present and saying goodbye well" (珍惜當下，好好告別).²

Cast and characters

The LINE TV character list gives the nine principal roles:⁵

Mao Chi-sheng as Tang Tu-zhi, Hong Ze's senior funeral director and cold-blooded training instructor.
Chang Chia-sheng as Wang Zhan, a post-graduate student of life-and-death studies and the company's future successor.
Hsu Wei-tse as Zhang Yi-qing, deputy manager at a wedding planning firm and Wang Zhan's college roommate.
Pu Ching-heng as Tu Jing-he, deputy manager at a construction company and Wang Zhan's college roommate.
Sun Mai-chieh as Ian, an MBA graduate from the United States, Wang Zhan's high school friend, whose parents are Hong Ze shareholders; he has long harbored feelings for Wang Zhan.
Cheng Li-yu as Ji Hui-yu, a life-and-death studies graduate and newly hired funeral director at Hong Ze.
Yu Ke-hong as Wang Ying-xiu, chairman of Hong Ze and Wang Zhan's older brother without blood relation.
An Hao-ying as Tang Jing-an, Tang Tu-zhi's younger brother.
Chi Hsin-ling as Zhou You-ning, daughter of a bank chairman and a music graduate, who enters the second couple's story as a matchmaking rival.

Chang Chia-sheng took his first leading role in the series and said he prepared with intensive acting classes and two months of focused fitness and diet work for scenes requiring him to undress.⁷ Mao Chi-sheng trained for his physique for about three months, exercising roughly four hours a day, to film the show's intimate and shower scenes.⁸

Production

The series held its opening ceremony (開鏡) on 4 September 2024, with director Chiou Hau-Jou and the main cast in attendance, and it was LINE TV's BL series following its HIStory franchise.⁸^•⁹ Production is credited to 優勢全球投資有限公司, with Lan Meng-he as screenwriter.¹

Because the leads play funeral professionals, the two actors playing the main couple attended a class on preparing the deceased, and a professional funeral director supervised the ritual scenes on set; Mao Chi-sheng noted that every step of the purification ritual must follow a set order from head to foot.² Guest appearances included Chang Chia-sheng's real-life friend Chen Bo-wen as a fellow funeral director in episode 3, a casting that produced frequent near-laughing breaks because the two knew each other's banter too well.¹⁰

Release and reception

The drama premiered on Valentine's Day, 14 February 2025, with two episodes released at once, and immediately took first place on LINE TV's drama popularity chart.⁶ New episodes went out each Friday at 8 p.m. on LINE TV and iQIYI International simultaneously.² On Rakuten Viki the series holds a rating of 8.9 from more than 8,000 users, carries a PG-13 rating, and is subtitled in English, Polish, Romanian, and eight other languages.⁴ It is also streamed on platforms including JustWatch-listed services and Japan's Heavenly.¹¹^•¹²

At a press conference on 12 February 2025, the four lead actors performed the theme song 《微光》 ("Glimmer") live, and LINE TV chairman Chen Li-jen announced cross-media adaptations: a novel with Kadokawa (角川出版社) and a comic with Chang Hong Publishers (長鴻出版社).² The ending song 《想和你》 was written and composed by the Hong Kong singer AP Pan Yu-chien.⁵ In April 2025, to mark LINE TV's tenth anniversary, the platform produced a special promotional video in which the YouTubers HowHow and Lan Yi-ming recreated scenes from the series.³

References

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

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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