General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Mama Boy

Mama Boy (初恋慢半拍, literally "first love, half a beat slow") is a 2022 Taiwanese romantic drama directed by Arvin Chen, starring Kai Ko as a shy 29-year-old who falls for an older woman, played by Vivian Hsu, who works as the assistant manager of a love hotel¹. It was the opening film of the 2022 Taipei Film Festival and was released in Taiwanese theaters on 26 August 2022¹^•².

Key fact	Detail
Original title	初恋慢半拍 (Mama Boy)¹
Director	Arvin Chen (陈骏霖), Taiwanese American filmmaker¹^•³
Cast	Kai Ko (Xiao-hong), Vivian Hsu (Le-le), Yu Tzu-yu (Mei-ling), Fandy Fan (Wei-jie), Hou Yan-xi¹
Release	26 August 2022 in Taiwan; 98 minutes; Mandarin; distributed by 甲上娱乐¹
Festivals	Opening film, 2022 Taipei Film Festival; in competition at the 24th Udine Far East Film Festival; selected for the 2022 New York Asian Film Festival¹^•²
Production	Filmagic Pictures (奇幻娱乐国际股份有限公司); producer Aileen Li (李耀华); screenplay by Sunny Yu (于玮珊) and Arvin Chen¹
International sales	Distribution Workshop (BVI) Limited⁴

Spoilers

Plot

Xiao-hong (小洪, played by Kai Ko) is a gentle, good-looking 29-year-old who works in an aquarium and has never had a girlfriend. He lives with his mother Mei-ling (于子育), whose overprotectiveness, habitually directing every part of his life, has left him lacking in confidence and somewhat socially awkward¹. After a failed blind date, his cousin takes him to a love hotel to lose his virginity; Xiao-hong flees the room but there meets Le-le (乐乐, Vivian Hsu), the hotel's assistant manager¹^•⁵.

Xiao-hong begins calling the hotel to book Le-le's services but, once there, "does nothing"; when Le-le learns how he is spending his money, she discovers he is the same age as her own son and invites him out for a late-night meal⁵. Le-le, seemingly strong and cheerful, carries her own burden: a brief early marriage, after which she did not know how to face her child and sent her son Wei-jie (伟杰, Fandy Fan) back to his grandmother, leaving mother and son estranged¹. As the two grow close, Mei-ling discovers the relationship and angrily demands they break up, even reporting the hotel to the authorities, while Wei-jie beats Xiao-hong over the affair; under this pressure the couple must decide whether to stay together⁵.

Production and release

Arvin Chen, a Taiwanese American director, returned to feature filmmaking with Mama Boy nearly a decade after Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? (2013); his earlier romantic comedies Au Revoir Taipei (2010) and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? both premiered at the Berlin Film Festival³^•⁴. Taipei-based Distribution Workshop picked up international rights to the film while it was still in post-production⁴.

Principal photography took place in March 2021, with the Wensheng police station among the listed shooting locations⁶. The film was produced by Filmagic Pictures with a group of Taiwanese co-production companies, and released domestically by 甲上娱乐¹. It was chosen as one of the ten most anticipated Asian films at the Hong Kong FILMART market, alongside Hirokazu Kore-eda's Broker and Park Chan-wook's Decision to Leave, and had its world premiere in competition at the 24th Udine Far East Film Festival in Italy⁷.

Festival run and reception

Mama Boy opened the 2022 Taipei Film Festival, where it also competed in the Taipei Film Award narrative feature section²^•⁸. It screened at the 2022 New York Asian Film Festival, presented at Film at Lincoln Center from July 15 to 31, 2022, and at the San Diego Asian Film Festival the same year³^•⁹. Film at Lincoln Center's program notes praised Chen for de-glamorizing his cast into quotidian characters and for a story painted with a vibrant palette and punctuated with moments of magical realism³.

The film's Taiwanese theatrical run was modest: Taipei box office reached 2.65 million New Taiwan dollars as of 18 November 2022¹⁰. DramaQueen reported that the film later became available on Disney+ in Taiwan¹¹.

Notes on sources

Runtime is listed as 98 minutes by Taiwan Cinema, the database of Taiwan's Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development¹, while Film at Lincoln Center lists 99 minutes³.

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2021 to 2022

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

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