# Mom, Don't Do That! (妈，别闹了！)
**Mom, Don't Do That!** (媽，別鬧了！) is a 2022 [Taiwanese Mandarin](https://www.edgepedia.org/taiwanese-mandarin)-language family romantic comedy series that premiered on Netflix on July 15, 2022. It follows a widowed mother approaching sixty who decides to find love again through online dating, to the mixed delight and exasperation of her two adult daughters.[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/mom-dont-do-that-taipei-film-festival) • [2](https://www.netflix.com/sg-zh/title/81477611)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Premiere | July 15, 2022, as a Netflix exclusive[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/mom-dont-do-that-taipei-film-festival) |
| Source material | Adapted from the essay collection *My Mom's Cross-National Marriage* (我媽的異國婚姻) by Chen Ming-min (陳名珉), based on her mother's real story[3](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/202007010368.aspx) • [4](https://www.dramaqueen.com.tw/tvshow/%E5%AA%BD%EF%BC%8C%E5%88%A5%E9%AC%A7%E4%BA%86.html) |
| Directors and producers | Directed by Chen Wei-ling and Lee Chun-hong; produced by Chen Wei-ling, Sarso Chou, and Alyssa Chia[5](https://flixpatrol.com/title/mom-dont-do-that/similar-tv-shows/) |
| Main cast | Billie Wang, Alyssa Chia, Ko Chia-yen, Johnny Kou Hsi-Shun, Kang-Ren Wu, Austin Lin, and Wan-Ting Tseng[5](https://flixpatrol.com/title/mom-dont-do-that/similar-tv-shows/) |
| Early performance | Reached number one on Netflix's Taiwan ranking within 48 hours of release and held the top two spots for 11 days[6](https://womany.net/articles/30918/amp) |
| Festival recognition | Won the audience award at the Taipei Film Festival in July 2022; the official teaser passed 240,000 YouTube views within eight days[7](https://taicca.s3.ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/pdf/Taiwan_An_Emerging_Co-production_Powerhouse.pdf) |
| Stage adaptation | Story Works staged a 2024 theater version with an original plot, written and directed by Huang Yan-lin[8](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acul/202403200395.aspx) |
## Spoilers
### Premise and source material
The series centers on Wang Mei-mei (王玫玫), a mother approaching sixty who, after her husband's sudden death, decides to end her days of grieving and find a man to remarry, using [online chat](https://www.edgepedia.org/online-chat) rooms and video calls despite her daughters' objections.[9](https://looryfilm.tw/mom-dont-do-that/) • [10](https://www.popdaily.com.tw/forum/entertainment/1306336?fromPage.pageComponent=recommender-card&fromPage.pageName=article&fromPage.pageUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.popdaily.com.tw%2Fforum%2Ftravel%2F824245) The elder daughter Ru-rong (如蓉), played by Alyssa Chia, is a Chinese-language teacher and novelist who carries the burden of caring for her mother and younger sister, while the younger daughter Ruo-min (若敏), played by Ko Chia-yen, becomes entangled with an unsuitable man and takes on debt for him.[11](https://scdnews.com/images/paper/220709/220709C.pdf) • [12](https://www.cna.com.tw/postwrite/chi/367344)
The show is adapted from the essay collection *My Mom's Cross-National Marriage* (我媽的異國婚姻) by writer Chen Ming-min (陳名珉), who based it on her own family: her father died at 51, and after more than a decade as a widow her mother threw herself into online dating and eventually married a man in Australia.[3](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/202007010368.aspx) • [13](https://www.zaobao.com.sg/entertainment/story20220726-1296556) The drama frames the story through the elder daughter, who turns the family upheaval and her writing block into a novel, linking the series to its own source book.[9](https://looryfilm.tw/mom-dont-do-that/)
## Production
**Directors and goals.** Chen Wei-ling, the series' director and executive producer, had previously worked with Netflix on the anthology *On Children* (你的孩子不是你的孩子), her fifth Golden Bell Award-winning project. She said that feedback from viewers outside Taiwan showed that working with global streaming platforms was the way for Taiwanese content to be seen by the world, so the team set higher standards for script, cast, and budget with global distribution in mind. She described the series as a comedy telling the stories of three women from different generations seeking happiness.[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/mom-dont-do-that-taipei-film-festival) • [3](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/202007010368.aspx) She co-directed with Lee Chun-hong, a two-time Golden Bell Award-winning editor.[3](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/202007010368.aspx)
**Casting.** The singer and actress Billie Wang returned to television drama after ten years to play the mother, a role director Chen called a natural fit, saying that after reading the novel she immediately pictured Billie because her logic is unlike anyone else's, just like the mother in the book. Alyssa Chia took on the role of producer for the first time with this series.[3](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/202007010368.aspx)
**Budget and partners.** The production was reported to cost about NT$130 million and was shot entirely in Taiwan in 4K, with cooperation from CJ ENM HK; the series also received investment from Korea's CJ E&M, and Taiwan's Cultural Content Institute signed a memorandum with Netflix providing a subsidy of 30 percent of the marketing budget.[10](https://www.popdaily.com.tw/forum/entertainment/1306336?fromPage.pageComponent=recommender-card&fromPage.pageName=article&fromPage.pageUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.popdaily.com.tw%2Fforum%2Ftravel%2F824245) • [14](https://ppg.ly.gov.tw/ppg/SittingAttachment/download/2024032263/16002090021004322003.pdf) • [15](https://tw.news.yahoo.com/%E5%AA%BD-%E5%88%A5%E9%AC%A7%E4%BA%86-%E5%81%9C%E6%8B%8D-%E5%8F%AA%E7%82%BA%E7%AD%89%E9%80%99%E4%BD%8D%E6%BC%94%E5%93%A1%E4%BE%86%E5%8F%B0-215855890.html)
## Themes
The series uses comedy to examine how three generations of women in one family define love differently: whether true love means devoting one's life to another's happiness, prioritizing one's own needs, or whether romantic love is necessary at all for a modern woman pursuing happiness.[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/mom-dont-do-that-taipei-film-festival) A supporting storyline follows the mother's friend Jin Xiang-yu (金香玉), played by Shen Hai-rong, whose romance with a younger man carries a YOLO attitude toward gossip.[13](https://www.zaobao.com.sg/entertainment/story20220726-1296556) Critics noted that beneath the farcical mother-daughter quarrels the show asks whether a family should bind its members under one roof or serve as a base from which each person pursues freedom.[16](https://dramago.ptsplus.tv/articles/7367/)
## Reception
The series reached number one on Netflix's Taiwan ranking within 48 hours of release and stayed in the top two for 11 days.[6](https://womany.net/articles/30918/amp) Before the premiere, a special screening at the Taipei Film Festival with cast members Alyssa Chia, Austin Lin, and Tseng Wan-ting and both directors sold out all 600 seats, and the series won the festival's audience award in July 2022.[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/mom-dont-do-that-taipei-film-festival) • [7](https://taicca.s3.ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/pdf/Taiwan_An_Emerging_Co-production_Powerhouse.pdf) Viewer responses were divided: some reviewers found the tone erratic and the plotting loose, while others praised the mother's character and the show's shifts between comedy and emotion.[17](https://letterboxd.com/film/mom-dont-do-that/reviews/) • [18](https://www.senscritique.com/serie/mom_don_t_do_that/critique/318535389) It holds a 6.1/10 rating on IMDb.[5](https://flixpatrol.com/title/mom-dont-do-that/similar-tv-shows/)
## Stage adaptation
In 2024 the theater company Story Works (故事工廠) staged a stage version adapted from both the Netflix series and Chen's original book. The playwright and director Huang Yan-lin kept only the character names and settings and wrote an entirely new story with two plotlines: the mother caught up in a suspected cross-border romance scam, and the elder daughter accidentally summoning her late father back to the present through a novel she writes, using a light-fantasy time-travel element. Chen Ming-min praised the adaptation as filling gaps left by both the book and the series and becoming a new story of its own.[8](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acul/202403200395.aspx) • [12](https://www.cna.com.tw/postwrite/chi/367344)
The stage production starred Wang Yueh as Wang Mei-mei, alongside Tang Chih-wei, Yang Jing, and [Li Shao](https://www.edgepedia.org/li-shao)-chieh as the family of four. It opened in Taipei with four performances from March 29 to 31, 2024, and toured to [Kaohsiung](https://www.edgepedia.org/kaohsiung), Tainan, Hsinchu, Taoyuan, and other cities. Wang Yueh said the role showed another possibility for mature-age romance in Taiwan, where discussion of love later in life is uncommon, and noted that the real-life model for the character was still embracing love passionately at 70.[8](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acul/202403200395.aspx) • [19](https://www.cna.com.tw/postwrite/chi/369917)
## References
1. [Love Is a Battlefield, and the Women of 'Mom, Don't Do That!' Begin Combat on July 15, About Netflix](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/mom-dont-do-that-taipei-film-festival)
2. [Watch Mom, Don't Do That!, Netflix Official Site](https://www.netflix.com/sg-zh/title/81477611)
3. [比莉睽違10年回歸電視劇 導演直呼本色演出, 中央社 CNA](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/202007010368.aspx)
4. [《媽，別鬧了！》DramaQueen電視迷](https://www.dramaqueen.com.tw/tvshow/%E5%AA%BD%EF%BC%8C%E5%88%A5%E9%AC%A7%E4%BA%86.html)
5. [Mom, Don't Do That! Similar TV Shows, FlixPatrol](https://flixpatrol.com/title/mom-dont-do-that/similar-tv-shows/)
6. [《媽，別鬧了！》影評, 女人迷 Womany](https://womany.net/articles/30918/amp)
7. [Taiwan: An Emerging Co-production Powerhouse, TAICCA](https://taicca.s3.ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/pdf/Taiwan_An_Emerging_Co-production_Powerhouse.pdf)
8. [舞台劇版「媽，別鬧了！」添新劇情 繼續任性追愛, 中央社 CNA](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acul/202403200395.aspx)
9. [〖Netflix影評〗《媽，別鬧了！》, 如履的電影筆記](https://looryfilm.tw/mom-dont-do-that/)
10. [觀後感｜《媽，別鬧了!》, PopDaily 波波黛莉](https://www.popdaily.com.tw/forum/entertainment/1306336?fromPage.pageComponent=recommender-card&fromPage.pageName=article&fromPage.pageUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.popdaily.com.tw%2Fforum%2Ftravel%2F824245)
11. [美南日報台灣影視 Daily News (2022-07-09)](https://scdnews.com/images/paper/220709/220709C.pdf)
12. [中年媽追網戀「鬧」到亡夫回魂！《媽，別鬧了！》舞台劇首演, 中央社訊息平台](https://www.cna.com.tw/postwrite/chi/367344)
13. [寡母跨国寻爱 女儿力阻脱轨, 联合早报](https://www.zaobao.com.sg/entertainment/story20220726-1296556)
14. [立法院議案關係文書 (2024)](https://ppg.ly.gov.tw/ppg/SittingAttachment/download/2024032263/16002090021004322003.pdf)
15. [《媽，別鬧了！》停拍 只為等這位演員來台, Yahoo奇摩新聞](https://tw.news.yahoo.com/%E5%AA%BD-%E5%88%A5%E9%AC%A7%E4%BA%86-%E5%81%9C%E6%8B%8D-%E5%8F%AA%E7%82%BA%E7%AD%89%E9%80%99%E4%BD%8D%E6%BC%94%E5%93%A1%E4%BE%86%E5%8F%B0-215855890.html)
16. [幸福家庭？｜《媽，別鬧了！》挑戰家長權力, 劇夠](https://dramago.ptsplus.tv/articles/7367/)
17. [Reviews of Mom, Don't Do That! (2022), Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/film/mom-dont-do-that/reviews/)
18. [Avis sur la série Mom, Don't Do That! (2022), SensCritique](https://www.senscritique.com/serie/mom_don_t_do_that/critique/318535389)
19. [王琄大跳「求偶舞」！《媽，別鬧了！》舞台劇版, 中央社訊息平台](https://www.cna.com.tw/postwrite/chi/369917)
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*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 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license