General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

More than Blue: The Series (比悲伤更悲伤的故事：影集版)

More than Blue: The Series (比悲傷更悲傷的故事：影集版) is a 2021 Taiwanese romance melodrama series of 10 episodes that extends the story of the 2018 film More than Blue, released worldwide on Netflix on October 22, 2021¹. It was directed by Hsieh Pei-ju, whose previous film was The Great Hunger, with the film's director Lin Hsiao-chien and producer Chuang Chun-chun as supervisors and the film's screenwriter Lu An-hsien continuing on the script².

Key fact	Detail
Original title	比悲傷更悲傷的故事：影集版 (Mandarin: Bi Bei Shang Geng Bei Shang De Gu Shi: Ying Ji Ban)¹
Format	10 episodes, romance and melodrama, Netflix exclusive¹
Premiere	October 22, 2021, all episodes released at once¹^•³
Budget	NT$180 million, announced March 2020 with filming planned for that summer²
Main cast	Fandy Fan as Chang Che-Kai (K), Gingle Wang as Sung Yuan-Yuan (Cream), Wang Po-Chieh as Wang Po-Han, Shao Yu-Wei as An Yi-Chi¹
Source material	Adapted from the 2009 South Korean film More Than Blue and extending the 2018 Taiwanese film of the same name⁴
Music	Opening theme "Beyond the Sea" (與海無關) by Accusefive; ending theme "You Don't Belong to Me" (你不屬於我) by Eric Chou¹

Spoilers

Premise and structure

The series uses a dual narrative. In the present, record-label executive Wang Po-Han and his assistant An Yi-Chi search for the original writer of the song "The Saddest Thing of All" (最悲傷的事) for a diva's lead single; with help from music-scene veterans Chi-ko and the Cat Woman, they uncover the love story of Chang Che-Kai, known as K, and Sung Yuan-Yuan, known as Cream, and the entangled romance of the gentle dentist Yang Yu-Hsien and the photographer Cindy⁵.

In the past storyline, Cream's family dies in a car accident caused by K and his father; K's father dies of leukemia, and K's mother abandons K, prompting K and Cream to live together as family and fall in love without admitting it¹⁵. K learns he has blood cancer with about 100 days to live, conceals the diagnosis, and tries to help Cream find a good man to marry before he dies⁶. The frame story adds material the film did not have: An Yi-Chi is a single mother whose son, Ke-le, dies of heart disease, and she attempts suicide before Wang Po-Han saves her; the K and Cream story ultimately helps her choose to live and cherish the present⁷.

Production

The 2018 film earned NT$240 million at the Taiwanese box office, and in March 2020 the production companies mm2 Full Sun Entertainment and Good Good Film announced a 10-episode series at a cost of NT$180 million, to be shot that summer and released the following year². Producer Chuang Chun-chun set the goal of making the series even more tear-inducing than Korean dramas, and Lin Hsiao-chien said the team, led by Lu An-hsien, repeatedly overturned earlier drafts before settling on the final version².

The production promoted seven selling points, including the tragic love story, parent-child separations, award-caliber supporting actors, and the release of all ten episodes at once on Netflix³. The parent roles include Golden Horse Award Best Supporting Actress Chang Shih-yin as K's mother and Golden Bell nominee Wu Kun-da as K's father³. A-Lin cameos as herself, the diva whose album drives the frame story, and sings the in-series song "The Saddest Thing of All"⁴.

Cast

Fandy Fan, a Golden Horse Award Best New Actor winner, and Gingle Wang, a Taipei Film Festival Best Actress winner, took over the roles of K and Cream from Liu Yi-hao and Ivy Chen in the film⁴^•⁸. Both said their biggest challenge was the crying scenes⁸. The supporting cast includes Yao Yi-ti as Cindy, Tseng Shao-tsung, Yuan Ai-fei, Ma Nien-hsien, Bai Run-yin as An Yi-Chi's son, and Chen Yu⁹.

Reception

Reviewers generally rated the series above the 2018 film. Critics wrote that the ten-episode length let the story fill in details and character development the film lacked, made the melodramatic plot turns more plausible, and gave supporting characters such as the dentist and Cindy fuller backstories¹⁰^•⁶. The series reached the top three on Taiwan's Netflix rankings, with viewers describing crying from beginning to end¹¹. The review site 如履的電影筆記 scored it 8.4 out of 10 overall⁹.

The series was nominated for seven Golden Bell drama awards, and its screenwriters Lu An-hsien and Chen Pei-wen were nominated for Best Screenplay¹².

Relationship to earlier versions

The property began as the 2009 South Korean film More Than Blue, starring Kwon Sang-woo and Lee Bo-young, which was released in 18 countries¹³. The 2018 Taiwanese film, directed by Lin Hsiao-chien and starring Liu Yi-hao and Ivy Chen, compressed the story into about 107 minutes¹⁴. The series keeps the film's main storyline and many of its classic lines, but expands the K and Cream relationship in detail, adds the frame story of Wang Po-Han and An Yi-Chi, and gives the ending a different interpretation of Cream's fate⁶^•¹⁰.

References

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