Stream It Or Skip It: ‘More Than Blue: The Series’ on Netflix, A Tearjerker About Love, Sadness, And Cruel Twists Of Fate

Technically, More Than Blue: The Series (Netflix) is a small-screen adaptation of two different films. That’s because the 2018 Taiwanese film More Than Blue was itself a faithful retelling of a 2009 Korean film of the same name. K and Cream are two beautiful dreamers in love with song. But hey, life is full of curveballs. After all, there’s a reason the Korean film’s name translates as “A Story Sadder Than Sadness.”

MORE THAN BLUE THE SERIES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “In theory, exercising produces endorphins. It makes you forget unpleasant things temporarily.” That’s what Chang Che-kai (Fandy Fan) says, anyway, but all of this sprinting around the track at his high school isn’t gonna make his pain go away.

The Gist: When we meet him, Chang Che-kai is a senior in high school. And while he’s supposed to be studying for his college entrance exams, Kai is instead caught up in emotion. His dad, sick with leukemia, is closing his beloved record store. There’s not enough cash to go around, his mom is barely in the picture, and Kai’s grades are slipping. There is one positive, though, and that’s Sung Yuan-yuan (Gingle Wang). Chang Che-kai will go on to become K, a musician, while Sung Yuan-yuan will be known as Cream, the songwriter, and the two soul mates will make beautiful music together. But before we learn all of that, which you might already know if you saw either of the movie versions of More Than Blue, we have to encounter the plot device that will tell this small screen version of K and Cream’s story.

During a contentious meeting at E-Shine Records, singer A-Lin is haranguing label exec Wang Po-Han (Po-Chieh Wang) that she doesn’t hear a single, which prompts his assistant An Yi-Chi (Yu-Wei Shao) to search through all of E-Shine’s unsolicited demos. When A-Lin takes to one, a particularly sugary and sad ballad, it turns out to be a song written and performed by K and Cream. It’s perfect for A-Lin’s album, but they’ll need the publishing rights, and Po knows that K died of leukemia three years before. As for Cream, there’s only rumor as to her whereabouts. Po-Han and An Yi-Chi eventually locate Cindy Yu (Yi-Ti Yao), a photographer with a personal connection to K, and An goes above and beyond the call of record company duty when she breaks into her studio and finds K’s diary.

Thus immersing herself in K’s words, the story of the sad high schooler, his sick father, and the mischievous friend that saved his soul unfolds…

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? We’ve already covered the various competing versions of the More Than Blue IP. But Netflix is rife with similarly swoon-worthy content, too, such as the Korean dramas A Love So Beautiful, My Shy Boss, and My First First Love.

Our Take: “True sorrow is like a song,” Chang Che-kai writes in his diary. “It won’t make you sad from the start. But it’s the chorus parts that are like ripples, repeatedly stacking up an unforgettable melody.” And More Than Blue: The Series does a fair amount of stacking, too, taking one sad thing and placing another on top of it until it’s an insurmountable obstacle of sadness that has developed its own weather system made of sadness. You gotta love it. Kai’s kindly dad has to close down his record store in order to concentrate on his recovery from a leukemia diagnosis. And he’s turning a corner with a new round of blood thinners. But then he and Kai are in a car accident — they were distracted, looking in the backseat for a CD — the other motorists die, and Kai’s dad’s guilt makes his condition deteriorate. Not only that, but his son knows that the cancer gene runs in the family. Kai’s burgeoning relationship with funny, rebellious Sung Yuan-yuan is both everything the guy needs and nothing he will ever be able to truly have. It’s so sad! Throw in the frame of music’s universal ability to pull on the heartstrings, and More Than Blue will have you hooked from the get-go.

Sex and Skin: No way.

Parting Shot: How’s this for a parting shot? When An, lost in reading K’s diary, loses track of time, forgets to pick up her son from kindergarten, and neglects to ever leave the photography studio she’s just broken into, Cindy Yu clocks her across the face with a baseball bat.

Sleeper Star: Po-Chieh Wang is one to watch here as Wang Po-Han, the label exec who keeps up a brusque exterior but also still cares for his ex-girlfriend’s well being, remembers his time with K fondly, and who very likely has a soft spot for An Yi-Chi.

Most Pilot-y Line: “I only realized it much later, that on the worst day of my life, I met the person that I love most.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. More Than Blue is made of the sweet, sad stuff romance junkies will pay money, or at least their monthly Netflix fee, to inject straight into their veins.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges

Watch More Than Blue: The Series on Netflix