Let’s Talk About Chu (愛愛內含光) is a Taiwanese romantic comedy-drama series released on Netflix on February 2, 2024. It is co-produced by Machi Xcelsior Studios and Lucky Sparks Films, directed by Remii Huang. There are eight episodes in the series with a runtime of about 43-58 minutes.
The cast of the series includes Chan Tzu-hsuan as Chu Ai, Kai Ko as Chou Ping-ke, JC Lin as Chu Yu-sen, Wu Chien-ho as Lee Yueh, Kimi Hsia as Chu Wei, Umin Boya as Lin Shih-chieh, Miao Ke-li as Chu Yeh Mei-chih, Chris Lung as Henry and Hong Sheng-te as Chu Cheng-nan.
The series follows Chu Ai, a part-time video blogger known for her candid discussions about sex on her channel. She shares her experiences and opinions without hesitation, but when it comes to real-life relationships, she finds it much more difficult to approach. Leading everything back to the members of the Chu family and how they navigate the challenges and joys of love, marriage, and family.
Let’s Talk About Chu Review
Chu-ai is the youngest daughter of the Chu family and is employed as a wax therapist. She also runs a social media channel dedicated to sex education. Living by the philosophy of “make love, not fall in love,” and copes with her anxieties by engaging in a friends-with-benefits relationship with Ping-ke, who shares her scepticism about love.
Meanwhile, Chu-wei, her older sister, struggles in her marriage with Shi-chieh, and her brother, Yu-sen, grapples with an imbalanced relationship with his longtime boyfriend. Tracing everything back to the strained relationship between their parents, as love and sex remain at the forefront of all their life problems. In the first episode, the Chu siblings are seen gearing up for the Lunar New Year dinner at their parent’s house. However, the dinner goes down the drain when Mrs Chu catches her husband jerking off to porn.
To give her mother a purpose to carry on with the dinner, Ai brings along Ping-ke as her boyfriend. And as expected, she became more than happy to see her daughter find a handsome man, who could become her supposed husband. While she is excited about Ai, she nags Wei to have children soon, despite them not wanting to. Through the dinner conversation, we get to know about Mr & Mrs Chu’s conservative and orthodox ideology. They expect their children to have respectable jobs with husbands and children. But the current situation is far from their ideals.
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In the show, each character represents a unique age group and perspective on life. Through their lens, we explore the complex and multifaceted nature of sexuality. From youthful curiosity to mature reflection, each family member offers a distinct viewpoint on this crucial aspect of the human experience. On one side, Ai as the contemporary youth struggles to find meaning in relationships when everything seems temporary. While Wei might have found a meaningful relationship but feels the spark and intimacy fading away. And Yu-sen is still trying to figure out his desires and what he wants from his relationships.
In an overview, we can see how their parents dealt with them and their own marriage has deeply affected their children. Like so many psychology videos often trace the root cause of each individual’s adult issues to their childhood and parenting, the same plays out on our screen. By making love and sex a taboo subject early on but then expecting their adult kids to embrace them wholeheartedly while showcasing an example of an almost loveless/strained marriage – the kids have grown up to be either clueless or not want to be anything like their parents. Hence completely avoiding the relationship ordeal or getting into problematic ones.
While Ai’s and Wei’s relationship development is something that we might have seen before, what really made the story interesting is Yu-sen’s journey. Initially, he is in a toxic relationship where his partner wants to keep their relationship closeted and neglects Yu-sen’s desires as well. Trying to rebel or find a way out of his emotional pain, he encounters Lee Yueh in a dangerous setting. How a seemingly antagonistic character turns out to be the emotional support that he needs, is truly heartwarming to watch. In fact, their story could be a standalone romantic series or a movie.
Overall, the series is about self-discovery and heartfelt exploration of the enduring bonds that tie families together, and the unique ways in which love can manifest itself across generations. Initially, the pace could feel a bit slow and the story quite predictable. But as the plot develops you are caught by many deceptive yet delightful surprises, making it worth a binge-watch.
Rating: 4/5
Let’s Talk About Chu is available to watch on Netflix.
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