Loveboat, Taipei vs. Love in Taipei

Jan 12

taipeiboth

I just read Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen and watched Love in Taipei, the movie based off of the book. There will be spoilers. Stop reading this post now if you don’t want to know what happens.

While I am not completely satisfied with either version, I feel the two balance each other out. I loved getting a glimpse of Taiwanese culture for sure and I related to being a Chinese American girl figuring out if she should go for what she wants to do with her life or follow her parents’ laid out path for her and go to med school. I did not love all the loving parts in the novel, especially knowing Ever Wong was just 18 going through it, but I get that it was an essential part of the theme of the story. For this reason I felt better that in the movie she is 21 and there’s very little loving shown.

Rick starts out single in the movie though, and in the book he starts out still in a relationship with Jenna. His relationship with Jenna was a lot more developed in the book than the story of his ex in the movie so there’s that. Xavier and Ever bond early on in the movie, but again, their relationship is more developed in the book. I love how he calls her Forever Ever in the movie. That is such a cute nickname for her. Megan also facetimes Ever a lot more often than in the book, making her more like a best friend than in the book. Dan is absent in the movie, so that may be why. There’s also no Pearl in the movie so I guess the movie wanted to focus more on Ever rather than have a sister to split the story a bit. However, there is an Auntie Shu Ever can go to for advice and help in the movie and there was not in the book.

It was also Rick’s idea to bring Ever to his family’s party in the movie, rather than how it was in the book when Ever helps Rick come up with an idea to act as his fake girlfriend at the party to get his family off his back about Jenna. I always thought despite the strong connection defined in the book between Rick and Ever, she had a stronger connection with Xavier. I am satisfied that this came to fruition in the movie. They make such a cute couple! There are no glamour shots in the movie, keeping it PG, but the way Ever stands up to Sophie when the glamour shots come out was absolutely satisfying. Sophie is nice to Ever in the movie. There’s less drama in the movie with no car accident or fighting between Rick and Xavier.

I feel like the story is best enjoyed by reading the book and watching the movie.