U Motherbaker

 U Motherbaker 40 episodes 2020

Hsin-Ling Chung as the Motherbaker.

A mother’s love knows no boundaries. But cross a motherbaker, and bitch will cut you. The eponymous role is the matriarch of a famous, but little-past-its-prime bakery located in Tainan. Recently widowed and getting up in years, Lin Cai Xiang (played by Golden-Bell winning Hsin-Ling Chung who we first saw as Rainie Yang's friend in Love You on Netflix) is eyeing retirement and looking to pass down the running of the bakery to her children. The problem lies in the fact that all four of her children are never do wells. The bakery is still living in the past and hasn’t kept up with the times, making all of the traditional Taiwanese bakery goods, but none of the trending ones young people want. If they were on Yelp, they’d be dragged hard. 

 

The only capable child, A-xin, unfortunately died in a freak accident. This leaves Xiao-Ou, his feisty young widow played by the amazing Peijia Huang (star of The Ghost Bride), as the only glimmer of hope in reviving the bakery.  Think of her as the Veuve Clicqout of the bakery business, working from nothing to create a world-famous bakery brand virtually on her own. 

Peijia Huang as the transplanted city girl who mows down any obstacle.

After the accident, the motherbaker receives a NT $10 million insurance payout, but doesn’t share it with Xiao-Ou since she paid for the policy. As soon as rumors spread about the payout, her children smell blood in the water and start asking for handouts to fund their freeloading lifestyles. Xiao-Ou is considered bad luck as she was with A-xin at the accident, so the family wants nothing do with her. It’s up to her to transform the bakery. The question is: can she?

 

Then there's Motherbaker's children. Always asking for help to fund their pet projects. 

Director Danny Deng creates a wonderful world of cake shops and cafes and by the end of the series, you’ll scrolling the Internet to try your hand at baking a pineapple cake. By the way, if you don't like pineapple cakes, don't bother watching the show: it's all about pineapple cakes. And family dynamics. Deng creates a deliciously fun little microcosm of Taiwan life as he explores the gaping gaps that separate the traditional and the modern, the young and the old. 

Joe Zhang plays Fa-gui, the sincere, hardworking baker who secretly crushes on Xiao-Ou. He’s both honest and loyal to a fault to the Su clan. 

Da-Mei is the tough, charismatic city girl who always has Xiao-Ou's back.

Ruby Lin plays the Taipei café owner Da-Mei and official chaser of backpacking white guys of the series with charm and charisma.  She is all but happy to help out Xiao-Ou with her constant conflict with the Su family. Fun fact: in real life, she’s dating Fa-gui.

The brothers Su are the force to be reckoned with…if only they were capable. They are hilariously mean, greedy, and incompetent. We never truly hate them, as the tone of the show keeps things light.

Darren Chiu is the eldest brother who rightfully claims inheritance of the bakery but has no skills nor drive to run it. His business schemes are all failures, including, but not limited to herbal supplements, shrimp farming and running a business he inherited from his wife’s father into the ground. By the way, Chiu won a well-deserved Golden Bell award for best supporting actor in this role. 

Esther Liu threatens divorce whenever she's wronged by her Bing-zhong, which is always.

Esther Liu, in a supporting role, plays his wife, spoiled and rich, and rightfully suspicious of her husband in affairs of business and women. She was recently in the Netflix drama Light the Night. 

Sam Wang is Bing-Xiao, the middle brother who goads his adorable daughter Nini (played by Ruby Zhan from Candy Online) to become a professional badminton player so he can cash in on her prize money. He has no morals. Nor abilities.

Ming-wei Yang plays Bing-ren, the younger brother—an aspiring director who makes moves on girls instead of films. He, too, has his own unique way of extracting cash from his mom. 

Jill Su is Lin Cai Xiang’s only daughter, divorced with child and dating a vapid fitness trainer named Alec who eats her out of house and home, when he’s not asking for funds to open his own fitness studio.
Chieh-Hui Hsu plays Yi-lang, comic relief, pineapple grower, and old friend of motherbaker who sees an opportunity to romance her now that she’s a widow. Yi-lang has a heart of gold to match the exquisite pineapples he raises. 

And last but not least, comedian/TV hostess Riva Chang plays the soothsayer Shang Yun, who various members of the cast consult with as they navigate the family dramas. 

U Motherbaker has all the elements that make Taiwanese dramas so bingeable: problems with in-laws, parent-child relationships, sibling rivalry, and the tension between the traditional and the modern. Not to mention, all the usual cute sound effects and musical cues that make Taiwan dramadies so much fun. Don’t forget to look out for director Danny Deng’s cameo appearances throughout the series. 

U Motherbaker is available watch on YouTube via the PTS Channel in the U.S. and on Netflix in Asia.