Best movies & TV Shows like Love & π

Each member of a family in Taipei asks hard questions about life's meaning as they live through everyday quandaries. NJ is morose: his brother owes him money, his mother is in a coma, his wife suffers a spiritual crisis when she finds her life a blank and his business partners make bad decisions.

After years toiling in bit-parts, an actress finally gets her break with a leading role in a spy thriller. The part is challenging, not least because it calls for explicit sex scenes, and the director is often hard on her. But both the industry and the press think the results are sensationally good.

Although their characters and temperaments couldn't be less alike, 19-year olds Wei and Jie are best friends. They're also neighbours, living with widower fathers and problem siblings in the suburbs of Taipei. When Wei is promoted from the rank of nightclub parking valet to the rank of debt-collector in Brother Gu's gang, he persuades his boss to hire Jie to work alongside him. Things begin to go wrong when they are given a handgun to reward their success in the new job. Always excitable and volatile, Jie becomes reckless and dangerous when he has the gun in his hand. When they try to collect a debt from the boss of a rival gang, a fight erupts and Jie shoots the gang-boss. The boys find themselves on the run. But fate and their youthful dreams still have tricks to play.

The story of a family embroiled in the "White Terror", mainland China's political repression that was wrought on the Taiwanese people by the Kuomintang government in the late 1940s.

The daughter of a wealthy man takes French lessons so she can go to France with her fiancée, but ends up falling for a poor man who studies civil engineering.

Lin Hsiao-yang tries to keep her family together while working as a waitress at Kentucky Fried Chicken and going to night school. With no mother and her father currently working out of town, it is up to Lin Hsiao-yang to take care of her younger siblings, who are slipping into a life of crime.

A retired and widowed Chinese master chef Chu and his family live in modern day Taipei, Taiwan. He lives with his three attractive daughters, all of whom are unattached. Soon, each of the daughters encounter new men in their lives. When these new relationships blossom, stereotypes are broken and the living situation within the family changes. Since the family has difficulty expressing their love for each other, the intricate preparation of banquet quality dishes for their Sunday dinners is the surrogate for their familial feelings.

Yueh-chen has an obsession with her classmate Shihao, but is too shy to confess to him directly. She sends in her best friend, Kerou, to act as a go-between, and Shihao ends up falling for Kerou, who is not sure what to think of him.

Everyone wants their life to a perfect circle, but always failed with a missing piece. Dao-Fung, who has strange psychological symptom, five second’s blank, had decided to cure himself by a travel and arrived Riguang village in Taitung. He met four interesting people. During stayed at there, five of them found their own missing piece due to the love among them. Dao-Fung became aware of his symptom gradually disappeared, too. (Bifan 2015)

An alcoholic man and his two young children barely survive in Taipei. They cross paths with a lonely grocery clerk who might help them make a better life.

A-yuan and A-yun are both from the small mining town of Jio-fen. They move to Taipei, where A-yuan is an apprentice by day and goes to night school, and A-yun works as a helper at a tailors. Everyone thinks they are meant for each other, and so do they. They fail to see time and fate are beyond their control.

One rainy night, a woman takes refuge in At Cafe 6 after an argument with her boyfriend. She strikes up a conversation with the café owner, who shares a story from his youth.

A boy experiences first love, friendships and injustices growing up in 1960s Taiwan.

Superstar Carter Wong must protect the Shaolin Temple from a traitor from within the order. The Silver Fox has turned up the heat against Shaolin, but Carter and the Holy Warrior Monks will stand firm -- or die fighting!

A coming-of-age story about a young brother and sister whom spend a pivotal summer in the country with their grandparents.

Xiao Chi, a driven girl who's been looking for love, gets asked out by a hot guy on the eve of Valentine's Day. As she anticipates her first date, she wakes up the next morning and finds that the Valentine's Day has mysteriously passed.

Tong Bo Wan and Chang Yi are two expert martial artists who protect the famous Whampoa wharf in Guangzhou from gangsters who are expoiting the dock workers.

The good guys, a trio of swordsmen, gradually collect allies, including one by marriage. The groom must depart along with his bride but she must pass 3 tests before leaving. Then the group has to survive a series of traps before facing the villain.

Tsu Hong Wu is a highly fictionalized fantasy retelling of the early years of Zhu Yuanzhang’s life that was obviously geared toward younger audiences. The tale actually begins in Heaven, where the various gods are busy paving the way for a new emperor. The very basic facts of Zhu Yuanzhang’s life are ostensibly correct, but it takes a rather unexpected turn into traditional giant monster territory, with a Taoist priest summoning a gigantic red-haired ogre (amusingly referred to as ‘superman’ in the subtitles) to destroy our heroes, who are in turn rescued when a golden dragon (the animal manifestation of one of the deities from earlier in the film) rises from the ocean to do battle with said ogre

Ah-Lun, who has a choice to make in the underworld, decides to be a god of love in Chinese mythology. As he advances with his tasks on Earth, his biggest challenge is to tie a red string with the woman he loves the most.

Doris simply wanted to open a refined, stylish coffee shop in a bohemian Taipei neighborhood, but when she's stuck with a load of useless gifts from the opening celebration, her younger sister Josie turns the café into a burgeoning bartering business. There, even a soulful song (by Japanese singer Atari Kosuke in a cameo) is a tradable commodity. One day, a traveler brings in 35 soaps from around the world with a story for each of them, awakening Doris' imagination about the outside world that she has never seen.

Xiang Wei Xin, a 17-year-old high school sophomore, regards eating as the most important and most healing thing in life. The first time she met her senior Tao You Quan was in the school's welfare agency. At that time, Xiang Wei Xin lost 5 yuan and could not buy her favorite pineapple bread. Tao You Quan made up the money for her, which made her feel deeply indebted to her.

Even in modern-day Taipei, women feel the societal pressure to get married and have children before the clock runs out. Thankfully, there is a solution: freeze your eggs and prolong your fertility until the right one comes along! Starring Ariel Lin, the film is a glimpse of what millions of working women struggle with: finding the balance between pursuing a career and marriage.

Energetic, colourful reworking of Shakespeare’s love story played entirely by women, set in the bustling metropolis of Taipei.

In 1940s Taiwan, during the last days of Japanese rule, an impoverished farming village is less concerned with colonial politics than with feeding their families. One day, an American bomb falls onto a field, where it lies unexploded.

A young woman urgently seeks to navigate the maze of contemporary Taipei and find a future. She hopes that her boyfriend Lung is the key to the future, but Lung is stuck in a past that combines baseball and traditional loyalty that leads him to squander his nest egg bailing her father out of financial trouble.

Two friends who haven't seen each other for thirteen years reunite. One is a successful concert pianist just back from a European tour and the other has just started a new business.

A woman who has owned a barbershop for over 40 years determines to embark on a long journey to cut the hair of an old customer who has moved away and is too sick to travel.

A delivery Boy falls for a young girl who is hearing impaired. Comparing themselves with water birds and trees, together they are going to break the barrier and pursuit their dreams and take their relationship to the next level.

A boy lives with his Grandma and Mr. Lin, the tenant who looks after him and Grandma. But when Grandma passes away, the boy's uncle returns to Taiwan and discovers that ownership of the apartment was transferred to other people.

The film is set in a pre-Covid Taipei, where a group of disenchanted souls are lost in a parallel virtual world.

A substitute teacher from Taipei arrives in a country village to teach a class of mischievous students. He soon falls in love with nature, country life and a fellow teacher at the school.

A photographer travels with her boyfriend to a seaside village in Penghu. There she strikes up a relationship with a blind man. When they reencounter one another back in Taipei, where he is preparing to undergo an operation to restore his sight, their connection intensifies.

Alifu, a 25 year-old Paiwan boy, works as a hair-dresser in Taipei and struggles between his dream of getting a sex change operation and following his father’s footsteps to inherit the title as Chief of the indigenous Paiwan tribe. His lesbian roommate, Pei-Zhen, is also his best friend and confidante. Sherry, a transgender man, is the owner of a drag queen bar. For years, Sherry has been in love with the plumber, Wu, even though Wu only sees him as his buddy. Chris, a civil servant, lives a dull life. A one-time gig as a drag queen in the bar unexpectedly becomes his unique and secret way to relief stress. Chris has no choice but to keep this gig a secret from his girlfriend Angie. Across different genders and sexualities, the only common ground these people share is their search for love, understanding and acceptance. (Source: Golden Village)

10+10 is a project initiated by the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival to demonstrate the solidarity between Taiwanese film-makers. 20 directors are invited to make a 5-minute short film each on the theme of the “Uniqueness of Taiwan,” but allowed total freedom in all other aspects.

Liang Ruoqing is a girl who, after being lied to and dumped by her ideal high-school boyfriend Ai Ren, develops love phobia and vows to never fall in love again. However, she meets a handsome doctor Lu Zhehan at her grandfather's hospital. Lu Zhehan seems to be the perfect guy but since she doesn't believe in "perfect" anymore, she thinks that he is too good to be true. Her new journey begins when she tries to show to all of the women that this doctor is not as good as everyone thinks he is, but fate is playing a trick on her. The more she tries to uncover his hidden evil nature, the more she discovers that he may be the right guy to cure her love phobia.

Mak-Leung is a young woman from the Sung Dynasty era who, from birth, is fated for a great destiny. One day a white dragon emerges from a well in her family's back yard and hands her a wordless book with which she can save the world.

An ordinary day in an ordinary campus, a girl who was loved by everyone killed herself. Everyone is asking why, but no one knows the truth, except these three: a good student, a bad student, and a weird student. For they know the truth of this incident, they decide to do something unordinary for her, as a revenge. They are the partners in crime. However, with the discovery of the girl’s secret diary, we are about to journey back to our high school lives. As an old saying goes, “High school never ends!”

Li Lin and Wu Ai-hua -- two girls growing in a same military dependent community, are of sharp contrast in personalities. The former is charming, smart, open-mined and wild. Never shall she bow to challenges. In her life, she loves only one man -- a handsome and resolute pilot of the air force by the name of Ho Kang, who grew up in the same neighborhood with her. The latter, Wu Ai-hua, is a closed-minded and depressed girl. In the course of her growth, she loves only one man -- the courageous and smart pilot of air force by the name Ho Kang. Her personalities, however, confine her love towards him in secret. Never has she expressed her love toward him. While the two girls have fostered very firm friendship. With the very same lover and with the eventual destiny, can this friendship between the two girls be lasting?

Wu Jia-qian (played by Kelly Lin) opened a marketing company which is struggling to survive in Shanghai. Once she had deals with a upstart entrepreneur Mr Zeng Tian-gao, Mr Zeng employed Miss Wu to re-package and design his personal image to produce results a change of himself in pursuit of a female model Fang-na (Hong Xiao-ling) who dislike his vulgar. Miss Wu made a full upgrade for Mr Zeng not only improves the taste of his dress, but also changed his artistic accomplishment. Miss Wu take full advantage of her marketing strategy, making Mr Zeng famous one night after long-time training and Fang-na fell into love with Zeng when they met again. But this time Mr Zeng felt his real love is Miss Wu.

Encountering each other after a long separation, two childhood friends from orphanage must overcome great odds to fulfill an old promise and find love.

An Shaocheng is a second-generation restaurateur who is supposed to take over their restaurant after he was fooled about his mother's death. He then meets and falls in love with an ordinary-looking but extraordinarily skilled chef, Xin Duoduo.

After you hit bottom, is it possible to return to the top? Former top child actress Lin Wei Zhen (Kimi Hsia) has been unable to find work as she grew older in the entertainment industry, throwing her in the pits of depression and self-pity. She then meets Zhou Shu Yu (Chris Wu), a producer who is at the peak of his successful career. But when his friend Xu Li Da (Mike Lee) and his girlfriend, Yang Jia Xin (Nita Lei), both betray him, Shu Yu loses everything he has worked so hard to attain. With only Wei Zhen at his side at his lowest moment, can the former child star and the rock-bottom producer help each other to regain their former glory?

An ordinary girl is admitted to the most prestigious school in the country where she encounters F4, an exclusive group comprised of the four wealthiest and handsomest boys in the school - Dao Ming Si, Hua Ze Lei, Xi Men and Mei Zuo.

Chu Zhi He who's a goodie two shoes and Wang Da Shu who has a personality that is rigid and sturdy like a tree learn to grow together as they fall in love. Like the show's namesake, animal behavior is quite representative of human nature. Take the giraffe and the squirrel for example, they are a metaphor for two very different people who find a way to coexist.

Jiang Chen-bo is a loser without prospects for success, until a surprise promotion becomes the catalyst for his entire family's upturn in fortune.

Growing up in a large, wealthy family, the three Yuan brothers never wanted for anything. Despite the three of them being only half brothers, the trio was incredibly close, their familial bonds undeniably strong. Whatever the brothers faced, they always faced together. But as they grew older, they began to realize that some things they just couldn’t share, especially when it came to matters of the heart. Now older, Yuan Jun Cheng, Yuan Jun Dao, and Yuan Jun Ping have all felt the overwhelming tide of emotions that comes with love. But the journey has been anything but easy. Fighting against the sweeping tide of feelings that have continually beat against them, telling them things like “no,” “impossible,” and “cannot,” the three brothers must find a way to overcome some of life’s most difficult challenges, as they pursue that which the heart wants most of all—to be loved.

The Legendary Siblings is a Taiwanese television series adapted from Gu Long's novel Juedai Shuangjiao. The series was directed by Lee Kwok-lap and starred Jimmy Lin and Alec Su in the leading roles. It was first broadcast on TTV in Taiwan in 1999

The defeated Kao Jia Yue suddenly comes back home after many years. Many people feel awkward about his return, and hope he will leave soon. His nephew Cheng Yu is the only exception, as he finds Jia Yue different from other adults. Jia Yue realizes everyone, including himself, is struggling in life with so many challenges. His parents have an unhappy marriage, his second brother doesn’t feel he belongs at home, and his third brother is bewildered about his future. However, they continue to stumble and move on in life. Witnessing how everyone works hard to survive, Jia Yue also starts to plan his next step. He thought it was time to carry out his suicide plan…