Wishing Upon a Shooting Star: Identity, Desire, and the Future of Taiwanese BL Drama
- CZMOS Redazione
- 3 days ago
- 7 min read
Exclusive interview with director Ray Jiang, producer Sammi Pan, and actors Jed Chung and Chu Meng-Hsuan
A special thanks to GagaOOLala and Portico Media for giving us the opportunity to put these questions to the team behind this series.
What is Wishing Upon a Shooting Star?
Wishing Upon a Shooting Star (向流星許願的我們) is the 2026 Taiwanese BL series that surprised international audiences with its emotional depth and narrative courage. Twelve episodes, available on Viki, iQIYI, GagaOOLala, and Rakuten TV, adapted from the short story The Correct Way to Watch a Meteor Shower by writer Chung Min-Jui.
The plot: Xiang Yong (Jed Chung), a shy, recently fired office worker, returns to his hometown and makes a wish, to not be recognized. The wish comes true. Excluded from his own family, he finds himself a stranger to himself but strangely visible to the one person who matters: his high school love, Hao Wei (Chu Meng-Hsuan).
Directed by Golden Bell Award winner Ray Jiang and produced by Sammi Pan, the series was selected as early as 2023 at the TCCF Pitching International Proposal Conference. In 2026 it became one of the most discussed BL titles of the year, with over 7,500 active viewers on MyDramaList in its first weeks.
We had the opportunity to put some questions to the director, the producer, and the two leads. Here is what they told us.
Abbiamo avuto l'opportunità di rivolgere alcune domande al regista, alla producer e ai due protagonisti. Ecco cosa ci hanno risposto.
Jed Chung (He Xiang Yong): Existing Inside a Life That Does Not Belong to You
Your character is forced to exist inside a life that does not belong to him. In building this role, which frightened you more: losing yourself entirely, or being seen by others as a complete stranger?
I think it would be being seen as a stranger. If you lose yourself entirely, at least it sounds like a situation where your memory has been wiped clean without your knowledge, and you simply start a new life. But once you have experienced what Xiang Yong goes through, being forgotten by the entire world, with the person you love right in front of you yet being completely powerless to do anything about it, that helplessness goes beyond panic. It borders on hysteria.
How do you think this series portrays the way people hold on to each other, especially when the person you love is no longer the person you once knew?
I think that even though Wishing Upon a Shooting Star is telling us "the right way to watch a shooting star is to accept that the wish will not come true," it still leaves us with hope at the bottom of despair: "The soul may forget, but emotions leave an imprint." That belief is what keeps Xiang Yong fighting to recover Hao Wei's memories.
The two of you had worked together previously and built a strong rapport. When it came to actually filming the now-famous "umbrella kiss" scene, were there any unexpected sparks?
Physically, of course, I never imagined my lips would actually meet Da Chu's. But when the kiss actually happened, I felt surprisingly calm inside. We had always been so close in the way we interact, almost like family, and neither of us had ever set boundaries with each other. As for sparks, the moment our tongues touched was a genuine surprise I had not anticipated for that scene. But thinking about it afterward, given how far Xiang Yong and Hao Wei's emotional arc had developed by that point, a deeper kiss was entirely natural (laughs).
Chu Meng-Hsuan (Chen Hao Wei): Longing Is Born from Misunderstanding
How do you think this series portrays the way people hold on to each other, especially when the person you love is no longer the person you once knew?
I think longing is born from misunderstanding. When you fall in love with someone, even the smallest misunderstanding can spiral into a storm of overthinking. None of it is intentional. But I believe that even if two people forget each other completely and meet again for the first time, they would still be drawn to one another.
The two of you had worked together previously and built a strong rapport. When it came to actually filming the now-famous "umbrella kiss" scene, were there any unexpected sparks?
I believe the fact that we are genuinely friends made a huge difference in our performance. There has to be a certain kind of resonance between two people to make intimate scenes feel complete. I hope everyone can feel the sense of something hard-won that we were trying to convey.
Ray Jiang, Director: Digital Identity, Honest Emotions, and Trust on Set
In Wishing Upon a Shooting Star, identity is never fixed. It can vanish, transfer, or even be rewritten. Do you think this reflects how our generation, especially those who grew up online, experiences identity?
I think the show does reflect the reality that modern people can easily be one person in real life and someone entirely different behind a keyboard. Sometimes we dislike our true selves and fantasize about being someone else, convinced that not being who we really are would somehow be better. But when you actually hide behind a screen, all you are really doing is releasing certain inner desires. That is not the whole you.
So when I was developing this character and this script, the idea that people of the internet generation carry multiple identities was something that could help audiences quickly grasp what the act of wishing in Wishing Upon a Shooting Star truly means.
BL stories are often labeled as "romantic," but this series feels more like a head-on confrontation with loneliness and desire. Do you think BL dramas are evolving from pure fantasy into something more emotionally honest?
I never thought of BL as purely fantasy to begin with. These stories may well reflect experiences that actually exist in some viewers' lives, or processes they have genuinely been through. It is just that in earlier BL works, these emotions tended to be presented in sweeter ways. But human emotions are sweet, salty, bitter, and spicy all at once. In BL, we have leaned heavily into the joyful side and rarely explored the pain.
So I believe this has always been a work that faces emotions honestly. The difference is simply how you choose to tell the story. You can narrate the same experience in a heartbreaking tone or a joyful one. It is a matter of approach.
The story constantly pulls between reality and miracles. If you had to choose like the characters do, would you rather live in a painful truth or embrace a comforting illusion?
If I could choose the way the characters do, I would rather live in the truth. When we try to embrace someone through deception, even with the kindest of intentions, it is still a lie. If I had the choice, I would want to know the truth, because being kept in the dark or being deceived is a deeply unpleasant feeling.
While directing this series, how did you guide the actors into their roles, especially in scenes that required intense emotional depth?
I think the most important key to guiding actors is trust. Once actors and their director reach a certain level of trust, they feel at ease with your direction. I also make sure to explain why I need them to do something a certain way, whether it is about what we want to convey in the series or what kind of emotional buildup a character requires for the audience to see and understand.
I often start by simply being their friend. I want them to feel free of the pressure of "performing a role" and instead enjoy the creative process. That way, actors naturally draw on their own real emotions and apply them to the character. I find this approach helps them inhabit their roles and bring out something truly distinctive.
Sammi Pan, Producer: BL as an Expanding Emotional Space
In Wishing Upon a Shooting Star, identity is never fixed. It can vanish, transfer, or even be rewritten. Do you think this reflects how our generation, especially those who grew up online, experiences identity?
In today's hyper-connected digital world, identity is no longer a fixed label. Online, identity can be edited, switched, and even rebooted at any moment. We move between different accounts and communities, and while this flexibility gives us the power of choice, it also raises a profound question: who is the real me?
In Wishing Upon a Shooting Star, the fantasy premise drives the disappearance and transference of identity. When we are forced to shed every external definition, label, and social construct, what remains at the core of our soul? If you could reboot your identity, what would you choose? This is precisely what we wanted to explore: the process of rediscovering oneself in a world where reality and illusion constantly intertwine.
BL stories are often labeled as "romantic," but this series feels more like a head-on confrontation with loneliness and desire. Do you think BL dramas are evolving from pure fantasy into something more emotionally honest?
In recent years, a growing number of BL series have prioritized character development, moving beyond singular romantic narratives to address self-identity, fear of the future, and the struggles and choices within relationships.
In Wishing Upon a Shooting Star, we let the characters face those moments that are not romantic at all. When someone truly confronts the emotions within, those feelings can sometimes draw you closer to yourself, and sometimes leave you even more lost.
Rather than saying BL has evolved from fantasy to reality, I would say the genre is gradually expanding the emotional range it can carry. It can still be romantic, but it can also be vulnerable, contradictory, and even uncomfortably raw. It is precisely this complexity and imperfection that gives these stories their powerful vitality.
The story constantly pulls between reality and miracles. If you had to choose like the characters do, would you rather live in a painful truth or embrace a comforting illusion?
If I had to choose, I would choose to live in the painful truth, but never give up on creating comforting illusions.
The truth is often painful and hard to face, yet people possess a resilience that allows them to create miracles strong enough to sustain one another. Truth keeps us awake. Illusion gives us the courage to keep going. My hope is that after watching this series, audiences will not feel they must choose between truth and illusion, but instead learn to carry the scars of truth and still embrace the small, luminous miracles that life offers.
Where to Watch Wishing Upon a Shooting Star
The series is available to stream on Viki, iQIYI, GagaOOLala, Rakuten TV, and YOUKU, with weekly episodes every Thursday through June 4, 2026.
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