What A View | Netflix Taiwanese drama More than Blue retells a sad story, with love, doom-laden songs, tragedy and a few laughs

A series to be welcomed by suckers for sentimentality (but perhaps not those in a fragile state of mind), More than Blue (Netflix) wastes little time in providing a taster of the tragedy and tears that define this Taiwanese retelling of the 2009 Korean film of the same name – and the 2018 Taiwanese film that retold that story.

Chang Kun-cheng’s beloved record shop must close because leukaemia is about to beat him. His dutiful son, Chang Che-kai (Fandy Fan), with college entrance exams looming, knows he should be studying, but his father’s illness derails his ambitions. As does having to work nights at a convenience store.

Pushing him over the edge, however, (and supplying a vital dose of humour) is troubled new girl in school, Sung Yuan-yuan (Gingle Wang), a firebrand who repeatedly beats him up while seemingly on a quest to get herself expelled.

They soon become a mutual-admiration society – which is where their problems really begin. Chang, playing the guitar given to him by his father (thereby trowelling on more sentimentality), becomes, with Sung, the songwriting partnership K and Cream, specialising in doom-laden ditties (naturally). Will their young love be given a chance? Can it survive their next desolate chorus?

Some considerable time later, when a CD they cut resurfaces at a record-company meeting, their tragic story can be told in full, in flashback. One of their saccharine songs is thought perfect for a new album by vocalist A-Lin (appearing as herself) but copyright must be secured, which means tracking them down – a mission led by record-company executive Wang Po-han (Wang Po-chieh), who knows a few of K and Cream’s buried secrets.

More than Blue is a 10-episode test of the viewer’s emotional mettle and capacity to absorb a soundtrack bursting with bereft ballads. You won’t be dancing in the aisles.