personal vs commercial
hmmm... just finished watching episode 8 of meteor garden 2 (yup, i'm one of them :P) and read some of the postings about mg2 at the indosiar online forum. seems like the fans are very disappointed in the main character's drastic change in attitude and love interest (me included), and the gossip is that they're boycotting the tv show in taiwan that the rating dropped... the screenwriter then had to revise her (his?) storyline to satisfy the fans' demands....
which made me think... where do you draw the line between personal expression and necessary commercial purposes?
i guess when you're writing a sequel to a popular tv series, esp one that is almost becoming (or has been?) a cult to its fanatic viewers all around asia, you should know better what you're in for. it's impossible to escape the fact that the main idea behind the whole thing is nothing but pure commercial, and so of course it has to be tailored to what the consumer wants, just like an ad or any other form of mass communication where target audience is king. so it's not so much a question whether the director/screenwriter sell out, because i'm pretty sure it was meant to be a commercial product from the start.