The Abandoned

Murder, Mud & Marriage Pacts: The Juicy Real-Life Drama Behind The Abandoned (2023)

When the cameras stopped rolling on Taiwan’s bleak crime thriller The Abandoned, the bodies on screen weren’t the only things causing a stir. Between decades-long “will-they-won’t-they” tension, political landmines, and a director who gleefully “abused” his leads in the name of art, this set was anything but quiet.

On-Set Drama: When BFFs Finally Blew Up

• At a Beijing premiere event, Janine Chang dropped the bomb: in 16 years of friendship with co-star Ethan Juan, they had never fought—until this movie. She confessed they actually argued during filming. The reason? Juan kept insisting she hit him harder in a physical confrontation scene, and she finally snapped at him over his “hit me like you mean it” method-acting bravado .
• Chinese entertainment coverage framed it as “戏里打架、戏外吵架” (“fighting in the movie, quarreling outside it”), and Weibo clips of the premiere were gleefully captioned “she’s causing a scene, he’s coldly smirking” as fans dissected every micro-expression between the two .

Cast Feuds & Tea: 16 Years of ‘Love-Hate’ Chemistry

• Chang and Juan first teamed up in 2007’s Wayward Kenting and have been pegged as one of Taiwanese TV’s classic “CPs” ever since. At The Abandoned promo events, media openly framed them as “相爱相杀” — basically “love each other, drive each other crazy” .
• One widely shared Weibo clip from a roadshow shows Chang clowning around while Juan sits there with a deadpan, half-annoyed grin. The hashtag “她在闹他在冷笑” (“she’s clowning, he’s coldly laughing”) trended in the movie’s promo bubble, with fans calling them “old married couple energy” ^[2].
• Another promo video has Juan joking he’s “emotionally blackmailed” by Chang into doing projects with her—gossip accounts spun that as “Ethan Juan甘愿被情勒” (“Ethan Juan willingly lets her emotionally blackmail him”) during The Abandoned press .

Romance Rumors: The 50-Year Marriage Pact & Third-Party Buzz

• Long before The Abandoned hit Netflix, Chang revealed in a casual broadcast that a friend once tried to set her up with Juan—and that they’d made a “50 years old, we’ll marry each other if we’re still single” pact. That little bombshell, preserved in write‑ups and fan posts, has fueled CP shippers for years .
• Chinese outlets couldn’t resist. A 2023 article about Chang’s tangled love life explicitly name-drops that “50-year promise” with Juan while listing past rumored beaus, painting him as the eternally waiting “backup groom” .
• Then came director Ko Wen‑li. In late 2023, paparazzi reported him staying overnight at Chang’s home, after arriving with her mother and leaving alone the next morning, prompting “year-end wedding” speculation. Comment sections immediately dragged Juan back into it—“what about the 50-year pact?”—turning The Abandoned’s leading man into involuntary third wheel in her alleged new romance .
• Meanwhile, Juan has his own rumor mill: Taiwanese and K-ent gossip pages buzzed about him dating a much younger “mysterious heiress” studying in Korea after they were spotted on what looked very much like a Harajuku date . Not directly tied to The Abandoned, but it added extra spice to every joint interview with Chang.

Scandals & Controversies: Political Landmines & Paparazzi Wars

• Chang walked into The Abandoned already carrying a political powder keg. Her 2010 master’s thesis—where she referred to Taiwan as “my country”—was resurrected in 2021 by nationalist Chinese netizens, who accused her of pro-independence views and pushed for her to be blacklisted from mainland productions . Trade outlets like Variety and Yahoo Entertainment noted she was quietly dropped from at least one major drama amid the backlash ^[9]. That controversy still gets dredged up under every big new project, including this film.
• She’s also no stranger to paparazzi clashes: in 2020, her studio had to issue a statement after a confrontation in a hotel corridor went viral. They said she was being secretly filmed during a confidential shoot, staff repeatedly asked the person to stop, and were then shoved and cursed at. The studio insisted they were only trying to protect set secrecy and her safety, and reserved the right to pursue legal action over “malicious smears” . That helped cement Chang’s “won’t tolerate nonsense” reputation right before she stepped into a hard-boiled cop role and producer’s chair on The Abandoned.

Wild Trivia: Abuse by Cabbage Diet, Swollen Eyes & Mud Baptisms

• Chang’s glow-down for the movie was brutal. For months before filming, she reportedly lived on cabbage and boiled eggs, dropping about 7–9 kg to look like a woman shattered by grief and insomnia ^[6]. At the Taipei premiere, director Tseng Ying‑ting cheerfully admitted he told her he wanted to “abuse” her for the role—and she allegedly replied, “Go ahead” ^[11].
• Juan’s big breakdown scene cost him his eyelids. For a climactic interrogation meltdown, he forced himself to hold back tears for around 16 hours of shooting to reach the right emotional explosion. The next morning his eyes were so swollen he could barely open them; he’s since called it the toughest sustained performance of his career ^[11].
• The film’s rain‑soaked corpse‑digging sequences weren’t movie magic: Juan slogged barefoot through mud and cold water, repeatedly hauling fake bodies under heavy rain rigs, something he’s joked about in interviews as “the day I questioned my life choices.”
• As producer, Chang went full nerd: she wrote a fictional autobiography for her character—detailing meeting her husband, their marriage, and the aftermath of his suicide—to anchor every scene in an internal timeline. She also carried handcuffs and a prop gun in her bag off-camera so handling them would look second nature on screen .

Leaks, Debates & Fan Theories

• Critics and fans on Taiwanese forums and blogs fixated on the film’s grisly calling card: missing ring fingers and hearts. One widely shared essay broke down how the crimes form a warped “love metaphor,” tying the ring finger (marriage, commitment) and heart (emotion) to the killer’s twisted romantic grievance .
• Viewers on PTT’s movie board praised the production value but debated whether festival feedback led to a “tightened” theatrical cut—some posts complain the ending feels rushed and that certain character motivations (especially the killer’s) could have used more runtime . It’s not proven there was a longer cut, but the “where’s the director’s version?” chatter is very real.

The Big Picture

No TMZ arrests, no trailer‑leak lawsuits—but The Abandoned is quietly stacked with the good stuff: a decades-long not‑quite‑romance between its leads, a political storm haunting its star, a director openly bragging about “abusing” his cast for art, and fans reading murder metaphors as relationship therapy. For a grim little serial‑killer noir, the off‑screen drama might be the juiciest subplot of all.