This story about a naive 17-year-old coming to the city looking for love just doesn't ring true. Well, true enough, anyway. In his apartment (or dorm room), at the beginning of the movie, there's a poster on the wall for the film Happy Together. Let me warn you--if you admired the gritty realism, film style, and eyes-wide-open anti-romance of that film, Formula 17 is its polar opposite.
And in more ways than one. That the virginal student, Tien, even knows about Happy Together--much less admires it enough to display the poster--is completely incongruous with his character.
Tien's best friend, with whom he bunks in the city, is a comic character that probably doesn't translate accurately. I can well imagine Taiwanese audiences finding his high queen low comedy hilarious. But I felt I was not only missing language subtleties, some cultural subtleties must have eluded me too. I found very little of his shtick humorous or entertaining. The same goes for the roommate's two friends, also intended to be comic. Not for me.
The actor who plays the anti-hero Bai seems to be acting in another movie altogether--maybe an Ang Lee drama, or maybe even Happy Together. His gravitas is a couple of notches above what is necessary for this bit of fluff.
Toward the end of the movie Tien's three pals confront Bai. At one point one of them insists that he speak Mandarin. It was at that moment that I felt I'd been completely missing an entire dimension of the movie, something that had to do with cultural and language differences between the characters. Similarly, there are a number of dialog-free scenes that are underscored with untranslated Chinese pop songs. Again, I felt I was probably missing something.
I agree, this film has it's heart in the right place. The production is clearly low-budget, but that isn't detracting. The story-line is not very original, but that's not detracting either, really. What was a major minus for me, though, was the feeling that as a non-Chinese speaker, I was missing more than half of what was going on.
There isn't much to this movie. But what little is there almost certainly depends upon a thorough understanding of the language and culture to appreciate fully. Without that understanding you're watching a bit of fluff that will strike you as seriously deficient in content and quality. And that may not be entirely true.
And in more ways than one. That the virginal student, Tien, even knows about Happy Together--much less admires it enough to display the poster--is completely incongruous with his character.
Tien's best friend, with whom he bunks in the city, is a comic character that probably doesn't translate accurately. I can well imagine Taiwanese audiences finding his high queen low comedy hilarious. But I felt I was not only missing language subtleties, some cultural subtleties must have eluded me too. I found very little of his shtick humorous or entertaining. The same goes for the roommate's two friends, also intended to be comic. Not for me.
The actor who plays the anti-hero Bai seems to be acting in another movie altogether--maybe an Ang Lee drama, or maybe even Happy Together. His gravitas is a couple of notches above what is necessary for this bit of fluff.
Toward the end of the movie Tien's three pals confront Bai. At one point one of them insists that he speak Mandarin. It was at that moment that I felt I'd been completely missing an entire dimension of the movie, something that had to do with cultural and language differences between the characters. Similarly, there are a number of dialog-free scenes that are underscored with untranslated Chinese pop songs. Again, I felt I was probably missing something.
I agree, this film has it's heart in the right place. The production is clearly low-budget, but that isn't detracting. The story-line is not very original, but that's not detracting either, really. What was a major minus for me, though, was the feeling that as a non-Chinese speaker, I was missing more than half of what was going on.
There isn't much to this movie. But what little is there almost certainly depends upon a thorough understanding of the language and culture to appreciate fully. Without that understanding you're watching a bit of fluff that will strike you as seriously deficient in content and quality. And that may not be entirely true.