I've lived in Taiwan for 7 years now. I've seen movies like Jay Chou's "Secret" put a fine twist on the Sci-Fi genre, Cape #7 dominate the box office (pulling in half a billion dollars in Taiwan's currency) and KANO leave an amazing lasting impression --- yet nothing prepared me for the stunning beauty of this simple love story set mostly in 1994 era Haulien.
Though the movie has modern day bookends (opening & closing the movie is a sort of "Where did it all go wrong" prologue) the main brunt of the time is spent following Truly Lin as she matures through her senior year of high school. What starts as a simple coming of age story starts taking on a life of it's own through the sheer force of the main two characters, Lin Truly & Hsu TaiYu. (In Chinese, last names are first)
Vivian Sung plays the younger version of Truly Lin and Darren Wang the younger version of TaiYu Hsu. Both actors bring such amazing life to the characters that midway through the movie you will have forgotten there are other characters actually in the movie. They both dominate the movie powerfully, showing vividly the awkwardness, determination, innocence and zest for life that so accompany being a teenager. Doubtless, the way these two play off each other will be studied for years to come and copied by many Taiwanese directors and screen writers. Their performance was honestly flawless.
I don't want to spoil the movie in any way, but I've already seen it three times in one week and it is really hard not to sing the praise of something so magical --- I guess the simplest way to put it is that this is one of the most breathtaking movies I've ever seen, start to finish. As one of my ESL students remarked on her Facebook page, "went to the bathroom after the movie, and every girl there was puffy-eyed from crying." It really will do that to you, even after the credits start rolling.
Though the movie has modern day bookends (opening & closing the movie is a sort of "Where did it all go wrong" prologue) the main brunt of the time is spent following Truly Lin as she matures through her senior year of high school. What starts as a simple coming of age story starts taking on a life of it's own through the sheer force of the main two characters, Lin Truly & Hsu TaiYu. (In Chinese, last names are first)
Vivian Sung plays the younger version of Truly Lin and Darren Wang the younger version of TaiYu Hsu. Both actors bring such amazing life to the characters that midway through the movie you will have forgotten there are other characters actually in the movie. They both dominate the movie powerfully, showing vividly the awkwardness, determination, innocence and zest for life that so accompany being a teenager. Doubtless, the way these two play off each other will be studied for years to come and copied by many Taiwanese directors and screen writers. Their performance was honestly flawless.
I don't want to spoil the movie in any way, but I've already seen it three times in one week and it is really hard not to sing the praise of something so magical --- I guess the simplest way to put it is that this is one of the most breathtaking movies I've ever seen, start to finish. As one of my ESL students remarked on her Facebook page, "went to the bathroom after the movie, and every girl there was puffy-eyed from crying." It really will do that to you, even after the credits start rolling.