Long time no blog...
Watched 2 great movies -
a) Twenty Something Taipei
b) About Love
from IMDB
which take place in three Asian cities, are loosely linked, they are
nowhere comparable in complexity to the essentially interlocking
stories in 21 Grams. As the matter of fact, the links are not at all
necessary, as the stories are independently intact. The links, I
suppose, are put there to extract the ooh's and aah's from people who
dig such things. Nor is the structure anywhere near the brilliance of
Amores Perros.
Although the title is "About Love", the stories touch more on the
"pre-love" sentiments sometimes called infatuation, that delicate
"click" that starts a bitter sweet relationship which, in time, may or
may not blossom into love. Equally interesting, as my summary line
suggests, is that aspect of cultural and language barrier that is quite
similar to what we see in Japanese Story. Here, however, the gap is
smaller as the encounters are within Asian cultures, in each case
between two young people, one Chinese and one Japanese. In all three
cases, one of the two is going through a tough period after a breakup.
Each story, however, has its own unique flavor.
In Tokyo, he is a Chinese computer graphic artist seeking to enrich his
exposure while she is a Japanese painter struggling to recover from a
broken relationship. This is the simplest and sweetest of the three
stories, starting with hidden mutual attraction and ending in their
first meeting. This is also the only one of the three stories with a
"sub-plot" (a really glorified use of the term) of his friendship with
two other art students, both girls, one Chinese and one Japanese.
In Taipei, she is a local girl suffering from a broken heart and he is
a Japanese visitor she asks in the middle of the night to help putting
up a wall unit. This is the only story with a scene of brief libido
drive which, however, quickly subsides. The rest of the story is on his
helping her by asking her ex-boyfriend whether there is a chance of
getting back together. Among the three, this is the story that plays
most on the language barrier thing, with some absolutely hilarious
scenes resulting.
In Shanghai, he is a Japanese student renting a room from her mother.
She probably has a crush on him at first sight but keeps it deeply
hidden when she sees how devoted he is to his girlfriend. But when he
gets a postcard from the girlfriend ending their relationship, her
attraction to him intensifies, although she never reveals it. This is
the most poignant of the three stories. Romance aside, this story also
takes a quick jab at the maddening scene of urban development of
Shanghai.
This thoughtful film by three capable Asian directors should not fail
to delight, even if not enthrall.
Starring:
In Tokyo - Ito Misaki, Chen Bo-lin
In Taipei - Kase Ryo, Mavis Fan
In Shanghai - Tsukamoto Takashi, Li Xiaolu
Directors: Shimoyama Ten, Yee Chih-yen, Zhang Yibai"
Will try to update the blog soon... and I just have a crazy idea of starting another blog of another nature.... I'm spaced out
I love the movie "Twenty SOmething Taipei" certainly a good insight into the social lifestyle of the Taiwanese youngs...
Posted by Anonymous | 9:11 AM
yupz!! hehehe... I love the show too!
Posted by ShutterBug | 4:01 PM