From the mind of Giddens Ko, who brought us the 2011 hit You Are The Apple Of My Eye, who continued to amaze me with the quality of the movie from a country that 5 years ago didn't even fly under my radar.
This time, he left the reins to a newcomer director, Chiang Chin Lin, but focusing on being a producer instead. From his previous effort as well, Machi Action, it seemed like Ko would much rather focus on the writing than the directing. But judging from this fantastical story, he's really good at it and I would want to track down Machi Action as well.
What I noticed this time from both Ko and newcomer Chiang were some influence in their style of direction and storytelling from a few big Hollywood names, like the absurdity of humour that is strongly present in Judd Apatow's movies, and the stylised pacing that Edgar Wright has delivered so well. Still, all good things to be "borrowing".
Chiang also struck gold with his lead actress. Vivian Sung was the perfect fit for the character; from her personality, style, right down to her mannerisms and the way she talked. That's why she's so entertaining to watch and was able to capture the hearts of the audience.
Two other performers that I thought were really good were Lee Luo the gangster mediator and Megan Lai the barista. Lai played the icy-cool character with style and attitude, while Lee stole every scene in the movie with great acting, even in the movie within the movie.
Pauline Lan also turned a humour-filled performance as the love interest for Lee.
Other than that, I thought Marcus Chang's mysterious character was too mysterious and wasn't sure if it was his acting that needed improvement. As for Bruce (his Chinese name is directly translated from just Bruce), I also couldn't tell if it was the direction given to him that he acted it to goofy perfection, or he actually wasn't that good and that character could have been so much more. Judging from his experience, this being his first movie, I'll go with the latter.
Vivian Chow, on the other hand, a veteran singer but probably not one in the acting field, gave an adequate performance while struggling with Mandarin pronunciations. But it was really good and a pleasant surprise to see her again as I have no idea what she's up to in the last decade or so.
But Chiang has such a great way of introducing his characters. Even those with very small roles, they would enter the movie and make some kind of an impact. Chiang took very great care in little details like these and I do appreciate that.
There was also no clear lead actor. And I believe that's what Ko was going for. This may also be the reason for the male actors selection, as none of them stood out other than the one who's clearly not the main lead actor, Lee. The result being, the audience had no idea which direction the story would go until right at the end; and that's the brilliance of the movie.
Unfortunately in the middle, after all the snappy pacing, when things jumped to flashbacks and that's when the story slowed down for me. The heavy subplots created too big of a distraction to a point where sometimes I didn't care. And just had to wait until the main plot came back on.
There were also a lot of songs used in this movie, and especially in a very distinguishable style of Taiwanese music videos, they could have easily felt like one (just like what I said about Yasmine movie). But, Chiang was very clear and careful to not fall into that light and the songs became very complimentary.
This, overall, was such an enjoyable, heart-warming and light-hearted movie that I'm slowly becoming a fan of Giddens Ko.
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