Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one - Albert Einstein
Don't you think so too? It's after all our perceptions, thoughts, mind that add colors to this plain white canvas world. Is this movie enjoyable? Is she tall? Is he smart? Isn't the movie just the movie, she just she and he just he? It's how we perceive this world that adds dualistic attributes to the movie, she and he.
How much suffering and fear, and How many harmful things are in existence? If all arises from clinging to the "I", What should I do with this great demon? - Shantideva
The sound of the electric guitar, drums, bass, the raw and imperfect sound of the voice of the singer, the jumping "high" rocker, the random acts of the rockers, the energy being emitted from the stage, the roaring crowds, the feeling nothing else matters at this moment in time...
Just watching tis vid makes me recall the vibes I had in Singfest 08...
Wat can I say... All I can tis is perhaps the best new year start I ever had...
First thing when I saw this poster was "Another love story?". Then when I heard MFR say tis movie was Taiwan produced I was like "Ugh...". But when I noticed the pix of letter stamp and the letters on top of this poster I get the vibes maybe it won't be that bad...
The few minutes into the movie, we are treated to a scenery of one of those small titanic romantic ship slowly drifting across the ocean... A japanese man echoes some crap bout he goin back to Japan and going to miss his gal, blablabla... As the ship slowly drifts across the sunset... Fast forward to today, A young dude carrying a guitar tries to ride his motorbike with a load of luggage, as he clumsily drop his guitar from the overloaded motorbike, we can see from the body language the dude seems frustrated with something. The dude unzip his guitar case and take our his guitar, and *Crack*... We are then treated to the most rocking n rolling part in this movie, that shatters my whole perception and stereotyping for this movie...
Falling into the hybrid of Comedy cum Love cum Rock n Roll genre, this movie really blew my stereotype that Taiwan Love story are too mushy for the entire human race. The movie is woven together by 2 main stories. The tale of the love letters of the hidden feelings of a Japanese man that was never sent to his lover in Taiwan during the end of World War 2 and the tale of Hengchun villagers effort to assemble a band to represent their old, diverse yet colorful cultures/folks/tradition in a concert to promote their village. While the movie mainly runs on the latter story, bits and pieces of the former story is revealed across the movie and contributes in the final thrust in the resolve for this movie (as well as supplement the main theme song).
The usage of Hokkien language and some pretty vulgar slangs really adds to the enjoyment of this movie for me even though I had to rely on the subtitles to pull me though in some parts of the movie. Oh ya, there Japanese language too in this movie. As for comedy depth, I think the idea of casting a bunch of people that *really* destroys the stereotype of peoples in a rock band is highly creative, innovative and most important funny. As for romance, a so-so rating for me cept a thumbs up for the usage of the concept of undelivered love letters to represent the unrevealed emotions of love of a man to his lover in the story. For rock and roll meanwhile, I only managed to recall 2 memorable rock songs, one in the start (the most rock n roll scene, read above) and the one the rock song perform in the concert. The main theme song that if I'm not mistaken is a ballad, was pretty good and unique in its own way but not so rockin as the 2 songs. The cast from was I read on the Internet was mainly made out non-actors really did a very well job in conveying a shameless, arrogant, blunt, egomaniac yet warm in the inside citizens of Hengchun village.
I must admit I screw up in sizing up this movie from 1st glance, and frankly speaking couldn't be more happier I did. I must therefore eat my words for my mistake in stereotyping Taiwanese movies so...
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