My Smithereens: 海角7号

I especially loved the time with my dearie this weekend. I must admit I really missed her recently (she claims that I am suffering from my version of PMS *faints* What "M" can I have? *haha*). It may be due to the end of our weekly Wednesday lunch after she started her new job, and our shorter phone conversations at night so she can prepare for her examination. I'm now convinced of the saying "absence makes the heart grow fonder".

The fact that we caught a much anticipated movie on Saturday matters a lot to me too. It was a mini celebration on 2 fronts - I received my results for my graduate studies in Compliance, and she just cleared the first exam for her course in HR.

And of course the movie! Yours truly have the habit of searching for Taiwanese drama/movies/ variety shows on YouTube since I don't suscribe to cable television. And that's how I know of the Taiwanese film 《海角7号》 when it was released in August.

The movie apparently created a healthy amount of controversy.

Firstly, China openly frowned on its renegade state releasing a film about a tangled love story between a Taiwanese and a Japanese. China has a film censorship board that hands out permissions for film to be shown in the cinemas. No prizes for guessing if it made it to the mainland market.
Secondly, it was filmed in Heng Chun 恒春, a seaside town in Southern Taiwan that was struck by Typhoon Nakri during the production. Hence, the success of the film signify the nation's ability to strive in the disaster.
Thirdly, it was a low-budget Taiwanese production by a rookie director, but it later became the top-grossing Taiwanese film in many years, to the surprise of many industry insiders.
Lastly, the movie gave 2 has-been singers Van Fan 范逸臣 & Shino Lin 林晓培, whom I really like, a chance to 咸鱼翻身 (a Chinese saying, literally translated as "turning the salted fish", but it refers how a person manage to redeem himself from a setback). Van was hugely popular years back with songs such as 信仰爱情. It's just a pity that fickle consumers ditched him when he did a Prince (i.e. fell out with his record company over differing views on music direction and gave up his prior sucess - he became a rocker and wasn't as well received as when he was a boyish crooner) AND a George Michael (i.e. breaking the law in an embarassing way - he was being charged by local police for relieving himself publicly at the streets!). Whereas Shino was a hugely popular until she committed a super-Britney (i.e. charged by the police for drink driving and traffic accident - except she killed a pedestrian when Britney merely rammed into a lamp post).

Anyway, this movie left JT choked with emotions. Was it the touching love story revolving the 7 letters written 60 years ago? The heartfelt words 阿嘉 said to ask 友子 to stay ( "留下来，或者我跟你走")? The unspoken stories behind the characters in the show that reflect modern day issues? The beautiful sandy beach? Or my soft spot for poems used in scripts of Chinese theatre/ MTV/ films. Maybe it's all of the above, or just the foreword to the movie:-

每个人心中都有一封寄不出的情书，

不管是寄到天涯，还是...《海角七号》

Ok, if you are not a sucker for poetic lines like this, watch this film for Formosa's (It is not called 宝岛 for nothing) charming countryside, witty acting, catchy tunes, and of course the good looking actresses or actors (depending which camp you belong to).

By the way, if you are sending me any correspondence, please avoid a fiasco like what happened in the film - Address it to 勿洛北4道96号!