About Love (2005)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Directors:

Ten Shimoyama
Chin-yen Yee

Writers:

Haruko Nagatsu (writer)
Wei Shen (writer)

Release Date:

12 April 2005 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Romance

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Bo-lin Chen	...	Yao (segment "Tokyo")
Mavis Fan	...	A-Su (segment "Taipei")
Yui Ichikawa	...	Yuka (segment 'Tokyo')
Misaki Ito	...	Michiko (segment "Tokyo")
Ryo Kase	...	Tecchan (segment "Taipei")
Lu Lu	...	Yun (segment "Shanghai") (as Xiaolu Li)
Ren Osugi	...	Shop owner (segment 'Tokyo')
Takashi Tsukamoto	...	Shuhei (segment "Shanghai")
Rui Yang	...	Min

Also Known As:

Guan yu ai (Taiwan)

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

Taiwan | China | Japan

Language:

Japanese | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS-Stereo

Certification:

Taiwan:GP | Hong Kong:IIA

Filming Locations:

Shanghai, China

Company:

Movie-Eye Entertainment

Finally, some Chinese actors/actresses who can act

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Just to clarify any accusation of me being stereotypical, I am a Chinese, born in Shanghai. I moved to Canada when I was 8, and for the next decade I followed the Chinese cinema with diminishing enthusiasm. Its probably because of the pathetic profitability, due to piracy, Chinese movies suffer from lack of originality and depth. In the romance genre, its almost always about love triangle, shy girls and guys, rebellion against family, and etc. Lately, I have spread my horizon towards other Asian films, namely Korean. Films like One Fine Spring Day, Il Mare, Christmas in August, Harmonium in My Dream, all have a single important property, implicity. These films fully utilizes silence, gesture, quiet background music, and scenery to illicit a quiet understanding of what the character is feeling. Now, finally China catches onto this new trend, much unlike the Hollywood's CGI, $20 million salary actors, and explosions. Now, about the movie, each story is unique in its own ways, and together, compliments each other. Possible Spoiler********

Tokyo - This is story that trades affection for passion. There is no steamy love scene. Instead it present a companionship. The guy is alone in a 20 million people city, barely able to communicate. The girl suffers from a recent breakup. Unique feature: The photos taken showing the two people constantly close, but never meeting each other. The flip papers, very original.

TaiPei - Although this story contains passion, it is ultimately about companionship if not friendship. As the story progress, you can really feel the torment in the girl. The insomnia, the rebound, the desperation of getting back together, is perfect. Many firms would have overdone it. The guy's understanding and his determination to help, is both touching and hilarious. Unique feature: the comic relief of their dance, the tunnel scene.

Shanghai - Since this is my hometown, it has a very special place in my heart. The laundries along the street, the bickering of the mother, and the wasteland caused a sea of memories to rush back. The secret love of this story is extremely subtle and overwhelming. The girl's attention to detail, tone of her voice, and since this is probably her first love, it is very innocent. Of the three male actors in the three stories, the guy in this story may be weakest character. His breakup is not nearly as powerful as the prior two. Unique features: The goodbye btw the girl and guy, the reattachment of the letter(which I am amazed that the guy did not find suspicious, considering she asked him to translate), and the street(amazing that the filming crew could find place so quiet and undisturbed by modernization in Shanghai).