The movie begins with the marriage of Yang Yang's mother. Her biological father is French man whom she's never met before. Actually, the very first scene is of her crying. That is where the pain all begins, but at first you don't know it. She seems to have a great new life, but things keep happening to her, she falls in love with her step-sister's boyfriend, who has a thing for her. They get it on one night, and he can't stop thinking about her. Yang Yang's step-sis finds out, and gives her the cold shoulder. It is then discovered after a competition that Yang Yang took performance-enhancement drugs. She leaves this life and begins anew in the entertainment industry. We are constantly reminded of how hurt she is. One of the things that keeps coming up is her struggle with her identity. She has French blood but can't identify with it. Others have trouble looking past her looks, and she really doesn't know who she is.
The verdict:
This story is pretty heavy stuff to me...cheating, lust, tears, being independent in a ruthless world. This movie is for older audiences in that sense. The whole time I was kinda on edge, afraid of what would happen next, it was so unpredictable. It was fresh. I'll give ya that. I get the feeling there's some deeper meaning in this movie that I was supposed to pick up on, but I guess I'm not that deep... Sandrine Pinna is a great actress, as I already discovered in 'Miao Miao', which I have reviewed quite a while back. She cried a lot in this movie though, and it kinda got annoying for me. Am I heartless? Zhang Rui-jia, the celeb crush I mentioned not too long ago played a naive highschool student, whom I didn't really like. When at first I realized he was in the movie, I was like: OH. MY. GOD. But then the nature of his character sunk in, and I was like. Ehhhh. But I still love him. Just not his character. AND guess who had a cameo? Wang Bo-chieh from 'You're My One and Only' 你是我的唯一!!!! But he wasn't on screen for long. :( Cinematography and music work well.
The end is pretty dang sudden...a lot of things left hanging. I'm not sure what to make of it. I guess Yang Yang just doesn't give up and keeps on fightin'. The last shot is of her running as the camera pulls away. She slows and begins to walk, but eventually starts running again: NEVER GIVE UP! Yeah now that I think it over, it's a pretty good movie. Just need time to digest it.
Rating: 4/5
