Ni hao, Zhihua

I became a fan of Peter Chan because of his masterpiece "Perhaps Love." However, I expected a lot more than what this movie is offering. In my opinion, a good movie must have three components: (1) It tells a complete story revealing the subtlety and intricacy of love. A little suspense can help, but too many subplots only distract audiences from the main message, which, unfortunately, is the case in this movie. (2) Beautiful scripts that this movie lacks. I am a fan of ancient Chinese literature, and therefore I can appreciate how beautiful the Chinese language is. The speech at the end of the movie was a bit redundant - the message has already been embedded in the movie, and was hollow - it does not make people contemplate bigger questions about life, love, etc. either. (3) A good laugh - this is essential. Life is not easy - at least for most people who were born without privilege, and everyone needs a good laugh. The second part of this movie was depressing, and it is cruel to let teenagers figure out how hard life can be. It appears to me that the directors are trying to find a balance between mass popularity and artistic touch, the latter might be deemed cheesy - but this is actually what the current Chinese culture needs - a sense of higher needs, including art, beauty and love in all forms, than materialistic pursuits. In search for mass popularity, the directors lost their artistic touch, and I was disappointed.

Quite slow but also enjoyable to watch. The various parts of the film flow together nicely. The death coupled with the memories did give it a good set up. Some of it seems a bit odd, but that is intentional. Overall, worth a watch.

The whole screenplay and the storyline were based on a ridiculous scenario, very absurd and illogic. The younger sister ridiculously replaced her dead old sister to hook up a past romance with a deadbeat guy who shamelessly claimed himself as a writer. I don't know how this young sister would be able to fool her dead sister's classmates. Were they twins, why none of the classmates of the dead sister's didn't know anything about her death, the funeral? If her dead sister didn't have any connection or communication with none of her classmates for so many years, why she would be able to receive an back-to-school alumni invitation? What was the excuse of this younger sister's intention to pretend as being her dead sister? Did she want to have an affair with her sister's classmate? Why kept writing letters to this dead-beat guy? For what purpose? A 7-year itch? After 20 minutes, we all agreed to stop watching this crappy movie. What a joke!

The plot is complex and difficult to simplify but I'll try. The movie centers on Yuan Zhinan and how those who loved her react to her suicide death. Her sister, Zhihua, resists believing it until she is forced to tell her sisters former boyfriend, Yin Chuan, that her sister has died. Chaun tracks down Zhinan's estranged, abusive, husband, Zhang Chao, and tells him of her death. He was abusive to chuan before the news but admitted to being a bad husband and father after the news of her death. Yin Chaun wrote a book titled "Zhinan" that Zhinan and Chao's daughter, Mumu, has read. Mumu tells Chaun she could feel the love that he had for her mother in the book and that, during the bad times, when her father was being abusive, it gave her hope knowing that the man who wrote the book with her mothers name might someday come back and rescue them. Zhinan's son Chenchen runs away while staying with Zhihua stating he has no home. The last letter is an inspirational speech Zhinan gave at the graduation ceremony from middle school. I've left out quite a bit of the various sub-plots including some male characters who are real jerks. To summarize, this is a very touching movie, with fine acting by young actors, very much worth the time.

The storytelling is unconvincing. There are too many subplots that distract the main plot. Also, the pace is deliberately dragged. The sequence and the editing is confusing. The story itself is also unconvincing. The two sisters look utterly different and there is no way that one can be recognized as the other one.