Turn Left, Turn Right

Heung joh chow heung yau chow (Turn Left, Turn Right) is a heart-warming love story. There I said it. o0o0ps I gotta write a minimum of 10 lines? Alright, here goes.

It's a story of two person, who met in school & then lost contact, then met some few years after, only to lost contact again. Weird, but fascinating! They only know each other by their school identification number, they don't know other info i.e whereabouts, much less their favorite food, color, etc..etc.. Even the phone number they exchanged got lost.

Little did they know that they were destined to be together! They don't even know that they were very close to each other wherever they went. Say, when she was standing in a train, he was sitting down while reading a newspaper. Such a coincidence! Watch as they 'worked' hard to find each other. They did the same thing, i.e the way they talk, the way they they think, even their interests are the same too! The ending is too unbelievable but an original, nonetheless! I don't think audiences can figure out the ending!

This movie is a great adaptation from the book by the renown artist Jimmy from Taiwan. Not only faithfully materializing the conception from the poetic illustrations in the book, the movie also adds witty dialogs and funny buffoon performance of the supporting roles for the whole story, which does not exist in the original. The movie debuted as number 1 in the box offices of Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The original book has been sold for more than tens of thousands copies in more than five languages.

Personally I like this movie very much as a great love story and fairy tail for the grownups. I believe the movies might be more touching for the Asians, (especially for the residents in Taipei or Taiwan, where I came from and the movie filmed) since the whole movie surrounds only one single idea in Chinese as "Yuan-fen", which is deep rooted in Asians' mind and personally I think there is still not a proper vocab for translation. ("Fate" is close but not exact.) And the story, the people, and the scenes are so familiar for me that it just like my neighbor's story.

Another reason I might suggest to treat this movie as a fairy tale is that they do have many goofs or things seems not so logical in the movie, as described by other users. But who cares? Just like nobody questions why the lion in the wizard of oz is so coward. This is still a great love story and grownup fairy tail for me.

I very like this movie, Turn Left Turn Right. The genre romantic movie about boy meet girl, boy love girl, separated and meet again. But this Hong Kong movie is different and unique. Before, my favorite romantic movie ever is Serendipity (2001, directed by Peter Chelsom, starring John Cussack and Kate Beckinsale), see how funny when they seeking each other, from New York to Los Angeles. But now my salute to Johnny To (the director of Turn Left Turn Right)and Takeshi Kaneshiro-Gigi Leung (of course two leading player for this movie). See the desperately about Takeshi and Gigi when they only two time meet in 13 years! The fate, the meeting, and the love, are written from Sky. Remember, Jesus Christ says, when two people want something, anything, and pray together, so the Lord will blessed them! Amen.

I loved this movie. I caught only the last half on TV recently and tracked down the full film to see all of it. I am not familiar with the original illustrated novel though. It is a fairy tale for grownups, with humour, sadness, and a bit of slapstick. Lovely Gigi Leung plays her part of Eve Loi the romantic day-dreaming and slightly clumsy lover of poetry delightfully, and handsome Takeshi Kaneshiro plays the romantic, awkward and intensely shy John Liu to perfection. I was glad the corny temptation to resist naming them Adam and Eve was resisted. The symmetry of the parallel events is fun to anticipate, and the anti-symmetry of the two evil counter-characters adds to the complexity and a foil to the perhaps a bit saccharine sweetness of the main plot and characters The incidental parallel sub-plot of the avaricious landlords also meeting and exchanging phone numbers in the rain is a nice touch. I can forgive the occasional technical hiccups and goofs for the sheer lovely romance that it is.

I love this movie. It is simple. It is about 2 people who are so meant for each other, but always missed out on meeting each other. The two lead players are so gorgeous, and had so much chemistry, that you just smile everytime you think about the movie. They played their characters very well, interesting and simple. The movie is a straight on adaptation of Jimmy Liao's comic. And it is done very well without becoming boring. The cinematography is so stylistically done that every shot is like a postcard. Definitely one of the movies that i would rewatch over and over.

There is one thing i want to complain about though. The supporting characters are so irritating. They completely spoiled the mood of the movie. Everytime they appear, i cringe and cuss. They are the only thing that keeps the movie from being a perfect ten. that and the dramatic ending that also strays away from the mood of the movie.

OVerall, it is definitely beauty at its simplest.