Sunday, October 9, 2011

“YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE” Movie Review. YOUTH knows NO Repeat, NO Permanence.(那些年,我們一起追的女孩).

GUYS, we are giving the all-time favorite TAIWAN movie “MONGA” a RUN for its MONEY!

Try ME!  I can be TARZAN, try me!

WE love LOLLIPOPS!

WE are rehearsing the HIP HOP dance steps ….

Let’s SHARE this finger-licking SAUSAGE.  It’s succulent …..and YUMMY!

LOVE is all AROUND …..

FILM DIRECTOR + the ever-horny YOUNG CAST

WE are SPLITTING you apart UPSIDE-DOWN!

LIFE poses UNENDING CHALLENGES.

I will START from the TOP and MOVE DOWNWARDS …..

YOU are KIDDING me that YOU WANT SEX NOW?

I don’t MIND being CRUCIFIED for SEX (drool).

So MUCH for SEX, but WE are still VIRGINS …..

WE have had all the FUN, so let’s BREAK UP now.

NOW I realize I still LOVE YOU and WANT you BACK!

“YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE “

(那些年,我們一起追的女孩) 

TAIWAN PRESS REVIEW

For THOSE who THINK they can STAY forever YOUNG.

And are in DISDAIN of the ELDERLY.

(Part 1 of 2)

I say, man, don’t kid me.

This morning you are preening right in front of the mirror, basking in the glory of your youth.

You are young, you are handsome, and that’s swell.

Consider yourself a Godsend since you are well-endowed in fortune and kind.

A grim reminder here – time and tide wait for  no man.

In everyone’s life there’s a youth – and in his finality there is an old age.

Life moves in circles and soon your time will come when gravity takes its toll and your skin starts to sag.

“YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE” sinks in this deep glaring warning:

You can only be young once.

Youth knows no repeat, no permanence.

And beauty will not last.

You may well fester when you’ve gotten this silicone job done on your nose, or work on having double eyelids to enhance your fading looks.

You may pile on layer upon layer of the ” beautiful always” cream SK2 before you retire for the night.

It won’t work.  You may delay the aging process, but you cannot erase what nature has in store for you. There’s no proven elixir of youth.

Long ago, you had laughed in apparent disdain at an old man on your way to school.

Today, you are one? Hah.

The Chinese believe that if you behave badly during your youth, the day will come when retribution claims you.

They say what goes around comes around.

And for all the bad deeds, you will eventually get your just deserts.

Amen.

SHOULDN’T you be USING an ANTI-DANDRUFF SHAMPOO?

STOP playing HARD to GET, OK?

NEXT to licking LOLLIPOPS, I relish HOT DOGS!

We SHOULDN’T have been NAUGHTY …..

HOW about watching PORN after SCHOOL?

He’s AIN’T heavy, he’s my BROTHER!

Don’t CRY. We can always DO it AGAIN …..
“YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE” 
(那些年,我們一起追的女孩) 
TAIWAN PRESS REVIEW.

It’s GREAT to be YOUNG!

(Part 2 of 2).

In life, there will be lessons we learn that will leave indelible imprints in our minds.

Such as good things are transient, are momentary, they never last.

So treasure love when it’s around.

Maybe for now, the element is staring at you in the face.

But it’s like a car, parked at your door, when the time comes, it revs up and roars off.

Weep not when love dies.

People do fall out of love.

TIME WILL HEAL MOST EVERYTHING, but memories cannot be erased.

“YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE” is director GIDDENS’ maiden effort, adapting from his own very successful semi-autobiographical novel.

Now – the moment you sink knee-deep into the story, you’ll really have to exercise logic to discern what’s true and what’s not. It’s pure common sense.

The protagonist Ko Ching-Teng (Giddens’ real name, played by Ko Chen-Tung 柯震東), and his obnoxious chill-mates come with the most ridiculous sex-pointing-at-you nicknames: Boner, Cock, Groin and A-Ho.

They are the dare-devils of Ching-Cheng High, a backwater school in Changhua, central-west Taiwan and it’s right here where our story begins.

These five incorrigible brats are spending too much time striving to bowl over pretty classmate Shen Chia Yi (沈佳宜), played by Michelle Chen (陳妍希).

You are beckoned to hop aboard this roller-coaster journey that will take you through the nostalgic storms of 1990s. It’s back again to the formative high school days and the university life where you, once upon a time, swotted furiously for examinations.

Each stopover will be painted with a tracking phase –  to exemplify the level of the love relationship between Giddens and Shen Chia Yi.

It’s puppy love to start off with, and everyone must realize that the path of true love never will run smooth.

The university period depicts separation blues where the pair leaves their hometown.  They endeavor to maintain a long-distance relationship which predictably, will crack under adolescent strains.

Reality bites deep, bringing along the expected demise that is bundled with unexpected challenges.

Adulthood expounds major turning points and decisions. Gone are the hazy dazy carefree days of summer. Career decisions are made, though not always for the better.

The film ponders, peaks and develops each character thoroughly, with a subtle hint of how Giddens’ career as a writer takes shape.

Giddens is currently a popular and well-sought after writer in Taiwan.

“YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE” is his first foray into feature film making and is a ground breaking one too.  It has smashed all previous box-office records set by former Taiwanese block-busters.

GIDDENS, though he may not admit it, has an uncanny foresight for smelling where the money is, too.

He will not stop at spectacular success in the movie ratings and takings. He’s an opportunist who loses no time in rushing the printing of a follow-up book called “The Making of the Apple-of-my-Eye Film: Somewhere, Sometime and Some way” packaged with a promotional DVD. It’s selling at double the price of the original novel.

Take a cue from this shrewd businessman as it’s obvious that he knows the value of a pink dollar.

He also crosses marketing frontiers to take a hilarious swipe at the gay community and is evident at his promoting raunchy homo-eroticism throughout the movie.

There are latent banter taking an indignant dig at raging pubescent hormones, the erect phallus, notwithstanding the graphic depiction of the gang’s masturbation scene in the classroom whenever the teacher’s back is turned.

We are also rewarded with silly showings of male legs cramping within the small university shower cubicle doing “you-know-what” to incite laughter.

And yeah, the male protagonist and his dad are practicing nudists in their own home for whatever reasons.

Plus the treatment of kissing straight men is a light matter here.

Sometimes, too much of a good thing kills, but not so in this case.

There are enough valid reasons to seduce the gay community to flock to the cinema to patronize the film.

Clearly GIDDENS is winning everybody’s heart and mind, including the support of the gay populace.

So there!

“YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYES” has a well-selected cast, a profound screenplay, a brilliant cinematographer and a wacko tempo.

This Reviewer finds the script witty, wicked, wise and probing.

It may be just another poignant adolescent love story, but it is by no means less powerful or stirring.

It will titillate you, move you and instill in you a pang of nostalgia of long gone years.

The late STEVE JOBS once said:

Your time on earth is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

I am sure that GIDDENS the writer/director must have a mind of his own when he boldly hammed artistic erotica to an otherwise vintage coming-of-age movie.

Under his transforming eyes, the most ordinary become engrossing subjects.

You’d wish for a feature film that will strike a deep chord in your heart.

This one does, so don’t miss it.

SURELY, A MUST-WATCH!

LISTEN to the ORIGINAL title song from “YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE” that’s creating beautiful memories:


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