“MAYDAY 3DNA ” 五月天 Movie Review. LARGER than LIFE, in spectacular 3D.

 ”MAYDAY 3DNA” 五月天 PRESS PREVIEW

With an oddball movie title like MAYDAY 3DNA, you go figure.

It’s deliberately conjured to rhyme “3D” with “DNA”.

What gives?

Mayday is a Taiwanese all-male alternative rock band whose name has been up in the glittering lights since the late 1990s.

They have lasted for more than one decade, and is no mean feat that they are still going on strong.

Rivalry is forever keen in the vicious show business, with less-than-talented pretty boy bands mushrooming now and then to assail and eclipse any artiste’s existence.

The Chinese attributes that surviving in the entertainment arena is seemingly tough, as the saying goes, there’s always a “higher mountain” out there, threatening to topple you.

Mayday is known to be responsible for composing most of their own songs with soulful lyrics extolling young passion and its complexities, songs that holler the youth’s angst and pain.

Regarded as the next best rock band after Beyond, their songs are rendered mostly in Taiwanese and Mandarin.

Mayday oozes a wholesome, boy-next-door image, representing the zeitgeist of the Taiwanese youth.

In 2009, Mayday kicked off their World Tour using the word DNA as the theme.

DNA is meant as a metaphor for the code of human life used as a mark of respect to their loyal fans for their unwavering support, without which the band would not have lasted this long.

Hence the title of the movie “MAYDAY 3DNA” presented in true form of the 3D spectacle, a pioneer as far as the mandarin mandopop genre is concerned.

The band, stage and props are enhanced during post-production to look colossal and real, so much that you can feel you are being “drawn into” the cheering crowds as a spectator to enjoy the grandeur of the “live” performance.

In the movie, three separate short stories entwined to lend emotional support to “beef up” the story line, with veterans Rene Liu, Richie Ren and Lam Suet playing cameos.

First, a strict middle-aged curry noodle chef in Guangzhou disallows his primary school daughter from making a trip to Shanghai with her class mates to attend the MAYDAY DNA concert. The young daughter’s rebellious tantrums get him to change his mind.

Second story focuses on a lonely taxi driver in Taipei who fetches a forlorn woman who has just gotten dumped and that night, the taxi driver opens up his inner world to her, they become firm friends and she gladly accepts his invite to attend the MAYDAY concert in Shanghai.

The last tale takes us to a gregarious delivery boy in Shanghai who scrimps and saves to buy the expensive ticket for the same concert.  It is much later that we are shown that the ticket is actually meant to mark the memory of his younger sister (an avid fan of Mayday) who had recently passed on.

This movie is definitely skewed towards die-hard fans of the band and its brand of music.

If you relish sentimental ballads and oldies. then this may not be your cup of tea.

Still, for followers of the arts and music, this movie showcases the musical journey and accomplishments of a great band.

You decide on the fate of this gem.