Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Jon Ryberg It is mostly Asian films that take me were this lovely low key love story go. Composed of everyday moments and sentiments. Tempered in tone of voice and in lighting.Note: As I grew up on french love drama as "Un coeur en hiver" and the like of it, I used to think of love stories as earth shaking and tragic affairs and longed for just that dark kick.But lately I think that it is evident that the assuredness that the characters convey in this movie, in being shy and unsure but in being true to this they and the movie convey this: they doesn't exclude me from their universe, their life is like mine. They are like ordinary people, they just do it very beautifully.For me the story is carried by Meng Kerou's (in a sense not fully completed) coming-out, as a hb-person, process. In comparison to European variants of this theme, and I've seen quite a few this last week, I am truly grateful to the auteurs and actors that the movie is so light, in that it doesn't focus severely on guilt or shame, but on the life and sense of life in its characters.After seeing it i feel very warm, although not totally hopeful, and kind of wish that I were Kerou in her coolness, sharpness and quiet honesty. See it, and see it again!

sitenoise Dreamy, Romantic, Tender. OK We've been given those on the poster. They are not ones I would use. Instead I'd go with: Adorable, Sweet, Sensitive, Well-acted, Well-directed, Well-written. It was a JOY to watch this film.It took me a few minutes to warm up to the characters, but only a few. We meet the two girls first, a girly-girl who seems to be in control, and a brooding follower. Not much to go on with that. Girly girl spots sensitive boy and wants him, but insists that brooding girl act as the go-between.The film focuses on the friendship that develops between brooding girl and sensitive boy after that. Brooding girl becomes razor-sharp, adorably mixed up commando teen when paired up with sensitive boy who has fallen in love with her.This film did a remarkable job of capturing teens as they are: insecure and passionate; as easily hurt as they are to fall in love. They provoke each other without knowing why. One of the many highlights of this film is when the boy and girl, when they've run out of verbal ammunition, begin a shoving match. It goes on for some time and then the director simply cuts to a scene of the two of them straightening up their surroundings together. The director makes many decisions like that to keep us focused on the big picture: (stuff) happens, and then something else happens. There's no stopping it.I have to point out that watching this Taiwanese film with English subtitles added quite a bit to the adorableness of it. For example, after brooding girl sets up sensitive boy with girly-girl, who knows he likes brooding girl, (you have to see the film to see how that happens), sensitive boy walks girly-girl home. After an uncomfortably done good-bye, girly-girl calls out after sensitive boy as he's about to mount his bicycle and says: "Zhang Shihao, (pause) can you date with me?" I don't know exactly what was said in Taiwanese, but that odd translation seemed to capture the moment perfectly. I smiled from ear to ear while watching this movie from the time sensitive boy was introduced until the very end. This is an exceptionally well done film.

hypersquared Upon seeing it at the AFI Fest, Yee Chin-yen's "Blue Gate Crossing" instantly became one of my favorite pictures of 2003.The premise is very simple, and yet it is one of those about which the less is said, the better. Simply put, it examines the effect on two girls, best friends in high school, when one has a crush from afar on a boy, and the other actually starts talking to him. The writing is delicate, the performances completely natural and real. Even the look of the movie -- echoing Wong Kar-Wai's elegantly composed, florescent-lit romances -- is stylish without being over-stylized. The narrative is never forced, and yet the ground covered encompasses the awkwardness of a first kiss, the vagaries of sexual orientation, the safety of fantasy over reality, and the nature of friendship -- both the kinds that just happen and those that come about because they've been earned. Finally, the last minute of this movie made a mess of me, I haven't gushed so hard since "Whale Rider."

Harry T. Yung Some spoilersMaybe it's because I had an over-dose of Korean romances in the last few months, it was exhilarating to watch this Taiwanese gem about coming of age, which I found to be exceptionally refreshing.Very briefly, the story explores the development of the relationship between two high-school kids. She tries to act as the messenger for her best friend who has a crush on him while he is interested rather in her. Then, it gradually comes out that she is troubled by uncertainty of her own sexuality, of whether she is lesbian and in love with her best friend.During the earlier part of the film, it is easy to be fooled by its apparent simplicity and the nearly moronic dialogue. Then, it gradually becomes evident that what the filmmakers have tried to do is to create a very realistic juvenile world. It is then when the film starts to resonate with experiences that we all had once, some recently, some much longer ago.Through completely honest depictions, the characters all of a sudden become very alive. We are also touched by the director's attentiveness, in small things such as the girl nearly tripping over a chair on one of the occasions when she on her way out of the house, something that does happen in real life very often. Two scenes I particularly enjoyed (which is probably also many others' choice) are the `shuffle' scene and the telephone call. The first cleverly shows the mental confrontation and subsequent reconciliation of the two in disruption and subsequent re-arranging of some of the chairs in the assembly hall. The second one, at the beach bon fire at night, shows for the first time deeper emotions of the girl as she weeps over words spoken by the boy not heard by the audience.Behind the superficial simplicity is a great deal of subtlety. The film is open-ended, provoking rather than dictating thoughts, and the ending is delightfully upbeat. In the end, whether this is friendship or love between the two doesn't really matter. With their youthfulness, there will always choices and possibilities.An amazingly wonderful film to watch.