Tripping (Gen yu den / Shen you qing ren-2006)

Starring:
Bo-lin Chen
Jimmy Hung
Lichun Lee
Tzu-chieh Miao
Ren Osugi
Rena Tanaka

Shaodea is a Japanese girl, living in Taipei with her father. He moved to Taiwan with his wife to start a Chinese herbal medicine shop. Ever since her mother died, Shaodea wants to return to Japan, but her father refuses to give up his dream. One day, after an argument with him, Shaodea goes out with her friends. While breaking in into a museum, the girl is transported back in time to feudal Taiwan. Thinking she’s on a movie set, the girl gets involved in a bank robbery and soon has to run from the authorities. She teams up with Haishon, an attractive young man who became a thief to save the economic crisis of his hometown. Together with a Tao-master, who is transporting 2 zombies back to their ancestral lands, they set off on a fantastic adventure.
Tripping is an exciting cross-cultural collaboration, combining talent from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. There’s something for everyone : a sci-fi love story, hopping corpses, costume drama, evil sorcery and exhilarating kung fu battles. Rena Tanaka (Nin x Nin: Ninja Hattori-kun, the Movie, Summer of Ubume) pulls off an engaging performance as Shaodea. Veteran actor Ren Osugi (Sonatine, Loft, Nightmare Detective) plays her father. And Bo-lin Chen (The Huadu Chronicles : Blade of the Rose, A Chinese Tall Story, Silk) shows off his martial arts skills as Haishon.



I was pleasantly surprised that this movie was as good as it was. I'm not usually fond of Taiwan or Chinese movies. This wasn't the best of movies but it was fun to watch.

Wilson (Bo-lin) Chen isn't gorgeous or extremely handsome. His cinematic charm though makes him something worthwhile to see. His kind face with the athletic body make him more than enough for most teenage girls to fawn over. Okay, I'm waaaaaay passed the teenage years but my heart says different. So I'm fawning over him.

This movie started out well. No skipping in story lines or idiotic ploys to keep you hooked. Some funny moments but not so overly obnoxious that you turn your head out of embarrassment. The follow through of this movie never left me hanging and the sweetest moment at the end tugged my heart. Let's just say that I, for one, really felt the longing of Butterfly's heart for her sweet "thief." The moments between the two were very poignant and sad because we knew she would have to go back to her real time in the end. *I can actually feel my heart getting heavy just thinking about it............*

The Most Distant Course (最遥远的距离 -2007)

Starring:
Tz-yi Mo - Xiaotang
Siao-guo Jia - Acai
Lunmei Kwai - Xiaoyun


It is a road movie about people finding their true selves and overcoming heartaches through the medium of sound. Xiao Tang sends a tape of nature’s sounds he recorded himself to a former girlfriend without knowing she had moved away. Ruoyun knows the tape is meant for someone else but slowly overcomes a painful breakup by listening to it. And Ah Cai, a psychiatrist who had been wandering around after his wife left him, meets Xiao Tang by chance.

The sound of nature is the link that binds the three people’s journeys, and it is also the remedy to their heartaches. The film points out that one can be healed by listening to nature’s sounds and realizing that there is a serious communication problem between people today. Lin Jing-Jie offers the audience a sound-therapy experience through this film.



This was a terribly slow movie. But then that is what made this film. It wasn't a lot of talking. Very little action. What there was was music, laughter, quiet, stillness, waves crashing, birds chirping, wind blowing.

This was about the human spirit and its ability to recuperate after loss of love and the breakup of romance. How sounds are capable of healing the holes created by the aforementioned. We struggle with everyday problems but never seem to delegate how to prioritise what our selves need most.

This was a relaxing movie. I'm sure many will say they were bored to tears but I was fascinated. I guess I wanted to see if Xiaotang and Ruoyun would meet up.

This movie is made for the discriminating tastes. This movie could fall on deaf ears....but then I hope not.

Better Than Sex (Ai qing ling yao -2002)

Starring:
Michael Wong
Ginny Liu
Leon Dai
Sheng Chen
Tomohisa Kagami
Hsiao-Ying
Zhen-Ya Wu
Chen-Hsi Li


The bright 17 year-old Taiwanese teenager Lin Zhuzhuang (Michael Wong) was always a bit different from his peers because a very important part of his body was always bigger than theirs. This fact caused him to develop a special often nerve-wrecking curiousity towards sex. After he makes the acquaintance with book shop owner Mr Zheng (Bobby Chen), he creates a love for A books that extends to such immense proportions that even school assistant (Huang Chia) can only look up in disbelief. He starts to totally isolate himself from other people and regards Mr Zheng as his only friend. Even Lin Xiao ying (Liu Honghua) who is secretly in love with him and furtively serves him tea eggs every morning does not seem to catch his attention.


One day Mr Zheng sadly passes away and leaves behind a key and a house number for him. When he arrives at the relevant address he finds a hidden loop hole through which he can peep into a room that is occupied by two young female police officers (Dai Liren and Zhi Tian Ai Zi). It is then that Zhuzhuang discovers that Mr Zheng had an abnormal tendency for sex fantasies. He also realizes that sex is not a replacement for love. He gives up his passion for A books and sets out to find his true love(Source Avistaz.com)

I don't think I really liked this movie. I mean it had some funny and cute moments but in the entire movie it kept cutting back and forth and it had too many stories to keep up with. I really thought it was about the high school boy and his discovery of love and sex but instead it kept flipping to a bunch of hooligans, a film crew from Japan, and then the boy.

There was just too much put into the fire and it didn't seem to keep with the theme of the story. I wasn't entirely sure if I really wanted to watch the whole thing but kept watching thinking that there was a point to this......not really.

So watch it if you want be forewarned......you might get lost into the fiasco.

Oh, the only good part of the story was when the boy explained to his teacher about his "problem" and they used a balloon to describe his actions. If you don't understand what I mean, that part is worth watching and it happens to be relatively close to the beginning of the movie. LOL! I have to admit I laughed pretty good through that....................

About Love (Guan yu ai -2005)

Starring:
Bo-lin Chen - Yao (segment "Tokyo")
Mavis Fan - A-Su (segment "Taipei")
Yui Ichikawa - Yuka (segment 'Tokyo')
Misaki Ito - Michiko (segment "Tokyo")
Ryo Kase - Tecchan (segment "Taipei")
Lu Lu - Yun (segment "Shanghai") (as Xiaolu Li)
Ren Osugi - Shop owner (segment 'Tokyo')
Takashi Tsukamoto - Shuhei (segment "Shanghai")
Rui Yang - Min



Consisting of three vignettes about cross-cultural love set in three different cities (Tokyo, Taipei, and Shanghai), 'About Love' is a film made by three directors with six idols from Japan, Mainland China, and Taiwan. In each vignette, a foreigner and a resident, both in their twenties, try to transgress cultural and language barriers and explore something 'About Love'.
TOKYO
Cast: Ito Misaki, Wilson Chen Bo-lin
A Taiwanese student in Japan yearns to become a successful digital cartoonist. One day he passes by a heartbroken young graphic artist who possesses a quality that intrigues him...
TAIPEI
Cast: Kase Ryo, Mavis Fan
A newcomer from Japan in Taipei who eagerly hopes for a one-night-stand receives a call from a local girl for help. He speeds to her place only to find that his task is merely to help A-Su assmemble a bookshelf...
SHANGHAI
Cast: Tsukamoto Takashi, Li Xiaolu
A young Japanese student lives on the second floor of a general store in Shanghai. The landlady's daughter falls in love with him at first sight, but he is still filled with thoughts of his sweetheart in Japan...

I think I watched this backwards. Didn't mean to. Just didn't know which order was what. Anyway, to an extent it was probably for the best. It made the Tokyo segment more understandible but yet the other two less. I guess if I watched them now in the right order it would all make more sense. LOL!

The other two segments contained a little something that dealt with the Tokyo segment and vice-versa.

I think my favorite segment was Shanghai. It seemed more innocent BUT I was totally lost at the end. I didn't understand what happened to Yun and her building. And I wanted closure between Shuhei and Yun. It was so sweet and poignant when Shuhei discovered what "Te Quiero!" meant. They translated it as "I love you," which surprises me because the literal translation is "I want you." Either way.....it was so sad and sweet at the same time.

Tsukamoto Takashi


Wilson Chen