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............*