- 赌博app
- GOLDEN GOBLET
AWARDS - FILM
PANORAMA - FORUM
- MARKET
- NEWS
- NOTICES
- REGISTRATION
SUBMISSION - 中
- /
- EN
Derek ELLEY is Chief Film Critic of Film Bussiness Asia. Elley has been writing about East Asian cinema for almost 40 years,especially Chinese-language films,and has arranged numerous seasons and tributes both in the UK, at London\'s National Film Theatre,and elsewhere, at Washington\'s American Film Institute. In 1998 he co-founded the Far East Film Festival, in Udine, Italy, devoted to mainstream Asian cinema.
An extensive re-working, rather than a simple re-make, of the Korean drama ...ING(2003), FIRST TIME is a far richer experience than the original on every level, even though this Chinese version,set in picturesque Xiamen, also totally depends on the right chemistry between the three leads. In the central role of the terminally ill Song Shiqiao, actress Angelababy is paired opposite Mark Chao, and their chemistry evolves into something romantic, witty and quite special. Grounding the whole movie, however, is the performance of TV and film veteran Jiang Shan as Shiqiao\'s devoted mother, a potentially icky role that Jiang handles in a refreshingly down-to-earth way.
The original Korean film — about a devoted mother, her lonely teenage daughter, and a lodger in the downstairs flat who starts dating her — was a smoothly made but fairly routine light drama, loaded with Korean cuteness and featuring an almost offhand twist near the end.
China writer-director Han Yan\'s re-imagining makes big changes to the basic structure: the heroine is a 22-year-old woman rather than a high-schooler, and subject to mild amnesia rather than the shame of a deformed hand, and the hero is a university dropout-turned-rock singer rather than a young guy who\'s just moved in downstairs. But the most radical change is to divide the film into two halves ("Side A", "Side B", in reference to cassette tapes the heroine records), and springing the main twist at the changeover, with more to follow.
The twists motor the second half and even make sense dramatically. FIRST TIME doesn\'t hide the fact that it trades on Asian romantic cliches, but Han always gives the impression he\'s trying to bend the genre a little and keep the audience on its toes. In "Side A", he presents a conventional, idealised romance; in "Side B", he deconstructs it and then patches it together again.
Chao gets a whole feature to himself opposite one of Asia\'s hottest newcomers, Angelababy, and manages not only a convincing transformation but also to occasionally divert the viewer\'s attention away from her. Angelababy still trades on the goofy cuteness she used to be, but also shows the traighter acting style. The camera indisputably loves her, and her energy, combined with Chao\'s easy likability, keeps the movie from curdling in its young-love juices. However, it\'s still Jiang\'s expertly modulated performance that keeps both the other two on track.