介绍:
"So Young" is Chinese actress Zhao Wei's Beijing Film Academy graduation assignment, and also her directorial debut. 15 years ago, Zhao Wei became a household name for her role in the Chinese TV series "Princess Pearl". The series, which has been extended overseas in recent years, was the most viewed Chinese TV drama of its time. Her popularity on screen has continued ever since and her first directed film has set a new opening-day box office record for Chinese movies.
However, the film has not been considered a critical success. On China's largest online movie database "Mtime", many critics gathered to share their dissatisfaction, with their criticisms being placed on the narrative.
The story is based on a popular online novel about university students in the 1990s, or more specifically, four female students living in the same dormitory. The novel was well-received for vividly captuing the lives of ordinary students. Zhao Wei has aimed to follow suit, and perhaps also try and present sentiments about youth and the past. The movie copies the structure of the book and adopts a multiple-narrative. An excess of perspectives, combined with bad editing, spins the film out-of-focus and as a result, induces mixed feelings of nostalgia and bewilderment in the audience.
Another major setback is the nature of the original text itself. Popular online novels are often filled with touching, wise-sounding sentiments; well, that is arguably how they reach their readers' hearts and gain popularity. However, in her interpretation of the literature, Zhao Wei has obviously forgotten to translate such sentences into an appropriate pictorial or viewer-friendly language. The result is that during the film, we far too often hear young college students speaking in a pseudo-intellectual language befitting that of amateur philosophers, with several actors reciting their lines far too rigidly.
Many critics poising as rational viewers reject the movie on the grounds that it is unnecessarily sentimental. Well, those who are familiar with Zhao Wei's performance in "Princess Pearl" or indeed, any movies, would know that she spares no effort in trying to express her heartfelt emotions in her acting. The film may be overly dramatic in its nostalgia, but those who share similar experiences to any of the film's characters will immediately identify with the sentiments being expressed.
Lastly, the cinematography by Li Ran is near perfect, with the lighting and colors well-suited for invoking a sense of sentimentality in the audience.
All things considered, "So Young" is not really the best Chinese movie around, but it is successful in that it appeals to people's sense of nostalgia. After all, we have all had our share of regrets and it is indeed nice to look back on the past from time to time. On a scale from one to ten, "So Young" gets a five.
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