Five years prior to the events portrayed in this film, Chin-chin (Eve Ai, 愛怡良) blocked two people on Facebook: Shu-wei (Fu Meng-po, 傅孟柏), her former work crush, and Chih-yang (Chris Wu, 吳慷仁), a self-proclaimed “love expert” and master of breaking up with women.
Since then Chin-chin has buried herself in work, earning the nickname “facial paralysis sister” (面癱姐) by her subordinates for her cold and serious demeanor. But when she is tasked with developing a love-based mobile game, she starts reevaluating her life and relationships. Meanwhile, the eccentric, happy-go-lucky Chih-yang forces himself back into her life. As the story progresses, Chih-yang starts coming to terms with his life choices as well.
It’s a simple, everyday story about facing regrets over missed opportunities, told in a quirky, somewhat disorderly manner. It especially speaks to single office workers in their 30s and 40s who have enough love and career experience but still wonder where life is going without an established path to follow, and perhaps the plot runs all over the place because that’s how it feels to be in that situation.
Photo courtesy of Warner Bros
A more focused, nuanced story would definitely have made the film stronger, but I Missed You still does its job as a feel-good, tear-jerking Lunar New Year plus Valentine’s day holiday flick. The favorable box office sales reflect that.
Despite the intentionally fast-paced and choppy storytelling with parts left to imagination, it’s not too difficult to understand and put the pieces together as the film goes on. The directing duo of Mag Hsu (許譽庭) and Hsu Chih-yen (許智彥), who were nominated for a Golden Horse in 2018 for Dear Ex (誰先愛上他), are wise to not keep this frenetic style up for the entire movie. The style changes pace and becomes more grounded toward the second half.
Although the two leads seem to be complete opposites — Chin-chin is a hard-driving, outspoken corporate team leader in a business suit while Chih-yang is a frivolous, good-for-nothing loafer who wears oversized hip-hop clothing — they hide similar self-loathing and vulnerability.
Photo courtesy of Warner Bros
The two leads do a good job portraying their duality through flashbacks; they were once quite different people than shown in the film, changed greatly by past events. While Wu is a veteran thespian with several major acting accolades, it’s surprising to find Ai, who is a well-known singer-songwriter, taking a lead role here in her acting debut. She also wrote the theme song for the movie.
Popular singer-songwriter 9m88 plays a minor role in the film as one of the young staffers on Ai’s team; her youthful energy and musings of how she wants to be after she turns 30 provides a contrast to Chin-chin’s situation.
There’s no big message, mystery or even a rushing climax in this film. Just don’t block people on social media before facing them first, or at least saying a proper goodbye, otherwise it is hard to move forward. As Chih-yang tells Chin-chin in one scene: “That day, only your pride walked away; you’re still standing on the same spot.” Sometimes the simplest themes hit closest to home.
Finally, if you’re familiar with Taiwanese pop culture, look for all the big-name Easter eggs that are dispersed throughout the movie.
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s