I’m here to explain why
you need to put Our Times on your ‘to watch list’ if you
already haven’t. In a span of two hours I managed to smile, laugh, and cry. Our Time tells a nostalgic story of youth
and first-love. It is a familiar formula from
past Taiwanese film success You are the Apple of my Eye
(2011), but Our
Times still manages to make a
familiar story line enjoyable as well as their own. I myself am
a 90's baby so I haven’t reached the period of nostalgia about my high
school days, but even without that nostalgic element for me there is
still a lot to love about this film.
Our
Times is
told by the perspective of Truly Lin (Joe Chen), an office lady in her 30’s who
is unsatisfied with her work and love life. Feeling down about
the current state of her life Lin listens to an old cassette of an Andy Lau
song. She starts to reminisce about her days back in high school when she had a
crush on the most popular guy in school and she was an ordinary girl whose only
concern was meeting her idol Andy Lau. This leads her to recall her first love.
The film flashes back to Truly
Lin (Vivian Sung) during her High school days in the 90’s. One day she gets a
chain letter in her desk informing her if she doesn’t pass it on, her life will
be doomed. Naively, truly passes on the letter to the most feared gangster in
school, Hsu Taiyu (Darren Wang). Unfortunate events ensue and Lin becomes an
errand girl for Taiyu. From this point their friendship evolves and they find
out that their respective crushes are in a secret relationship. Taiyu and Lin
join forces and plot to break them up. Through the events of trying to break up
their crushes relationship their own grown as they learn more about one another,
until it turns into love.
I have 3 solid
reasons why you should give Our
Times a chance if you are
looking for a Taiwanese movie (or any movie for that matter) to watch.
1. Darren Wang steals your heart
I was so impressed by the way Hsu Taiyu’s character evolves from the beginning of the movie to the end. Let me tell you, Darren Wang will surely take a place in your heart by the end too! Our Times did really well in the box offices of the Taiwan and has been getting attention by a global audience as well. This role is getting Mr. Wang a lot of attention and I am anticipating what he’ll do in future roles.
1. Darren Wang steals your heart
I was so impressed by the way Hsu Taiyu’s character evolves from the beginning of the movie to the end. Let me tell you, Darren Wang will surely take a place in your heart by the end too! Our Times did really well in the box offices of the Taiwan and has been getting attention by a global audience as well. This role is getting Mr. Wang a lot of attention and I am anticipating what he’ll do in future roles.
The Chemistry
between Vivan Sung and Hsu Taiyu is great as well. I don’t even think Joe Chen
and Jerry Yan as the older version of Truly Lin and Hsu Taiyu are able to keep
the chemistry that Vivan Sung and Hsu Taiyu had established as their younger
character. I have previously reviewed a film with Vivan Sung where she played a
somewhat similar character. I like that she was casted for the role of Lin
Truly. The film at times does get a little campy, but her exaggerated acting of
an clumsy extra-ordinary high school student never irritates you, and she still
manages to keep this relatability in her character.
 |
| Vivian Sung as Truly Lin |
2. Nostalgia – Ode to Youth and growing up in the 90’s
What separates this movie from Your
Are the Apple Of my eye is that the movie is told from the female
perspective rather than male. I could
laugh along with Lin’s obsession with Andy Lau thinking of my own celebrity
crushes I had in high school. Remembering
that popular boy in school who all the girls thought was so handsome, and being
able to remember a time when you saw your future as limitless and bright. It’s not
hard to relate to the Lin in her thirties whose memory of the past leads her to
wonder when she lost sight of all her youthful dreams and aspirations.
 |
| Jo Chen as older Truly Lin |
3. It pulls on all the right heartstrings
You come to root for the relationship that blossoms between Lin
and Taiyu. The film is long at 2 hrs and 13 mins, but it went by for me like
nothing. The last thirty minutes of the movie I cried like no one’s business,
and that is unusual for me. The beginning of the movie starts out light and
comedic, but by the end it turns pretty melodramatic.
Fei Fen (Dino Lee), isn’t given too much to do in this, as Lin’s
high school crush, but every time the camera went into that slowed shot of Fei
Fen entering a room I found myself getting a little giddy. The sun is all
bright, Fei Fan won’t stop smiling, and I get a little enchanted. Honestly,
nothing about the story line is very original and the film can get campy at times,
but it works. I think the actors are a significant reason why the film
resonates the way it does, they really bring these characters who are simply constructed like they came out of a shoujo manga (The clumsy extraordinary high school girl, the popular and handsome high school boy, and the high school gangster), and make them into relatable people that the audience becomes fond of.
 |
| Dino Lee as Ouyang Fei Fan |
Add this film to your list of things to watch, and if you have
already seen it share your thoughts in the comments!