Turn left, Turn right

Turn left, Turn right is the first Chinese film from Warner Bros and was featured in the Loyola Film Circle's Fete du Film, screened at Ateneo in Escaler Hall yesterday. We got extra points in Chinese for watching. The movie is in chinese (and Polish for the poem) and subbed in English. It's a sweet romantic drama/comedy with a host of facepalm moments. The protagonists, played by Takeshi Kaneshiro ( student # 763092) and Gigi Leung (student #784533) couldn't possibly get any more star crossed.

Kaneshiro's character is talented young violinist while Leung plays a translator. Both are introverted and well, kinda weird. The plot revolves around the fact that they live in the same building, but because Leung has the habit of turning left upon leaving the apartment while Kaneshiro turns right, they never meet .

Well.. that's not entirely true. Throughout the whole movie they meet thrice ^_^ One of these times is a chance encounter in the park--the result of a gust of wind and a sheaf of papers landing in a fountain. When they get to talking, we're lead through a flashback revealing that they had met for the first time at a joint school trip 10 years previously, but only knew each other by their student numbers... Which is how they continue to refer to each other throughout the film. They get stuck in a sudden downpour and seperate after exchanging numbers... But as luck would have it, the numbers get washed out by the rain. The rest of the movie unfolds and they keep just barely missing each other. It's just a matter of minutes and meters between these two and it reaches the point of being ridiculous.

Turn left turn right is based on the book A chance of sunshine by Jimmy Liao, inspired by the Poem by Polish poetess Wislawa Szymborska entitled "Milosc od pierwszego wejrzenia" or "Love at first sight" This provides the dramatic element in the story. After having lost each other, and looking obbsessively for ages, it's rather painful to discover that if you'd just turned around, been 3 minutes earlier, taken the overpass, or turned right instead of left you would have found them. You would have wound up right on their doorstep. This wasn't the original context of the poem. But both takes on it are equally uber. Here's the excerpt that they used in the movie (though I took the liberty of splicing a bit of the original english translation and the movie translation (i.e. the english translation of the chinese translation))

Both are convinced
that a sudden surge of emotion bound them together
Beautiful is such certainty
but uncertainty is more beautiful

Because they had never met before
They are sure that there had been nothing between them
But what say the streets stairways and corridors?
Perhaps they have met a million times.

I'd like to ask them whether they remember
A moment, face to face in a revolving door
An "excuse me" muttered in a crowd
Or a curt "wrong number" in the receiver

But I know their answer
"No" they don't remember.

They would be greatly astonished to learn
that chance had been playing with them for years
Not yet wholly ready to transform into their destiny
It approached them, then backed off
Stood in their way and, suppressing a giggle, jumped to the side

....

It makes you want to pay more attention to the people around you instead of just tuning them out while you lock yourself in a little bubble while commuting or walking down the street, concentrating on projecting an evil aura to ward of snatchers. I give this movie a 4.5 star rating. The only reason it's not a 5 is the epic facepalm ending which I won't tell you for the sake of not being a spoiler. ;P Watch it.