Miao Miao 渺渺

Not exactly what I was hoping for but still a very entertaining movie with excellent production values as has the most exceptional crew backing up first time director Cheng Hsiao-Tse. This is a movie that looks and feels like high quality cinema as is produced by Wong Kar-Wai’s production company with especial mention to editing done by Wong Kar-Wai’s extraordinary editor William Cheun Suk-Ping.

The movie tells about two girls and their innocent discoveries with first love. Bubbling Xiao-Ai (Chinese-French actress Sandrine Pinna, aka Chang Yung-yung) meets quiet Dai Si Shi-miao, aka Miao-miao (Ke Jia-yan) a Taiwan born exchange student that lives in Japan and the two girls become inseparable with Xiao-Ai totally falling for Miao-miao. But Miao-miao falls for Chen Fei a silent guy that runs a cozy little second hand CD’s shop and is grieving the death of his true love. So you have one of those stories where girl falls for girl who falls for guy who was in love with another guy and as expected the end is not really happy for anyone. Simple story, yet with a twist that travels both the lesbian as the gay interest genres.

But this is a movie to watch for the excellent production values plus some quite amazing and interesting visuals and yes, for a very light and entertaining very likable story about two teenage girls that it’s fun to watch, even when the movie is really arty.

Performances are good and main characters are definitively good-looking so it is not really hard to get fast involved with the movie. The movie got two nominations at the 2008 Asian Film Awards for Best Editor and Sandrine Pinna for Best Newcomer. Highly recommended for those that enjoy quality cinema and well, I do recommend it to those that enjoy the lesbian and gay interest genres as a perhaps common story extremely well packaged.

I definitively liked the movie for its production values, but also because the breezy tone the movie has as manages to touch complex issues in a simple down-to-earth way.

Enjoy!!!