Soul Mate (2016)

Perfection is rare

I started this because of liking both the leads, and they OWNED this. My eyes are still damp from the powerfully moving final few minutes.

It might be a simple story, but it was well told and PERFECTLY acted by the two leads. The movie was FULL of surprises for me, from hearing a voice that "like Faye Wong, but not" and finding out it was Leah Dou :), to the way the story and the story-within-a-story messed with perception and reality, to such emotional effect at the very end.

Award ceremonies get A LOT of criticism for their decisions, and most of it is 100% justified. But sometimes, they get it just right, and these two outstanding actors being made joint winners for this film was not merely the RIGHT decision, it was the only possible one. When trying to decide whether to score this a 9 or to go higher, I realised that was no substantive reason to dock any points, and in terms of its overall impact, if I could score it higher than 10, I would.

Read More

If there's one thing you should know about this film is that the acting from its two leads: Zhou Dongyu and Ma Sichun is truly what makes this film worthwhile. I could do without some of the plot and how it all unfolds isn't the movie's strong suit. It's a little disjointed because of the back and forth but overall the story is fine. But with such strong performances between the Zhou Dongyu and Ma Sichun there's no question that this should be watched. These two are such versatile actors and apparently their friendship went beyond the filming cause they're bff off screen. The male lead is nothing to write about which is a shame since the film seems weaker because of his lack of... well just about anything. A shame really. Anyways the film is really pretty with some good music used to evoke emotion. The movie did stay with me for a while and worth your time to see great acting from these actresses.

They won Golden Horse for Best Actress together (a first for the award), which is not only thematically on point but so well deserved. You should watch their acceptance speeches. It's adorable.

Read More

story

Just finished this movie, it has been on my list for a while now and finally got to watch it.

At first glance of the posters and trailer I thought they were going to be lovers, but that was not the case, I still liked the movie it was bitter sweet

The movie was FULL of surprises for me, the director really wanted you to watch the whole movie to understand the storyline and each characters, and a liked the way the talked about struggling to find your purpose in live with I think many can relate to.


Overall I enjoyed the movie and cried quite a lot it had emotional effect at the very end and showed you what really happened.

Read More

Story: 6.5
Very sad and emotional, although not always comprehensive. I got lost halfway through, but that is probably due to my limited understanding of the mandarin language. Still, some elements of the plot seemed rather forced and the backtracing was too confusing.

Acting/Cast: 9.5
The guy was not that much of a great actor, but, oh my, Ma Sichun and Zhou Dongyu were absolutely amazing.

Music: 9.0
It invoked the right emotions at the right time.

Rewatch Value: 7.5
I might rewatch it.

Overall: 8
If it weren't for the amazing main cast, it wouldn't have been that enjoyable.

Read More

Since I loved the directing in "Better Days" I checked this out. Same actress too. Beautiful cinematography, great acting, but horrible script. To make it short: I was annoyed by this movie throughout. I hated it for many reasons, mostly because the women were so weak and dependent on the men, while at the same time it seemed like they were in love with each other. They had a very intimate and complicated friendship. But then again, if you think about it, the male lead, who was bland, boring and unappealing was somehow the cause of it all. Who was loving who? They were hurting each other and themselves constantly for no good reason. Depressing, really. Good news though: The movie redeemed itself at the end, mostly because they put the male lead aside, and didn't go for a cheesy happy end. 8/10 to be fair. My enjoyment was maybe 4/10. Rewatch value ZERO. But despite me being annoyed by the movie: the director is crazy talented. There was not one boring moment. It was pure art.

Read More

warning!! Can make you sad.

Soul Mate (2016) -9/10 - cmovie

loved Zhou Dong Yu in Better Days... and this movie I love even more.

Got same feeling,,,, quite sure cause it got same director[Derek Tsang]

whole movie is some kind of diary type of novel about two best female friends growing up and slowly being separated by life and their choices. And at same time being reconnected later in their lives.

Their connection was portrayed very strongly... almost took this movie for lesbian one[which didnt happened and I am weirdly quite sad for such].

plot - ok wrote most of it above. Two girls becomes best friends from young age, but gets later separated ... partly cause of guy. One is staying at hometown living humble normal live. Other is wandering through world. Later in time they will reconnect their relationship just to lose it again. Both of them goes through circle of life separated and connected at same time.

genre - romance, life

Read More