This review may contain spoilers
Not good, but not bad either.
I have to admit, the synopsis for this movie pulled me in. I am a watcher who does not care about which actors are playing in a film, as long as they can act well. And I have to say, the acting in this movie is quite good in my opinion. Superb acting from the child actor who portrayed Liu Di, and good acting from Fei Li's actor as well as actors for the other characters.But one thing I'd like to criticize is the story.
I seriously didn't understand why he (Fei Li) had to treat Liu Di horribly. Yes, it's probably to ruin the image Liu Di has of Fei Li, but the kid still doesn't care anyway, and it's heartbreaking to see. Because in the end, all children want to do is love their parents AND to be loved by their parents. Liu Di's love and care for his father is so pure, yet it frustrates me so much that Fei Li simply cannot see this!
The lack of communication between Fei Li and Liu Di is also quite jarring. In the later parts of the film, it is revealed that Liu Di ALREADY knew that his father has a terminal illness even though he merely overheard it. The poor kid was only trying his best to help his dying father only to be shoved aside and treated so horribly.
One more issue I have is that the film makes no effort to counter my stigma about Fei Li being a very horrible parent even if that's what his intentions truly are. This is because there are barely any scenes of him showing his love towards Liu Di, only Liu Di showing his love towards his father, which actually made me fell in love with his pure, loving, and innocent character. This could've been done through flashbacks of when Liu Di was younger, or perhaps through subtle actions (show, not tell) to show that what Fei Li is doing is out of pure love for his son.
No explanation was ever made as to why Liu Di is mute with an exception to that one scene when he sang a song near the end of the film. A form of autism was mentioned in the film but it was never explored any further, everyone (I mean, EVERYONE) just doesn't mind Liu Di not answering back to them verbally, simply regarding it as shyness. So I have to say this is one hole to Liu Di's character, but overall, Liu Di is a well fleshed out child character despite barely speaking, instead letting his actions speak for him. I don't see well fleshed out children in movies too often.
All in all, the film was quite emotional at times, though it didn't bring me any close to crying. It was not a happy ending, but that doesn't matter as it stabbed incredibly hard anyway.
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