I Missed You (2021)

Decent movie with misleading beginning

The biggest flaw of this movie is definitely its first half an hour where the viewer is left to piece together rather important information in scenes that change quite abruptly in what could have been a fun integration of scenes through the eyes of the characters, but ended up just being confusing. The movie significantly improves in the later half and leaves its more experimental scenes behind in favour of what then turned out to be not a rom-com or romance movie but rather a movie about healing, family and past relationships, that culminated in a sad but sweet ending.

The acting is good but not outstanding, same with the score. Kudos that the director at least tried to make this movie a little more avant-garde, even if it didn't always end up working out. The scenes that do work out are nice enough to look at.

For everyone who wants to watch this movie, I'll give you the general advice that the guy in the funky outfits is NOT the ML, it's the MC's brother. This is not immediately apparent and even when the film does explains the familial relationship, it's deliberately vague about it for the sake of the family line plot, but this unfortunately culminated in me being already sort of invested in a ship that would definitely never happen.

If you want to watch the movie on Netflix, the whole thing is only about 1 h 30 min and maybe a good watch for a rainy Sunday afternoon. It's worth a watch.

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Don't Bother

The blurb for this made it sound like it could be pretty good - adult introspection, reevaluating one's life, and choosing to, or not to, make changes.

What it wound up being was a series of jarring and somewhat difficult to follow scenes that were badly patched together, combined with poorly thought out flashbacks, and often insufficiently clarified relationships. It also suffered from bad makeup/wardrobe choices, with one memorably bad FL hairdo and a particularly greasy looking ML with an inexplicable furry pink jacket. The acting was mediocre, the characters so uninteresting as to make it impossible to feel sympathy or empathy for any of them, and there was a complete lack of cohesive flow in the story line.

It was boring. Really, don't bother.

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Growing up with family

The movie follows our closed-off lead, Kuo Chin Chin, to recount how she becomes who she is - serious at work, distant from coworkers, and tense with her parents. She comes back into contact with a family member, Nan Zi Yang, who seems to be the complete opposite of her - light-hearted, loved by those around him, but struggling with work.

This is a movie about how our relationships with family and friends shape us growing us, even after we cut off certain ties. It is not too serious of a drama, but a bit more slice-of-lice than rom-com.

The actors all did great in the film. Chris Wu is charismatic as always. Cammy Chiang, Chang Yao Jen, and 9m88 (her acting debut) were all convincing supportive actors. This was also the acting debut for singer Eve Ai, and though her character felt a little too expressionless at times, it was hard to tell whether it was the script/direction or the acting.

Overall, good music and acting, decent storyline, but not too much of a hook to rewatch. It is a solid watch if you enjoy Taiwanese movies/dramas and already have a Netflix subscription. Wrote this review mainly because I thought it was much better than how other reviewers put it.

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