Jing works with her friend Mei in a book store but not much work is happening lately since Jing is endlessly distracted. Turns out she is having some very vivid dreams – of a man who she never really sees but yet brings with him an intense feeling of love and togetherness. Obsessed by the idea that this man may be real, Jing is even more disturbed by a dream where the man is hit by a car. She discusses these dreams with a sceptical Mei.
I watch a lot of shorts and through a series of events I sought out this short film which was apparently one of the first (or the first) from the writer/director. It is important to keep this in mind because you do need to be a bit forgiving with it because of the very young and inexperienced team behind it – however even with your kindest heart, there is a lot here that doesn't work. To be honest, not being a romantic myself, the whole plot sort of already has me on edge since it is about dreams of love in the mind of a young woman, who spends her days deeply sketching hands locked together in love. It is an idea you have to do very well to make me buy into it but unfortunately here we get "told" the film rather than see the film. Predominately the film is driven by dialogue between Jing and Mei, with breaks in between where Jing falls asleep on her bed or looks sad.
I kept waiting to see these dreams or have some scene that really allowed them to become more than just the narrative equivalent of a 15 year old girl's poetry, but it never happened. I shall not say too much about the ending but I found it really quite brave as an idea – not perfect but it did shake me out of my stupor somewhat. Of course ultimately it is in the same vein as the rest of the material, but I appreciated the dramatic nature of it. Otherwise we have a script that is too heavy in dialogue and it even hurts the actresses. I have seen Abe in another film from the same director recently (8 Seconds) and have seen that if you give her something to silently process or feel, she can do it. Here though she never really does that, instead she has to talk and she does this too much and seems to have less guidance as to what to do with her feelings other than "conflicted" or "sappy". She does (as usual) get to wear headphones in the film, but in-ear ones only sadly. Tan gives an odd performance; she is lively and comedic but it doesn't really work in the way it was meant to, which means she stood out as not fitting into the tone of the film.
The structure of the film is of course limited to mostly interiors and it shows, with not much movement of the film. I really don't know if it was deliberate or as a result of the low budget, but the film looks pretty tatty too, grainy images and overly brown color (can you tell I am not technically minded on this subject in any way?). The selection of shots isn't really particularly good either – too many static "let them chat" moments for one thing but also nothing particularly clever in the camera positioning, a feeling not helped by several shots of the watch in a way that yells "this thing is relevant". I'd love to be more positive given that film was clearly as much about working out what doesn't work as it was about delivering what does, but the film is weak – and it is weak from the concept upwards because it never works out how to tell this story in a way that charms, enchants and moves in a sappy but sweet way.
I watch a lot of shorts and through a series of events I sought out this short film which was apparently one of the first (or the first) from the writer/director. It is important to keep this in mind because you do need to be a bit forgiving with it because of the very young and inexperienced team behind it – however even with your kindest heart, there is a lot here that doesn't work. To be honest, not being a romantic myself, the whole plot sort of already has me on edge since it is about dreams of love in the mind of a young woman, who spends her days deeply sketching hands locked together in love. It is an idea you have to do very well to make me buy into it but unfortunately here we get "told" the film rather than see the film. Predominately the film is driven by dialogue between Jing and Mei, with breaks in between where Jing falls asleep on her bed or looks sad.
I kept waiting to see these dreams or have some scene that really allowed them to become more than just the narrative equivalent of a 15 year old girl's poetry, but it never happened. I shall not say too much about the ending but I found it really quite brave as an idea – not perfect but it did shake me out of my stupor somewhat. Of course ultimately it is in the same vein as the rest of the material, but I appreciated the dramatic nature of it. Otherwise we have a script that is too heavy in dialogue and it even hurts the actresses. I have seen Abe in another film from the same director recently (8 Seconds) and have seen that if you give her something to silently process or feel, she can do it. Here though she never really does that, instead she has to talk and she does this too much and seems to have less guidance as to what to do with her feelings other than "conflicted" or "sappy". She does (as usual) get to wear headphones in the film, but in-ear ones only sadly. Tan gives an odd performance; she is lively and comedic but it doesn't really work in the way it was meant to, which means she stood out as not fitting into the tone of the film.
The structure of the film is of course limited to mostly interiors and it shows, with not much movement of the film. I really don't know if it was deliberate or as a result of the low budget, but the film looks pretty tatty too, grainy images and overly brown color (can you tell I am not technically minded on this subject in any way?). The selection of shots isn't really particularly good either – too many static "let them chat" moments for one thing but also nothing particularly clever in the camera positioning, a feeling not helped by several shots of the watch in a way that yells "this thing is relevant". I'd love to be more positive given that film was clearly as much about working out what doesn't work as it was about delivering what does, but the film is weak – and it is weak from the concept upwards because it never works out how to tell this story in a way that charms, enchants and moves in a sappy but sweet way.