You Are the Apple of My Eye

那些年，我们一起追的女孩。

Taiwan, 2011, colour, 2.35:1, 109 mins.

Director: Ke Jingteng 柯景腾 [Giddens Ko 九把刀].

Rating: 7/10.

Likeable but lightweight compendium of high-school romances, well cast and slickly packaged.

STORY

Zhanghua, west coast of Taiwan, 1994. Sixteen-year-old Ke Jingteng (Ke Zhendong) is a pupil at Jingcheng High School, along with his pals Xu Bochun (Yan Shengyu), the serious Xie Minghe (Hao Shaowen), the bragging Cao Guosheng (Owodog) and the lascivious Liao Yinghong (Cai Changxian). All have a crush on the brightest student in their class, goody two-shoes Shen Jiayi (Chen Yanxi), but she is only interested in her studies. When Ke Jingteng and Yan Shengyu are caught fooling around in class, Ke Jingteng is made to sit in front of her and is put under her personal supervision. Shen Jiayi makes it her personal mission to get Ke Jingteng interested in taking schoolwork seriously, and eventually his marks start to improve. Gradually, their early antagonism turns into something more than friendship, though Ke Jingteng never openly declares his liking for her. On graduation day, Shen Jiayi whispers to her best friend Hu Jiawei (Wan Wan) the name of the boy she likes the most. During that summer, in 1997, the group of seven spend their last carefree days together before going their separate ways to further education. Shen Jiayi goes to National Taipei University of Education, while Ke Jingteng ends up in a college in Xinzhu, south of the city, where he forms a new group of friends but still phones Shen Jiayi every day. The two see each other but Ke Jingteng still holds back from officially “dating” her. To boost his sense of pride, Ke Jingteng organises a fight tournament at his college but gets soundly beaten. After an argument with Shen Jiayi, who’s appalled by his immature behaviour, he walks away, and it looks like the two will never see each other again.

REVIEW

After his directorial debut with the quirky first segment 三声有辛 of portmanteau film L-O-V-E 爱到底 (2009), popular internet novelist Ke Jingteng 柯景腾 [Giddens Ko], 33 – whose Chinese pen-name 九把刀 means “Nine Blades”, from his love of martial-arts stories – makes a confident feature debut adapting his own autobiographical 2006 novel of high-school pranks and romance (see cover, left). Made with the same two executive directors, Liao Mingyi 廖明毅 and Jiang Jinlin 江金霖, it’s so slickly packaged in every department that it’s easy to miss the fact there’s nothing at all original here. With the usual laddish jokes about sex and masturbation, fooling around behind teachers’ backs, bicycles and train lines, copious voice-overs by the male lead, and a light sprinkling of 1990s nostalgia, You Are the Apple of My Eye 那些年，我们一起追的女孩。 is a lightweight compendium of every Taiwan high-school movie about impossible love and one’s dreams for the future.

Set (and even filmed) in Ke’s own high school in Zhanghua, on the west coast of Taiwan, it’s one of those films where it’s impossible to separate fact from fiction. The name of the 16-year-old main character is Ke’s real one, and Taiwan web cartoonist Wan Wan 弯弯 plays her teenage self, Hu Jiawei 胡家玮. But despite all the in-references, and local slang and wordplay, the movie has an easy charm that makes it accessible to audiences beyond Taiwan. It’s always smartly composed in widescreen, and punched up with occasionally jazzy visuals, but Ke never lets technique get in the way of characterisation, and his cast is both well-chosen individually and relaxed as an ensemble.

Newcomer Ke Zhendong 柯震东, as Ke’s alter ego, shows charm to spare without too much cockiness or mumbling, and has natural chemistry with Chen Yanxi 陈妍希 [Michelle Chen] (the deaf swimmer in Hear Me 听说, 2009) as the girl he just can’t bring himself to declare his love for. Of the two, Chen in fact has the harder role of making prissy class swat Shen Jiayi into a likeable character; but the actress, who’s pretty but not distractingly so, nicely moderates the role by small degrees throughout the film. Apart from a slightly draggy second half, the material sustains itself at almost two hours, with generally trim editing by co-executive director Liao. At its core, Apple is a simple teenage rom-com, a will-they/won’t-they between two opposites, but capped by a neat finale that does deliver some real emotion.

The large number of supporting performances are deftly etched, with many of the cast playing considerably younger than they actually are. As the fattie and the bragger, Hao Shaowen 郝劭文 and Lollipop F boyband vocalist Owodog 敖犬 (aka Zhuang Haoquan 莊濠全) stand out among Ke Jingteng’s schoolpals, while among the older actors Wang Caihua 王彩桦 has some treasurable comic moments as Ke Jingteng’s mother, completely unfazed by the habit of her son and husband walking round the house stark naked. In the standard role of the heroine’s best schoolfriend, Wan Wan, now 31, convincingly plays herself as a teenager and makes one regret her character was not developed more.

The film’s Chinese title means “The Girl We Chased After in Those Days”.

CREDITS

Presented by Star Ritz Productions (TW), Sony Music Entertainment Taiwan (TW). Produced by Star Ritz Productions (TW).

Script: Ke Jingteng [Giddens Ko]. Novel: Ke Jingteng [Giddens Ko]. Photography: Zhou Yixian. Editing: Liao Mingyi. Music: Hou Zhijian. Music direction: Xue Zhongming. Art direction: Shen Zhanzhi. Costume design: Xu Liwen. Sound: Guo Liqi, Du Duzhi. Action: Yang Zhilong. Executive direction: Liao Mingyi, Jiang Jinlin.

Cast: Ke Zhendong (Ke Jingteng/Ke Teng), Chen Yanxi [Michelle Chen] (Shen Jiayi), Hao Shaowen (Xie Minghe/Fattie He), Owodog [Zhuang Haoquan] (Cao Guosheng/Lao Cao/Cock Tsao), Cai Changxian (Liao Yinghong/Gai Bian/Groin), Yan Shengyu (Xu Bochun/Boqi/Boner), Wan Wan [Hu Jiawei] (Hu Jiawei), Wang Caihua (Ke Jingteng’s mother), Ke Yihong (Ke Jingteng’s father), Lai Binghui (headmistress), Qiu Bingxiang (Shen Jiayi’s husband), Chen Jiping (trainer), Huang Bojun, Lai Yayan (couple), Li Fengxin (Lai, class tutor), Gao Lihong (Chinese teacher), Duan Zhengping (maths teacher), Li Weiwei (English teacher), Cai Wuxiong (neighbour), Xu Lina (hairdresser’s owner), Lin Guanjing (Xu Kexin, Ke Jingteng’s New Year first dance), Wu Guanting (Jianhan, Ke Jingteng’s rommate), Huang Yixiang (Yizhi, Ke Jingteng’s roommate), Chen Hongjing (Xiaolun, Ke Jingteng’s roommate), Sun Zhan (Jianwei, taekwondo black belt), Chen Yongjin (Xu Bochun’s father), Yan Yiwen (Xu Bochun’s mother).

Premiere: Taipei Film Festival (Gala Premiere), 25 Jun 2011.

Release: Taiwan, 19 Aug 2011.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 5 Oct 2011.)