7th Spring Film Festival

Kung Fu. Karate. Martial Arts. I believe that there's more to Chinese movies than what I have mentioned. In this faith, I decided to catch the 7th Spring Film Festival at EDSA Shangri-La Plaza today. I thought of it as an opportunity to take a peek at a possibly rich Chinese film industry as the festival features a diverse collection of films about Chinese society and culture. The films included in the festival are Piano in a Factory, Storm Warriors, Golden Times, Jasmine Women, 2Become1, and Space Dream. Admission is free, hurray!

For more info, click here.

We watched 2Become1, a film about Bingo Leung and her breast.. cancer. 

Bingo Leung, an advertising executive, has always lived a carefree life that includes guarding her turf in the office, dating, and gossiping with her three girlfriends. One day, she finds a lump in her left breast. Everything begins to fall apart as she tries to cope with the loss of femininity in a series of bittersweet events. With the help of a happy-go-lucky Doctor V and a shy but talented teenager Sing, Bingo begins to find new meanings in her turmoil and the will to face her own demons. 

Read more: http://everythinginbudget.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-spring-film-festival-shang.html#ixzz2Ju9KQgrJ 

Watch trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GxaAisGEWSo

Some personal thoughts on the movie:

• The copy that we saw was in low resolution. Its dimensions were not audience-friendly. Placing the subtitles (the language of the movie was Chinese) at the very bottom part of the screen made it challenging for the audience to take a good look at the scenes of the movie. It was sometimes impossible to catch what was happening on screen since the characters were speaking too fast and the subtitles were too long to read. It was quite a struggle particularly for those who did not speak and understand Chinese. 
• The movie was dragging. It ran for 1 hr and 38 mins but it seemed too long for a regular Comedy-Drama movie. There was too much on the table. They were not even inviting. The movie had a handful of elements, sub-stories, sub-conflicts that made the main character rather busy. There was the ex-boyfriend who came back and cheated upon her, the girl friends who were fighting over a man, the shy but talented teenager Sing, her unique family, her job as an advertising executive, and of course, her enemy turned love Doctor Vincent. There was just too much going on. Give us a break. 
• Mixing drama with comedy on the issue of fighting a horrible disease such as breast cancer is a risky move. The movie was able to make that work but in general, the movie did not have a lasting effect. It did give us some good laughs, but that is all.

I'd still like to catch the other movies though!