Taiwan’s Box Office : You Are the Apple of My Eye
Boy meets girl at high school. They grow up, drift apart and meet again. Such are the elementary and timeless ingredients with which Taiwan novelist-turned-director Giddens whips up the larky retro coming-of-age confection You Are the Apple of My Eye. Based on Giddens’ semi-autobiographical novel The Girl We Chased Together in Those Years (same as the Chinese title), which is already a bestseller among Chinese online readers, its transfer to screen has no trace of literary ponderousness and brims with unpretentious boyish humor. The film’s sparkle lies in the way it conveys the experience of youth and first love with untethered energy and in a wholly personal, idiosyncratic voice.
The film has been on a marathon run at the box office for over 40 days, sprinting to 2th place on Taiwan’s chart of all-time box office hits. Festivals specializing in popular Asian fare and other Chinese-speaking territories will take a bite too.
Apple recalls the Thai film My Girl (2003) in the way it tenderly stokes collective memory of the ‘90s, bookending its recollection of a boy and a girl growing up in the countryside with the girl’s present day wedding. Apple kicks off in 2005 and rolls backwards to 1995. The protagonist Ko Ching-Teng (Giddens’ real name, played by Ko Chen-Tung) and his gang: Boner, Cock, Groin and A-Ho are the bad boys of Ching-Cheng High, a backwater school in Changhua, central-west Taiwan.
Plot outline:
Ko-Teng (Zhendong Ke) has several close friends who had a crush on Shen Chia-Yi (Michelle Chen). Those friends of Ko’s thus move in unison from Ching Cheng’s junior high school straight into the senior high school division in pursuit of her. Naughty in nature, Ko is ordered by their homeroom teacher to sit in front of honour student Shen for her to keep close tabs on him. The two don’t see eye to eye at first but Ko gradually falls for Shen, who is always pressuring him to study hard. On the other hand, Shen becomes impressed by the contrasting values Ko represented. Ko starts pursuing Shen but Shen remains hesitant.
Malaysian release (Malaysia) : 10 November 2011
Rated : 18 - sexual fantasies and some naked scenes
