Eternal Summer

A brave effort…

Director Leste Chen has ventured into an unlikely genre with a brave heart, but the results are another matter. It is a film that attempts to be compelling, emotional and consequential, but ultimately it fails to connect with the audience. The film itself is like a beautiful image, filled with daring performances, outstanding direction and lighting, but somehow it falls short and perhaps ending up being quite lacking. Putting together two relatively unknown male leads enhance the credibility of the film by being more believable and surprisingly they handed their respective roles with suitable bravery and emotionally performed. Coming from the lush of fame from the arty 20:30:40, Kate Yeung is suitably nature and a potential filled performance worthy of noting.

The movie goes like this: The film opens with elementary school kid Jonathan (Bryant Chang), ordered by the teacher to befriend his classmate Shane (Joseph Chang). Since then, they have shared every episode in their lives until Carrie (Kate Yeung) becomes their high school classmate...

It is still a mystery, as to the prime reason why the movie never seem to connect to Neo, perhaps it is the subject matter it is dealing with, but the film is ultimately distant and leaving far too many stones unturned in the process. Some twists like the controversial sex scene is far more shocking and brave than actually affecting and connecting. It is probably safe to say that the script is really a let down, as everything else seems like the product of good cinema. There is no doubt that the filmmaker here is daring and is not afraid to expose edgy issues and there are even scenes that reminds us of a far superior –Wong Kar Wai's film – Happy Together. Unfortunately this flick never reaches those heights and the effect is more like experimental cinema than actual accomplished cinema.

Still, with all the criticisms the performances of the trio is without doubt the core saviour for the film as they are able to create believable characters and act beyond the material they are given. Byrant Chang handles his role in an outright sympathetic manner with his heart torn between his love for his best friend and his duty to maintain his friendship. He is expressive and subtle at times, creating a performance that is worthy of some recognition. Likewise, Joseph Chang performs extremely well in a complex role, but in a way his performance may well be enhanced by the sudden shocks within the scripts, rather than his actual performance. Nonetheless, he remains a fine young talent. Of the trio, Kate Yeung is given the filling parts or perhaps what Neo calls "a paper thin role", but somehow, Yeung is able to act beyond her material and resulting in the most natural performance of the trio. She is a bright young talent and despite not being an outright beauty, her talents by far outweigh that minor physical flaw.

All in all, Eternal Summer is by no means a bad movie, and in fact it almost has all the ingredients to set it up as an outright award winning arty film. Unfortunately the film failed to connect and affect to the audience's emotions, resulting in a finale that is more emotional and tense for the people on screen, rather than the ones looking on. It is ultimately a trying and brave effort and for that alone, it is worthy of giving some sort of credit to. Nonetheless, it is an interesting look into the lives of three tormented souls and the daring performances are alone worthy of a pat on the shoulders for their efforts… (Neo 2006)

I rate it 7.5/10.

• www.thehkneo.com

This movie unfortunately is a mess for me. I can see this really cute movie in here somewhere but it is tangled up in so much issues.

The script feels like half of it is missing. It doesn't have any "connective tissue" holding the scenes together. Random scenes will just follow each other with no rhyme or reason how we got there. I don't need to be led around by the nose but it would be nice to have some sort of idea why/how things happened.

This is also hot helped by the fact this movie moves at a breakneck pace.

The message in here was also a little muddy for me. I honestly don't know what it was trying to say. But I appreciate the effort to tell a story like this in 2006 and in countries where these stories are not common.

Movie Review: Eternal Summer (2006) By Ken Lee

This movie was a box office success in its native Taiwan when it was released late last year, garnering 4 nominations in Taiwan's Golden Horse Award along the way, and an eventual win for one of its male leads (Bryant CHANG Jui-chia, or ZHANG Ruijia in pinyin, who plays Jonathan KANG Zhenxing in a nuanced performance repletes with all the requisite repressed troubled mood), though a nod for its other male lead (Joseph CHANG Hsiao-chuan, or ZHANG Xiaoquan in pinyin, who plays the other-worldly Shane YU Souheng with tremendous vigour and enough *bling*), for the role of the high school jock and the object of desire of Jonathan, will be just as pleasing.

But the movie's success is less sterling in HK, where it just opens, presumably because movie-goers here typecast it with yet-another-melodramatic-Taiwanese-film association, and one with GLBT-theme at that, which is a shame, for it deserves a wider audience, even as it's one that isn't without minor flaws of its own, as befits the fate of most coming-of-age films helmed by relatively young directors (in this case, Leste CHEN, all of 25).

The plot is decidedly simple, and the narrative mostly linear, tracking the friendship and love of its 3 main protagonists ("best friends" Jonathan, Shane, and Carrie, played by Kate Yeung who shines in limited screen time) in their youth, from age 11 in a school in rural Hualian (in 1991) to age 18 (1998) to the college year in Taipei (2005), with all of their ensuing majesty, glory, anxiety, complicity, confusion, pang, angst, and a dreamy quality thrown in.

The film will benefit from some minor editing for a more even pace. Original music by Jeffrey CHENG is intrusive at best. These minor quibbles aside, cinematographer Charlie LAM's rendering of the rural locations is thing of pure magic and the theme song by Ah Xin (of the "May Day" rock band fame) blends in magnificently with the direction to which the film eventually takes.

A friend asked if this is a tear-jerker to avoid at all costs. My answer to which is that hot and bitter tears may flow, not necessarily because of the inherent sadness of the human conditions, but may be because it deepens our understanding of those who are perceived to be "different" and living on the fringe.

And if the measure of a film lies in whether the audience connects with the characters towards the end, and whether it leaves you with the sudden urge to be young and fell in love all over again, then it isn't to be missed; and so it seems "Eternal Summer" is a welcome addition to the growing list of Taiwanese films with GLBT content.

Recommended.

Great treatment of the complexities of relationships and the difficulty of making the transition from the youthful summer of life to the autumn of adulthood.

At the superficial level, Jonathan is one of the best students in his class while Shane is a trouble-maker who has no friends. At the request of Shane's mother, their teacher orchestrates a bonding between Jonathan and Shane in the hopes of helping Shane. While both boys are reluctant, their friendship develops into something very important to them both, but not without costs.

Carrie enters the picture when they are all older and coming to terms with their sexuality, but this leads to Jonathan & Carrie "discovering" an insurmountable obstacle to their relationship. Carrie is sympathetic and still cares about Jonathan. Nonetheless she then turns her romantic attention to Shane who does reciprocate her feelings, but both fear alienating Jonathan who Shane continues to love as a best friend.

The chemistry between these three becomes an increasingly difficult mixture of love, resentment, respect, caring, jealousy and misunderstanding.

They each want to maintain the innocent and platonic relationships formed during the summer of their youth, but their sexual maturity and natural desire to pair off in more intimate relationships makes the rite of passage a painful and, as far as the movie is concerned, an unresolved one.

Very well done. The actors made their characters very believable and their plight was emotionally touching & moving.

ETERNAL SUMMER (Sheng xia guang nian) is a delicate, quiet, understated and eloquent study of youthful interpersonal relationships form Taiwanese director Leste Chen from a screenplay by Cheng-Ping Hsu based on the novel by the same name by Chi-yao Wang. The style of the film allows a wide audience to appreciate the sexual challenges of teenagers and understand the need for finding love and acceptance in a world at times too busy to care.

The story begins in grade school where Jonathan Kang (Bryant Chang) is a gifted student asked to 'supervise' another young boy in his class, Shane Yu (the dazzlingly gifted young actor Joseph Chang) who has an apparent learning disorder/attention deficit. Shane is rambunctious and athletically gifted while Jonathan is the quiet, reserved, brilliant student. The boys bond as children and grow up together into young men facing the exams for university entrance. A young girl Carrie (Kate Yeung) meets the two boys: first she challenges the studious Jonathan to take a trip to Taipei (ditching school) where she hopes to have a physical encounter. The hotel room is a disaster and Jonathan feels isolated from both Carrie's desires and from deserting his duties at school - and with Shane, who Jonathan loves far more than merely a best friend. Shane gradually moves into Jonathan's position as Carrie's physical companion and the resulting triangle results in confessions and incidents that allow each of the three involved young people to grow and understand the spectrum of love.

The story is captured with exceptionally beautiful cinematic effects by cinematographer Charlie Lam and the atmosphere of play and passion is enhanced by the musical score by Jeffrey Cheng. Yet it is the sensitive direction by Leste Chen that encourages the three superb young actors to become immersed in their roles. Chen knows when to say enough (the sex scenes are sensual and suggestive without even approaching an R rating) and when to allow scenes of quiet and eye contact to carry the drama. This is a very fine film that deserves a wide audience, both young and old. Highly recommended. In Mandarin with English subtitles. Grady Harp