When I sat down in 2023 to watch the 1981 Taiwanese romantic drama "Feng Er Ti Ta Cai" (aka "Play While You Play"), I had never actually heard about it before. But it being an Asian movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I opted to watch it.
Writers Yao Chiung and Hsiao-Hsien Hou put together a watchable enough script for the movie. However, I found the movie to be sort of bland and pointless really. As the movie came to an end, I was left with an overwhelming sense of 'what was the point of this story?'. There wasn't really much of any driving force behind the characters and their interactions with one another seemed sort of futile. In fact, this movie felt like you were just watching the ordinary daily lives of the two main characters.
I wasn't familiar with the cast in the movie. But then again, I am not overly familiar with the Taiwanese cinema. The acting performances in the movie, however, were okay, though the cast were struggling with their characters doing nothing much more than menial activities.
There wasn't really much of any chemistry between the two leading characters. The actress and actor did fair enough jobs with their characters, but they just simply didn't have much of anything solid or interesting to work with from the writers.
And there wasn't much of any build-ups to anything grand throughout the course of the movie. Which means you sit through a rather monotonous narrative. Sure, there was the cornea surgery for the blind man, which just came and went by miraculously in the blink of an eye. Even that was there no build-up to, nor any fulfilling climax or aftermath.
Director Hsiao-Hsien Hou's 1981 movie was a bland movie experience. Sure, I managed to sit through all 90 minutes, but I wasn't impressed. And this is definitely not a movie that warrants a second viewing.
My rating of "Feng Er Ti Ta Cai" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.
