In Continuum.

Cape No. 7



I ran out of books to read on the trip back from Taiwan, mainly because I couldn't resist reading the last book of Fables. Well, not exactly the last of the series, but the last book that I brought along with me. Fables is probably one of the best graphic novels I have ever read, so eat dirt Neil Gaiman! I wanted to leave book five for the flight home, but apparently I couldn't wait to learn the characters on Saturday night, which was when I decided to just speed through the book. In a way, I am glad that I went through with it, but at the same time it did prove the return trip to be somewhat of a bore. Rid of a book to read, I was stuck with my iPod for the most part, with none of the movies being shown being particularly interesting. It was curious to observe the switching of roles, the way my mother had magazines and newspapers to read on her way back when she didn't have anything to do other than to watch Hellboy 2 on our way to Taiwan a week ago. At least she had Hellboy to kill two hours of the flight, though. This time around, I was stuck with my iPod and a throbbing headache. Not that I mind my iPod, but I'd much rather have a book, you know? So I grabbed pillows and piled them on the table before me and buried my face into it for a nap. It wasn't comfortable, but I needed it.

One and a half hours before landing, and my throat was burning for some reason. I asked for a cup of orange juice, and my mother was still reading her newspaper when I awoke. I've dozed off for more than two hours at that time without me knowing it, and bending down in a strange position made my neck hurt. I decided to watch a movie, whatever movie, and I started browsing through the library when I found Cape No. 7. You know, supposedly the highest grossing movie in Taiwanese movie history, the one that caused quite an uproar back home. It is the Titanic of Taiwan, for one reason or another, and for that I was rather intrigued. You know how it is with words like "the most" or "the highest", they are cheap marketing gimmicks to get people hooked. They work though, and they work very well. I wanted to see the film for myself, and check out what the fuss is all about. I knew I wasn't going to be able to finish the film by the time the plane landed, but I still wanted to check it out. So I played the movie, got myself comfortable, ordered another cup of water, and the movie began. Mind you, this is probably the first Chinese-language movie that I was watching in a very long time, and completely voluntary at that. All those movies that I watched in the army because I was bored out of my minds doesn't count. This time, I was genuinely interested, imagine that.

Let's just say that I held quite a high expectation for this movie, in a way. I mean, people are positively crazy about this film, and everything about it. There are tours being planned in Taiwan just because of this film, and you can visit the locations where the film was made in Southern Taiwan. There are television commercials featuring the cast of this film everywhere, and the news reports give updates on the box office earnings of the movie. Despite being made at an extremely low budget like most local films in Taiwan, it cashed in more than two hundred million dollars at the box office. That's more than Titanic's local box office in Taiwan, so imagine that. The film really came out of nowhere for me, but then again it's not like I have been keeping an eye on the movie industry over there. The synopsis of the film didn't not exactly feel very appealing to me, because everything felt very predictable. It is one of those drama slash romance slash comedy movies, the kind that was made probably to appeal to the crowds. But how can you blame the director though, nobody likes to watch art house movies that Taiwan is more known for. It matters little to the audience how many awards you might win overseas though, people only cares about how it relates to their lives back home. To me, as closely rooted in the local culture as the film is, I felt rather disappointed halfway through the film.

Let's just say that the film brought me tears, not because of the laughter but because of how boring it was. Given, I wasn't able to finish the entire film, but I was well pass the halfway mark by the time the plane landed. I can tell you that by that time, the film really wasn't going anywhere that cannot be predicted by the audience fifteen minutes into the film. So, a little town in Taiwan is going to have this Japanese singer performing, and a so-called "warm up band" is needed, and preferably local according to the mayor. So the mayor mustered a bunch of unlikely members to form a band, write two songs, and perform in a relatively short period of time. In the midst is a Japanese model, who acted as a sort of mediator between the Japanese organizers and the locals, since she spoke fluent mandarin. Of course, from this alone, you can pretty much guess the story. The lead singer falls for this pretty Japanese girl, the concert is a success, everybody is happy. The director had a sub-story to add to the main one though, something about a letter being written by a Japanese man to a girl in Taiwan in the 1940s. So throughout the film, we see the contents of the letter being read, though it is mostly just about his infatuation with the girl.

So, the film crawls, and then it burrows into the ground as if crawling isn't slow enough. The movie begins with the main character being jaded about not making it in Taipei in a rock band, and he pretty much remains that way throughout the entire movie. We don't really know why he is jaded all the time, and characters like that becomes really tiresome and annoying. Like, they cannot be bothered with doing something, always trying to cause trouble, making life difficult for others, these things really only lasts for so long. After a few times, they become really irritating, and that is what the main character was to me - annoying. The main female character is just as boring as the male character as well. Character development is fiercely lacking in this film, with so many characters to touch on and yet, none of them are actually very well established at all. The female character pretty much screams and whines throughout the film about, well, everything. She is always angry about something, and when she had a little too much to drink one night, she - gasp - has sex with our protagonist. Right, as if we didn't see that coming at all. The more interesting characters were way too downplayed, though they really should receive more screen time. Who doesn't the vulgarity churning old man? He was awesome!

Despite being hailed as one of the best local film ever met, I don't see why it deserves the title at all. First of all, the predictability of the script and the bland acting of the characters begged to differ from the testimony of the crowd. The lack of character development made the characters shallow and boring, and always revolving around the same thing over and over again. The lead actors failed to be anywhere more than skin deep, let alone the rest of the cast. It is a big cast, mind you, and the directors failed to make the audience feel for the rest of them other than giving them a few funny lines to say every now and then. The truth is, I am rather disappointed at the so-called "best local movie in Taiwan", because it really doesn't feel like it should be "the best" of anything, at all. This film is mediocre at best, and nothing about it gives me an impression that it deserves the kind of praise or box office that it is earning right now. It is a feel good film, and a little something for everybody, sure. But if this is the best we can do in the movie business, then we have a lot more work to do from here on out. Because really, mediocrity shouldn't be at the spearhead of things, but an example by which we should never ever follow.

This applies to a lot of local films in general, though. People in the business are always complaining that the lack of budget is the main reason why their films are just "never good enough" as compared to their western counterparts. I think that is just a convenient excuse as to why your films just don't do better in general. I mean, more than anything, the script is the most important aspect of a film, in my opinion. Of course, the execution is vital as well, but it really only takes a good story to get the film into the vicinity of greatness. Some of my favorite films of all time don't involve special effects or giant explosions on an epic scale. Low budgeted movies can be good as well, only because they have a strong script to boot. Once that is nailed, then everything else just kind of follows naturally if you find the right people to do the job. Like, you can't say a film like Before Sunrise is a masterpiece in terms of how it was directed. It is a very ordinary film, strictly from the technical perspective. But the script is what the story has to boast about, and that is what drives it into the hearts of the audience. The same cannot be said about these "highest grossing films" in local context, though. They are shallow as a story, and banks upon cheap humor to get by. And, for some reason, people actually enjoy them. Suddenly, it's about pleasing the crowd rather than to have a good story.

Of course, with the success of this film, however undeserved, it is definitely going to spur on a new generation of films in Taiwan, and the region I'm sure. It'd suck that if mediocrity is the best that they could manage, because I think they have the potential to do so much more. After all, a script is really a stack of paper with words on it, it really doesn't cost a lot. You just need a team of creative minds to come together, and think about how you can work within the budget to make something that is just absolutely brilliant. I think there is a lot of potential here, but people are not digging in deep enough. There are times when you feel sad about the local film industry, but then there are times when you just realize that - yeah, they are better. Cape No. 7 should never be seen as a masterpiece of a film at any rate, but rather a reason for other films to improve and improve some more. It is a deeply flawed movie with a box office I don't quite understand. Yet, I suppose, as a beacon of light at the end of a long dark tunnel, it's good enough as it is.