My Missing Valentine

With the final notes to the superb Super Citizen Ko (1995-also reviewed) still on my mind, I took a look to see what else was soon to screen at the HOME cinema in Manchester in May 2022,and was delighted to spot another title from Taiwan being shown, which was to have a (what turned out to be wonderful) discussion after the screening with the audience members, which led to me, finding my valentine. View on the film: Staying on the right side of a yearning young love teen, Kuan-Ting Liu gives an excellent performance as Tai, whose crush from a distance for Hsiao-chi, is put into focus by Liu when time stands still, with Liu getting one hand to turn on a playful, Rom-Com awkwardness, and the other to move on Tai finding his voice,maturing in seeing the real inner beauty of Hsiao-chi. In a state of being constantly out of time, Patty Pei-Yu Lee (who also performs the song Lost and Found in the movie) gives a sparkling performance as Hsiao-chi, whose burning the candle at both ends in making sure she is always ahead of the work schedule, is lit on one side by Lee with a frustration at the grinding work cycle, and on the other with deeply expressive Rom-Com tears, as Hsiao-chi discovers at her desk,that she and her Valentine are out of time. Spending six months working on editing the movie with editor Hsiu-hsiung Lai, director Yu-Hsun Chen & cinematographer Yi-Hsien Chou prove this to be time well used, via refine panning shots over chalk colours subtly emphasizing the lack of brightness in Hsiao-chi's life, sharply contrasted in the Sci-Fi Rom-Com final, where Chen and Chou makes time stand still with astonishing, ultra-stylized crane, tracking-shots,arc, dolly and whip-pans spinning on sequences shot on location, of Tai moving everyone aside who he is ahead of time with, until Chen makes time stand still for Tai, with a hard smash cut. Leaving the ending on an ambiguous note, with the lingering possibility that Rom-Com love has been fulfilled, or that it must now permanently remain as a ghost, the screenplay by Chen highlights the struggles Hsiao-chi is under, with the dialogue referencing her living hand to mouth, in a cost of living crisis state. Initially displaying some obsessiveness over Hsiao-chi, Chen keeps the Rom-Com love Tai has for Hsiao-chi playing on a sincere note, thanks to the Sci-Fi stillness of time, making Tai push away sexist behavior displayed by others towards Hsiao-chi, and also the acceptance, that the romantic photos he dreams to have of Hsiao-chi, do not match the reality of their relationship, as Tai and Hsiao-chi discover their missing Valentine.

"But no, A Tai is too diffident to do that, instead he must conjure up a tortuous way to let her know his feelings, including the crucial Valentine's Day, the world stops stock-still except for him (, and later, another slowpoke turns out to be Hsiao-Chi's father (seasoned musician Ayugo Huang, civilly lends a philosophical tone to his character's reprehensible deeds), who has deserted his family years ago. But in this day and age, A Tai's innocent manhandling of a puppet-like Hsiao-Chi could easily evoke discomfort for those who are too powerless to refuse a man's inappropriate advances, it only adds creepiness to A Tai's obsession, luckily he is a good guy, but his dicey behavior cannot be OKed for the sake of Chen's romantic notion. If you like a woman, just let her know, please, and any body contact without both parties' consensus is categorically unacceptable." read my full review on my blog: Cinema Omnivore, thanks.

The storyline is rich and entertaining and touching. It's a love story with some mysterious sci fic parts involved. With all different themes put in a movie it's surprising natural and good. The touching part exist as well. Like a topnotch fusion dish. Quite special Taiwan movie.

Recently I been watching a lot of Taiwanese movies and throughly enjoy each and every one of it.. the standard of these movies had improved tremendously.. Coming back to this review I was actually quite entertained for two hours without a doubt that this is a well acted and written. It mays contain not only romance but some sci-fi element.. I can see the bad comments about this movie regarding a stalker that turn the movie into a rom com To be honest when I watched the frozen time scene.. the first thing that come in mind why don't he robbed the bank or the frozen ppl instead he just went to look for his crush... doesn't it sound stupid on a second thought I was love that conquers all things not all the money in the world It make me realise this.. the missing Valentine is a funny romance comedy that really shows the local Taiwan culture and the ending song absolutely kills it Finally a shout out to Taiwan filmmaker to keep one making great movies.

Structure of the story and light-hearted yet profound music play significant roles in this "quiet" romantic comedy that shines, which is a rare case even in Chinese-language cinema. (Although most of the dialogue is done in Mandarin, most of the humor lies not verbally, or precisely speaking, also lies not on Taiwanese the local dialect.) Comedic timing was almost pure and perfect for me until I was surprised by my tears when I saw a man showing up onto the night bus in that semi-philosophical sequence towards the end of the movie. All of a sudden, I realized it's way more than a comedy. Wow! "Love yourself well, because someone out there has been in love with you." As this shows up on screen like a last missing piece for this poetic modern fantasy about love and lost and found... I feel happily relieved, and of course, heart-warmed. It feels like watching Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain years ago.

Sweet, touching, meaningful film done in a imaginative way. however the usual eccentric overacting that taiwan/japan/korea audiences love might not be for everyone.

I was enjoying this movie until what is supposed to be the most romantic part came, where the two main characters spend the day together. The female character is time frozen, therefore unconscious and unable to give her consent while the male character moves her around, touches her, takes her picture and even kisses her. He also stalks her for years before that. This made me uncomfortable and spoiled the whole experience for me.

This experimental film combines different genres together from rom-com to musical to fantasy to sci-fi to horror (with no audio cue) to drama. Cinematography is great. Loved the shots of Taiwan. Acting is great as well. Music is solid, as it probably matches the rom-com sentiment that the director was trying to convey. HOWEVER... The movie is CREEPY. The director/writer was trying to get you to empathize with a stalker who follows his childhood crush with the advantage of frozen time. The execution/storytelling was awful because it was trying to make a pervert's behavior acceptable - making us viewers strangely uncomfortable. The tone was off - like if Silence of the Lambs were a rom-com or if Bruce Almighty were a drama. Anyone has every right to tell their story, but this writing is distasteful. You can tell that the protagonist (or the director for that matter) has never matured into social norms. Furthermore, I'm a bit appalled by the producers, supporters, studios, and distributors of this movie. Netflix should NOT carry this film for the US market. There should be some ethical responsibility for sending the wrong message. Side note: I'm very sad to be writing such a harsh critique on a Taiwanese film, especially since I'm such a fan of Taiwanese cinema. But c'mon man! Just one person's opinion.

My Missing Valentine is made with the acknowledgment that romantic comedies are super hard to make well. Romantic comedy, arguably speaking, is the most formulaic genre. The guy and the girl meet, fall for each other, fight through their differences and end up together. Its simplicity just so happens to be its difficulty. Taiwanese Director Chen Yu-hsun tackles the genre with an artistic ambition and shakes up the rom-com formula with a central mystery. The story is about Yang Hsiao-chi, who has always been one step ahead of everybody at anything and as an unfortunate side effect, has been out of sync with the world around her. She works as a postal worker in Taipei and longs to be in a relationship. On the eve of Valentine's Day, a handsome dance teacher Liu Wen-sen asks Yang out, but much to her surprise, she wakes up the next morning realizing Valentine's Day has passed without her. Chen Yu-hsun's script cleverly spins the traditional rom-com meet-cute and keeps the audience guessing. The audience does not know what is happening as the typical rom-com sequence is out of wack. We don't even know who the couple we are supposed to be rooting for is. As things are pursued and revealed, the mood becomes increasingly romantic and the film charmingly whisks you away into its magical reality with surprises in store. Newcomer Patty Lee, a TV presenter, has great comedic timing. She plays her character's yearning in an adorable believable way and shows great range in her interplay with male co-stars Liu Kuan-ting and Duncan Chow. The production design cleverly uses indie comedy quirks and its available resources to create something relatively epic for its story. Our heroine yearningly listens to a dating-themed radio show that wheels in and literally manifests behind her apartment window. When the story shifts from the cityscape of Taipei to the ocean town of Dongshi, there is a genuine cathartic release and a romantic atmosphere emanates. My Missing Valentine is a cute feel-good movie that is executed with craft and an eye for detail. I would recommend it to any movie fan dying for a good romantic comedy during the lockdown and wouldn't mind reading subtitles. The Taiwanese accent has a deadpan cartoon quality that is inherently comedic-sounding which I believe will come through for English speakers. I intend to see it again myself. I mistakenly watched it with no Chinese subtitles thinking it'd be in Mandarin but there was a lot of Taiwanese that is spoken that went over my head. This is my favorite Chinese language film in 2021 thus far. It's been nominated in many categories at the Golden Horse awards and could possibly stay on my Top Ten by the end of the year.