BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

dbborroughs Taiwanese romantic comedy that according to some of the reviews on IMDb is bound to baffle those from other parts in the world. Maybe, or maybe not.The plot has a musician named Aga, moving to a different part of Taiwan and ending up as postman and then drafted into a rock band that is being put together to help draw people to the local hotel. Its a battle of old ways and new ways, with a duel romance tossed in. One is the romance of our hero with the girl named Tomoko, and the other is the letters from 1945 that were in a package our hero failed to deliver which kind of mirrors the main characters.Wonderfully acted, at times incredibly touching, with great music and a bunch of great characters this is very often a magical movie. When its on its great, but the film has a couple of hiccups that made me want to grab the director and the screen writer and slap them around.First the film is way too long at 130 minutes. Had the film worked from top to bottom I would have been happy to watch these people for hours, but as there were times when I wanted to reach for the remote.The other problem with the film is that the character of Aga doesn't do much. His often inaction affects the romance of the story. He drives around and looks grumpy and kind of interacts with Tomoko, and then he's grumpy some more and then he sings and then he looks at Tomoko and she looks at him, but there is nothing between them. We never know what our hero is feeling. Its not the actors fault, its the way he's written. Until the wedding scene I honestly had no idea who the object of his affection was since nothing was really happening between anyone. Then what happens is so brief that you can't believe that a romance was built out of that. (Its kind of a WTF moment and a review for a film called Finding Shangri-la in China Daily mentioned the sequence in this film as non-moment that they feared was going to be repeated in that one. Apparently its not) If you take the romance as a given its better then if you wait for something to really happen, because it never really does. So much of this movie is off screen that I felt as though there should be another half hour just to explain what we're not seeing.Annoyance aside the film is worth a look. The music is as I said great and it adds much of the emotion that the film is otherwise lacking. And of course there are the characters who may not always be likable but are often well drawn. Its a good film that should have and really could have been better.Worth a rental.

sakatsu Pleasant reviews on this movie prompted me to watch it. I had expected an enjoyable heart warming comedy but it didn't turnout this way. I really tried to enjoy it but found myself hitting the fastforward button from impatience. I've watched some excellent Taiwanese movies and this had to be thrown to the other far end. Poor character development (The sub-characters didn't even have their closure), screenplay, very very poor direction and some very bad acting. The story isn't original although the small seaside town setting is nice plus the focus on the indigenous Taiwanese. I felt the director was really trying to hard to convey multiple story lines across which fell completely flat for me. I don't really understand why the tie in with a mysterious letter from Japan. It made the movie so much more disjointed with the poor direction, acting, editing etc. Should have just kept it simple.

choufish Few days ago,roommate told me this movie suck. Still i see this movie in middle night 2:00AM. After seeing this movie, something in my mind push me to say something here, to persuade others to see this movie?--maybe, i would love you to see this movie too. It is great, no doubt about it. It is about honor of country/family, love of people, passion of people. The story is good, jokes are good(maybe people in other country can't understand it very much, but from my sight, it is true word from people's heart),actress is pretty(pretty is not enough, she makes everybody wants to protect her, especially when she in his arm and say:why do you take advantage of me, i am just a little girl, work here, far away from home?) GO, see it.!!!!

DICK STEEL Based on the skimming of the synopsis alone, I thought Cape No. 7 bore some resemblance to an upcoming Japanese film The Shonen Merikensack which was featured in the recent Tokyo International Film Festival. Well, at least the characters have to come together to form a band, and are managed by a lady. And that this film had Japanese elements in it too. But this is a Taiwanese movie, and its success back at home, being its #1 film of all time, has undoubtedly raised the curiosity level as to what actually made this movie tick, so much so as to garner numerous nominations in this year's Golden Horse awards.Being Taiwan's submission to next year's Academy Awards to compete in the Foreign- Language category, this film got no love by the distributors/censors here as it was deemed that the PG rating, with 2 badly butchered cuts for coarse language, overruled the NC16 version. Granted they would want this to be accessible by most, it was nonetheless badly edited, and the cuts were quite jarring to say the least. Though the word "kan" (F-word equivalent) was uttered loudly, it seemed to be OK and passed with no issues. Yes, it's in local dialect, and even for me, the Hokkien language used was unfamiliar, and I had to rely on the subtitles to understand the meaning of what was said by various characters from time to time.There are two stories here in Cape No.7. One involves a case of forbidden love between a Japanese man and a Taiwanese woman, and his forced separation to return to Japan. On the sea journey, he confesses his love through 7 letters (hence the title) which he never found the courage to deliver them, and had them locked away, both the letters, and emotionally his heart. It was until his demise that his daughter discovered the truth, and decided to mail them back to the known address, which of course since WWII, no longer exists.So the letters get into the hands of main protagonist Aga (Van Fan), who was a rock band singer in Taipei who failed to make good, and returned to his village of Hangchun to become a part time postman. Not knowing where to send those letters to, he eventually brings them back (with stacks of other letters due to his nonchalant work attitude), and got to read the big romantic story contained within. Meanwhile, he has to juggle with a band put together by the Mayor/Representative of the town, as well as Tomoko (Tanaka Chie) who is the local coordinator for a big Japanese singer coming to Hengchun, and the motley band is to be the opening act.I didn't find much to celebrate in the romantic story as told from within those letters, ala The Notebook style. For some reason it failed to move me, and I can't see past the clichés within, though it got framed from within very luscious cinematography. However, it served as an ample backdrop on which to evaluate the relationship between Van and Tomoko, now being a Taiwanese man and a Japanese woman, the former a struggling musician, while the latter, after her Taiwan stint, has a cushy job waiting for her back in Japan. Given that they started off as loggerheads and slowly developing a liking for each other, it doesn't take rocket science to figure out what will happen eventually.But the crux of the movie rested on the shoulders of a typical Japanese Zero-To-Hero formula, and here we have a bunch of misfits who can't play together, being forced to team up. Each comes with emotional baggage and plenty of background pathos, and here's where the strength of the movie resided in, as written and directed by Wei Te-Sheng, They are all likable characters, even though they are, like everyone else, flawed to begin with, which makes them easy to identify, and sympathize with.We have the drummer Frog (Ying Wei-min) who is a mechanic, and harbours an unrequited love for his boss' buxomy wife, Rauma (Min-Hsiung) an ex-SWAT Taipei cop now being demoted to a traffic cop in a small town because of his ill-temper, Malasun (Ma Nien-hsien) who started off as a street smart rice wine salesman before being recruited as bassist, a ten year old keyboardist in Dada (Joanne) who has been kicked out from providing her service in church because of her failure to conform to playing for a (boring) congregation, and last but not least, an elderly "Gem" of the town Old Mao (Johnny Lin) who struggles to keep up with the rest, and having to insist that he gets to play a part in their performance. In fact, Johnny Lin steals almost every scene with his fast talking uncouth mouth, that you just wait look forward to each of his screen appearances, and anticipate with glee when the punchline will be delivered.It's a slice of life of a small Taiwanese town where everyone almost knows everyone else, and you can see how certain dynamics between the private and public sector comes into play. In its human story, the themes of love and cooperation, respect and understanding all come into play and get expressed, and it is unlikely anyone will not get swayed by the sincerity and small town charm it exudes throughout. And as for building up to the final act, it's something that doesn't disappoint, or find a need to summarize or opting for a cop out. It delivered where it mattered, and finished off very strongly.Cape No 7 earns a "recommended" tag from me, and it's as feel good as you can get about a film and its wonderful themes. It's no wonder already why and how this film would make Taiwan, and of course the town of Hengchun, a tourist attraction already.