The movie is about Aga, a band singer, who returns to Hengchun after a failed music career. Tomoko is a Japanese model assigned to organise a local warm-up band for the Japanese superstar's beach concert. Together with five other ordinary Hengchun residents who never expected to be anybody in life, they formed an impossible band. Extracted from SG Movies.
The storyline of the movie is actually quite simple and straightforward, telling audiences of an unexpected love story between the singer and the concert organiser and the seemingly insurmountable concert to be held soon. Concurrently, a love story between a Japanese teacher and a local girl in Hengchun unfolds when Aga reads the box of love letters mailed 60 years later.
The cast does a good job of portraying the many diverse roles in the movie, from the uncle who is the Town Council Representative, to uncle Mao who is hilarious as an old band member who barely knows how to play the bass guitar, and to Tomoko who is commendable in her performance as the frustrated organiser falling in love. The movie is sincere and intent on telling us the simple story set in a picturesque laidback seaside town with romantic undertones. The movie is humourous and its musical aspect livened up the show as well.
I think that the show stays true to its roots and does not rely on much theatrics to exaggerate the story. However, I feel that the pace of the story moves on a tad too slow and luckily the humour infused in the dialogue kept my attention span from drifting. The love story set in the 1940s didn't really work for me perhaps as it is only from the guy's point of view and there wasn't much visuals to accompany the narration of the love letters.
Nonetheless, it is a better than average film for sentimental people and i guess i am one of the few cynics to be rather unaffected by the melodrama at the end.
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