sounds in the silence
ok, its been a really long time since i wrote anything here and it seems ive forgotten everything about how this place works. so forgive the terrible attempt this will be. Im super busy these days and i am just doing this review to try and kick start my self into doing all this again.
This Taiwanese movie staring Ivy Chen and Yanxi Chen as sisters Yang Yang and Xiao Peng, and Eddie Peng as Tian Kuo, is a very quiet sweet film i found on youtube here and watched when i really should have just been going to sleep. I havent watched many Taiwanese movies but the more i watch the more i like them. There is something very particular, that i cant place, which draws me in.
Ting Shuo (hear me) is a story centered around two sisters and a boy who befriends one of them. hmm, its actually hard to say much about this film, i dont want to spoil it by spilling out any of the details that shouldnt be revealed...
it is not a massive twist in the tale kind of film but its hard to explain anything without totally ruining the gentle surprise of having the story unfold as you watch. its a very sweet film, following two struggling sisters dealing with poverty, self sacrifice, hearing disabilities, and all the other normal stuff like love and friendship etc.
most of the time the characters are using sign language to speak, but it is not void of vocals as we meet Tian Kuo's parents who create a lively caring family for him, who also become respectful of the deaf community with their actions towards their son's new friend.
The sisters are having their own struggles in their individual lives and also with each other, Tian Kuo gets slightly entangled but ultimately has to stand aside and wait in ignorant confusion until he can finally confess his love for his new but treasured friend.
there are some very sweet misunderstandings between these three characters, and we basically follow their motions of coming to terms with their situations. its not a coming of age story exactly, but a small snippit of their lives at a pivotal moment of change for them all.
the relationships between all the characters are sweet and interesting, everyone is likable and you hope for the best throughout. i did like Tian turning up on the girl's door step dressed as a tree. that was class.
he had a real geeky sense to him but it was underplayed beautifully by Eddie Peng. he added a lot of humour to the role but not so much to become a comic relief character.
The dejected Tian sat at his computer trying to work out how to confess, while wrapped up in his own christmas lights, talking to his screen and acting like a total paranoid prune - i just think his subtle but quirky manner added a myriad of layers to the film that would have been flat without it. not that i really noticed it too much at the time, but thinking on it afterwards i realised just how much his character added to the adorable story.
i say this because most of the time we are focused on the younger sister Yang Yang. She is very textured - troubled by heavy responsibilities but always energetic and hard working.
her manner is gentle and caring but she is also very funny and a little tomboyish. Yang Yang and Tian strike up a god friendship built on odd little things that connect the pair.
it just deleted the whole last part of my review and i cant be bothered to re-write it now. so this will have to do. im not writing it again. i hate this f*cking editor now. they changed it all and its sh*t. just go watch the movie.
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