Our Times

In nineties Taiwan, Truly is an ordinary high school student in love with the most attractive boy in school and without a chance. A chain letter drops her into the same business as Hsu Tai-yu, the school's tough, and the two make a deal to help each other's love lives. The outcome is predictable and the film does not hide it, doing its real work with nostalgia: cassettes, Andy Lau posters, school uniforms and the magazines of the period. Frankie Chen made it as her first feature and it became an unexpected box office phenomenon in Taiwan. Vivian Sung and Darren Wang star. The story is framed as a look back from the present and the ending puts that to emotional use. Who it is for: viewers who like Asian youth romance and nineties nostalgia. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the clichés to be avoided.