Cape No. 7 (海角七號)

"Stay, or I'll go with you."
Well... all the stories and fights and love and tears and laughters all built up to this line.

I'd never thought that singer Van (the man playing the leading actor) was good-looking until I saw this movie. Or maybe he's had a big makeover to make himself look manly and hot. Who knows.

The movie has a good story and the jokes are funny. I haven't seen a Taiwanese film that I like so much since Formula 17.

As a translator, I feel like sort of discussing a little bit about the languages used in the movie and the subtitles. Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, and Japanese are spoken in the movie. Taiwanese audience can easily recognize the shift of languages, and (most of them) also understand both the Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese languages. If I were a speaker of none of the above, I would not be able to tell that three languages are used in the movie. When I read the English subtitles, it is only in one language so it cannot reflect the shift of the spoken languages and the jokes based on languages. The subtitles are also condensed due to screen size restriction and a consideration for audience reading speed. However, I think that the English subtitles are still quite good. It still gets some of the essence of the jokes. Some jokes require some knowledge of the Taiwanese language, culture, and deities in order for the audience to understand. Well, as long as the story is good, I think this languages and subtitles issue can be ignored.

The movie just won an award in Tokyo so I guess the Japanese people like the movie. I hope people in other countries will like it, too. It may bring more tourists from other countries to Kenting. To echo with the movie, though I don't particularly agree with it, let's shout, "Fuck you, Taipei!"

If you are in Taiwan, go see it now. If you are not, maybe it will be screened in your country later.