I was invited to a charity movie viewing benefiting an organization called Zigen (translated to nourish root) for their “water-related” project in Shanxi. The money raised will go to the improvement of infrastructure of water shortage problems in two villages in Shanxi.
Some spoilers:
I have no preconceived idea of the movie and I watched it with an open arm. I loved the movie. It has a quirky character dynamic. Tang Wei played a love loss woman with an abusive husband and Hyun Bin portrayed a gigolo on the run from a client’s husband. The movie is trilingual in English, Korean and Chinese. The one scene I really loved in the movie was in the setting of a Chinese restaurant after Anna’s (Tang Wei) mother's funeral where everyone gathered for lunch. Hoon (Hyun Bin), Anna, were joined by Wang Jing (Jun-Seong Kim) and Wang Jing’s wife (Danni Lang) at the table. Wang Jing’s wife was asking Anna how China was (not knowing that Anna came out on bail from prison from killing her late abusive husband in self defense). Anna was about to respond, but was interrupted by Wang Jing (knowing what happened because he was the ex lover of Anna who had basically caused the whole situation to go out of control in their relationship) with stories about how everyone likes Anna or ask for Anna when she was working at this restaurant. Hoon then goes on with the story of how Anna and he met. Wang Jing’s wife was called away by the cry of her baby and Anna by her siblings leaving Hoon and Wang Jing at the table. Wang Jing asked Hoon how he met Anna and Hoon continued on with the fantasy story that was not good enough for Wang Jing to handle and a fight was stirred up. And Wang Jing tells Hoon to leave Anna alone cause she has gone through a tough time as it is. The fight escalated to punches and soon broken up by one of Anna siblings. Anna asked Hoon why they were fighting. And Hoon replied that Wang Jing took his fork without asking and used it. It was a very awkward moment, but yet humorous as Hoon delivers his line. There was a pause of silence and Anna then asked Wang Jing in a very serious manner why he had taken Hoon’s fork? And she fell down on the ground crying hysterically as Wang Jing apologized. Some people would say the chemistry of the main characters were off, but I say it suits the storyline. They are people who are lost in the world of wanting to be loved.
