Our Shining Days (2017)
There's something great about watching a good film; there's something even better about watching a feel good film. Our Shining Days is the second diamond-in-the-rough Chinese film I've had the pleasure of watching (Animal World being the first, read my review here) and it's a film I can't recommend enough. Frankly I'd just go watch it now, don't even finish this, just go watch it without any foreknowledge and I have a feeling you'll appreciate it later. But if you're here having watched it, or don't care either way, here's the review.
Our Shining Days can best be surmised as Chinese Folk School of Rock. If you took a vague version of the plot of School of Rock (Richard Linklater), threw in some good ol' fashioned Chinese Folk music, and a nice helping of Anime appreciation, you have Our Shining Days. This film is what I'd call a feel good film; it has a simple plot, that being a bunch of reject folk music students want to compete for recognition against the classical students; it has likeable characters with easy motivations, and it's crammed full of quirky dialogue and romance scenes. If that sounds bad, that's probably because you've heard that a thousand times before, but this film manages to lump all of those familiar elements and creates an enjoyable and genuinely funny film.
The first great thing this film does is have a genuinely great cast. The leading lady Lulu Xu (Speed) who plays Chen Jing is honest to god fantastic. In fact all of the cast are; they are believably the age they're supposed to be which is a huge plus, they all seem to be actually playing the instruments their characters play, and they're all really likeable. Sure their characters motivations are simplistic, and their development is vague and sometimes undeserved, but they're so likeable on screen that you tend to forget. It's like whenever Jack Black shows up in a crappy movie, you just can't help but like his scenes. And that's not me saying this film is crappy, by absolutely no means is that the case, it's just these actors and actresses take what would normally make for a crappy movie and make it into something special. And I appreciate that.
The plot however leaves me confused. It's essentially split into two parts; the first is a love triangle narrative between Chen Jing, her nerdy anime enthusiast yet sweetheart best friend Li You (Yuchang Peng, An Elephant Sitting Still) and the cool boy piano playing (pardon my french) d***head who slaps her because he's a cool piano playing so and so Wang Wen (Mingjie Luo). The second narrative beat is about Chen and her gang trying to build a better reputation for the folk crew. What's odd is that these two beats didn't need to be separate and honestly suffer as a result. If they had been intertwined and the whole film had been about the gang getting together and practising to be involved in the performance at the end, with the love triangle weaved throughout, that would have made sense. Instead it ends one of the beats about 3/4 of the way through and starts the second one with little time to spare. Don't get me wrong, both of these stories are equally as enjoyable and hilarious in their own right and full of memorable and funny moments, it just seems odd they weren't brought together.
But despite that, the 1hr 43 minute long film goes by so quick; it's so well paced and edited and the hilarious interactions between characters as well as a much appreciated focus on the anime and manga scene in China (still a huge and wonderful nerd fest full of cosplays, sign me up!) is just truly fantastic. This is the kind of movie I'll watch to cheer myself up on a rainy day or to cure my frequent bouts of boredom. It's incredible, it's funny, it's cute and sentimental and sure it has a strange ending (I highly recommend skipping the credits the mood is brought down somewhat by this bizarrely sad music video) and a weirdly structured plot, but in a way that adds to the immense charm this film exudes. Please, please please if you like anime, quirky movies or you're just looking for a good laugh, watch this. Please. It's great.
8/10
Our Shining Days can best be surmised as Chinese Folk School of Rock. If you took a vague version of the plot of School of Rock (Richard Linklater), threw in some good ol' fashioned Chinese Folk music, and a nice helping of Anime appreciation, you have Our Shining Days. This film is what I'd call a feel good film; it has a simple plot, that being a bunch of reject folk music students want to compete for recognition against the classical students; it has likeable characters with easy motivations, and it's crammed full of quirky dialogue and romance scenes. If that sounds bad, that's probably because you've heard that a thousand times before, but this film manages to lump all of those familiar elements and creates an enjoyable and genuinely funny film.
The first great thing this film does is have a genuinely great cast. The leading lady Lulu Xu (Speed) who plays Chen Jing is honest to god fantastic. In fact all of the cast are; they are believably the age they're supposed to be which is a huge plus, they all seem to be actually playing the instruments their characters play, and they're all really likeable. Sure their characters motivations are simplistic, and their development is vague and sometimes undeserved, but they're so likeable on screen that you tend to forget. It's like whenever Jack Black shows up in a crappy movie, you just can't help but like his scenes. And that's not me saying this film is crappy, by absolutely no means is that the case, it's just these actors and actresses take what would normally make for a crappy movie and make it into something special. And I appreciate that.
The plot however leaves me confused. It's essentially split into two parts; the first is a love triangle narrative between Chen Jing, her nerdy anime enthusiast yet sweetheart best friend Li You (Yuchang Peng, An Elephant Sitting Still) and the cool boy piano playing (pardon my french) d***head who slaps her because he's a cool piano playing so and so Wang Wen (Mingjie Luo). The second narrative beat is about Chen and her gang trying to build a better reputation for the folk crew. What's odd is that these two beats didn't need to be separate and honestly suffer as a result. If they had been intertwined and the whole film had been about the gang getting together and practising to be involved in the performance at the end, with the love triangle weaved throughout, that would have made sense. Instead it ends one of the beats about 3/4 of the way through and starts the second one with little time to spare. Don't get me wrong, both of these stories are equally as enjoyable and hilarious in their own right and full of memorable and funny moments, it just seems odd they weren't brought together.
But despite that, the 1hr 43 minute long film goes by so quick; it's so well paced and edited and the hilarious interactions between characters as well as a much appreciated focus on the anime and manga scene in China (still a huge and wonderful nerd fest full of cosplays, sign me up!) is just truly fantastic. This is the kind of movie I'll watch to cheer myself up on a rainy day or to cure my frequent bouts of boredom. It's incredible, it's funny, it's cute and sentimental and sure it has a strange ending (I highly recommend skipping the credits the mood is brought down somewhat by this bizarrely sad music video) and a weirdly structured plot, but in a way that adds to the immense charm this film exudes. Please, please please if you like anime, quirky movies or you're just looking for a good laugh, watch this. Please. It's great.
8/10
Comments
Post a Comment