九降風: 忽爾今夏

I haven't seen such a great teenage movie for a long while. (my last surprise is already "藍色大門")

Taiwan movies have gained a higher exposure recently due to the success launge of "海角七號". Though this movie is highly acclaimed by the Taiwan audiences, this is only a quite ordinary "coming to success" movie with lots of witty tricks to me. I do not particularly feel touched after seeing this movie.

"九降風" has all the basic elements of a teenage movie, a story about the love and hate of 7 buddies during their last high school year before graduation, and 2 girls as outsiders observing their gone throughs. However this movie is far beyond the average standard because of the pure passions and tender descriptions between the boys. All the casts act wonderfully good and they really bring out their tensions in the later half of the movie. The ambiguity feeling of love/ friendship of the boys also exceeds the level of "盛夏光年". The movie never gives you a definite answer whether the boy is admiring the other guy.

If I watched this movie 10 or 15 years earlier I would have cried in the theatre definitely. As I grow older I can not indulge myself into these coming of age movies, like "Stand By Me" did when I was really young. However I still appreciate the sincerity of the director telling me this adorable and honest story, about all the feelings that we've been gone through during our school days, and reveal how the friendship of the buddies being turned sour.

p.s. the director shows his tribute to the 80's Taiwan movies, the footage of "戀戀風塵" is shown when the couple is kissing in the KTV, the rise and fall of the baseball players and industry reflecting the ups and downs of the boys' friendship...I can smell the spirit of "青梅竹馬" on the screen. The ending song sung by 張雨生 also concludes the end of the youth generation being crashed by a tragic accident.