Happy Birthday

It's a very simple story. Not only simple, but the plot is predictable and nothing new compared to other movie that we had watch before. Originally a short story by Rene Liu (劉若英), it was adapted into screenplay by Rene herself and her mentor, one of my fave artist, 张艾嘉. Hailed as the next touching offering after 星愿 (director :马楚成) and 心动 (director :张艾嘉), it did work for me.

Yeah.. it's simple and no surprise in any of the plot development or storylines but who cares? I mean the portrayal is real though the earlier part where Rene acted as university student took a lot to fathom (luckily the uni life is just a short part of the movie). The dilemma faced by both the character is real and you will find that it happened around you a lot, or it may happen to you before.

Of course, I can't say I am not biased by the fact that 张艾嘉 had a hand in this and Rene Liu (劉若英) is one of my fave actress. This lass had captured my attention since I first saw her in The Personal (征婚启事)

Back to Happy Birthday, all the cast gave commendable performance, even Louis Koo. Yeah... even Louis Koo. Look for the later part of the movie where Rene was calling Louis in her car. Her performance was priceless. The only qualm I had is that the VCD I rented was in Cantonese!!! Rene's Mandarin is soothing and exudes such meaty performance and I had to endure her being dubbed in Cantonese. It's the same as listening to Gong Li speaks in Cantonese in The Curse of the Golden Flower. The strange thing is that I remembered Rene was speaking in Mandarin while Louis in Cantonese in The Making which I saw in TV sometime ago....

Synopsis in Chinese (sorry to those who can't read)

每年的生日，小米（劉若英飾）都坐立不安的等待著一封風雨不改的電郵，一封從小南（古天樂飾），一個她從來無法忘記的人寄來的生日電郵。這次，滂沱大雨之下，這封電郵遲了42個小時。 小米與小南被大學同學公認為會是最早結婚的一對。小米是個從沒安全感的女孩，因為害怕失去；小南是個受歡迎的男孩，他一心愛著小米，然而他從不能搞懂小米的想法。小南往外國升學後，二人分手了，卻仍然保持著相互取暖、比好朋友好的朋友關係。無論小米和小南身邊出現多少情人、無論小米怎麼口口聲聲的說她不會嫁給小南，身旁朋友都深深感到，小米只愛小南，小南也只愛小米，總有一天他們會名正言順的走在一起。 然而畢竟，他們盼望的都沒有來臨，一天，小南竟說自己將要結婚。小米這才醒覺，這一次，她是真真正正的失去小南。唯有……