Let me you in on a little secret, the opening paragraph was written over a year ago when I didn't have the opportunity to rewatch the movie. My laptop pretty much died on me end of 2019 and was only resuscitated early 2020 just before the pandemy became too real in Indonesia. And so, I am back again after actually watching it for the 5th time on the last day of 2020. No countdown to the new year, just a cup of water and a good movie on my laptop. Though I can't really remember the points I wanted to write last year, here goes some that I just thought of!
1. No kiss scene at all!
Can I just point this out?! They made this whole fabulous youth romance thing without a single kiss scene. I feel like in whatever I watch lately, be it Korean or Chinese, they always smack a kiss scene to our face as a sign of turning point in a relationship.
But this movie doesn't. In a span of 2 hours, we get to see how the main characters went from being strangers, whatever ambiguous relationship they have, friends, and ended up falling for each other (with the other counterpart oblivious of the mutual feelings). And when they finally meet again as adults, they don't just unceremoniously kiss in the public.
This is supposed to be the norm, but it's not, so it's refreshing to see this kind of organic progression in a movie or drama. We get the progress from what we feel after seeing the scene, not because of a kiss made to make us understand what we are supposed to feel. I hope this makes sense to you?
2. Cliche but not really
Many people say they hate cliche because it makes a production too predictable. But have you seen this movie? Their so-called cliche are so well-executed that the girl in me swoon everytime I watch the movie again.
Here are a few tropes that are often used in dramas, that the movie did use, but did somewhat differently:
- Bad boy x Good girl
- People with XX chromosome are hard to understand
- Efforts to get the girl
I don't want to spoil too much, so these are written as vague as possible. If you have time to watch the movie, you'll probably get what I mean :)
3. If you're young, a soft warning of the future. If you're older, a sweet reminder of the beautiful youth.
When I first watched this movie, I was about to graduate from Junior College. The future seemed uncertain and all kinds of mysterious. At that time, I swooned and cried in the cinema because I did feel that time period in my life was the greatest even though it was hard. It also comforted me because it shows that even if the future is uncertain, I still have the power to "change" my own so-called destiny.
And as I grow older, this movie reminds me time and time again about the beautiful time I passed with some of the best people I've met my whole life. Sure, my high school was not as dramatic as the movie. I could (ice) skate just fine, no fight happened in the rink. The baddest guy I knew didn't fight with other school thugs, it was my classmate who wore a horse mask one day for whatever reason. I did study quite a lot, not in a teahouse, but in the dorm's computer room and it looked more like this:
And most importantly I don't think I had anyone in my school who looked like NCT's Lucas or who would ask Day6 make a concert for me. But it's more than okay, because whatever memories made with friends that time were already so precious to me and I hope they think so too.
This movie may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I think this is one of the movie that everyone should watch at least once in their lifetime. Maybe you will get why I'm pretty much obsessed with this one, maybe you won't. But one thing for sure, I think I will continue watching this maybe once every 2 years(?). Maybe I can add more reasons then. But that is all from me now, see you when I see you :)
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