bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Paul Fonoroff

Sumimasen, Love 
Chie Tanaka,  Wu Huai-chung  
Director: Lin Yu-hsien      
The southern Taiwanese city of  Kaohsiung is the true star of this wistful look at cross-cultural love.
It isn't too surprising, as   Sumimasen, Love was funded by the municipal government in an effort to make the town more visible as a tourist destination.
What distinguishes the third directorial effort of  Lin Yu-hsien is that the final result doesn't feel like a travelogue, the various locales fitting naturally into the narrative and  shot in a semi-documentary manner that admirably resists the temptation  to overly prettify the sponsor's commodity. 
The script has definite possibilities, the various vignettes connected via a banknote not unlike the coin in the Shanghai classic New Year's Gift (1937) or, more recently,   Serendipity  (2001). Alas, though the various sequences are steeped with local colour, the director seems incapable of infusing the drama with emotional depth or persuasiveness.
In contrast to the production's variety of locations,  the couple at the movie's heart  go nowhere. Fresh from her rise to stardom in last year's   Cape No7,   Chie Tanaka confirms the suspicion that despite cute looks and fluency in Mandarin, she isn't much of a thespian even when basically playing herself, as is the case here.  
She portrays a model-turned-actress named  Chie Tanaka,  who suffers from  burnout after unexpected success in motion pictures and escapes to southern Taiwan. There she encounters aspiring filmmaker  Wu Huai-chung (above right with Tanaka) who plays himself  and the two spend a  day and night getting to know each other and Kaohsiung.
In the end,  the viewer won't mind having gone along for the ride, but is apt to find the duo's adventures far less memorable than the neighbourhoods through which they traipse. 



Sumimasen, Love