Taiwanese film, Our Times is one of the must-watch in every Asian junkie’s movie list!
The film tells a story of Truly Lin, who lives her life being an average girl. One day she goes to a trip back to memory lane reminiscing her high school days when she worked with a friend to get the attention of their respective crushes. The film is directed by Frankie Chien and released last 2015.
You can check out the trailer here:
With its amazing storyline and amazing casts, here are 5 reasons on why you should watch or rewatch it!
1. The Plot is 11/10.
[P.S I’ll try to refrain including spoilers but you can read at your own risk!]
The film takes us back in the early 90s, wherein students back then are easily scared by chain letters. Truly (portrayed by Vivian Sung, grown up as Joe Chen) can be described as a nerdy girl who would do anything to get noticed by her crush, Ouyang (portrayed by Dino Lee).
Truly received a chain letter that she needs to pass on, naively, she sends it to one of their teacher, the campus girl-crush, Min-min (portrayed by Dewi Chien), and the campus bully, Taiyu (portrayed by Darren Wang, grown up as Jerry Yan).
Unfortunately, Taiyu has encountered an accident while reading the chain letter. When he found out that it was Truly, he made her as his errands-girl giving her a lot of things to do.
Throughout the film, you’ll get to learn how these two developed their friendship into a blossoming romance!
2. It will take you back in time.
We all know how the media and the internet has become a big part of the current trends today. You can easily a date or break up with the help of social media making almost everything as accessible as they can.
In this film, you’ll get to learn how people back then find happiness over little things. Be it a simple sports game, or hanging out around the comic stores. You’ll get to appreciate the different forms of entertainment around you without the use of internet and social media.
3. Love story? Or a Coming-of-age story?
At first, I was convinced that this is a love story! When both Truly and Taiyu found out that the ones they were crushing – Min-min and Ouyang are actually secretly dating, you’ll get a hint on how these two will team up to break them apart.
But the thing is, *spoiler alert* both Truly and Taiyu became comfortable with each other’s presence and would prefer being with each other than be with their crushes.
The film emphasizes on how these high-school students can understand love be it in terms of romantic, friendship, family, and self. Which makes it also a coming-of-age story as both of the lead stars realized that being romantically together doesn’t mean you’ll be together until the end.
Throughout the film, you’ll also get to see how Taiyu transformed as a bully into a responsible and good student with Truly’s help.
4. Truly is a fangirl!
Truly can be described as a simple girl but one thing that can make people relate to her until today would her being a fangirl! Yes! Truly is a big fan of Andy Lau! Truly casually shares her interest and dream of attending one of Andy’s concert to Taiyu as she doesn’t have enough money to attend yet.
I just love how Taiyu exerted an effort to give truly an Andy keychain, making him an attentive friend as he listens to Truly whenever she shares her stories.
Another scene that stole my heart would be the moment Taiyu got Truly a life-size standee of Andy Lau for her birthday! Talk about being #goals right?
This scene made me also convinced that the two are into each other without knowing it too!
5. Joe Chen, Jerry Yan and Andy Lau!
Back in the present, we were already introduced with Joe Chen taking a role in the film as she is now the present-day Truly.
Truly finally came out of her comfort zone to follow her heart. She tries to score an Andy Lau concert ticket only to win nothing in the end.
One day, she accidentally drops her Andy Lau keychain to be returned by Andy himself! Revealing an Andy fan, Truly was even given the opportunity to take a photo with him!
And yes, our most beloved Dao Ming Si, Jerry Yan, makes a surprise appearance as the grown up Taiyu! The two were reunited being apart for a long time. And yes, he kept his promise!
Final Thoughts
At first, you will take this film as one of the cliche love stories out there. I also love how the actors and actresses portrayed their roles very well. The cameo of the popular stars was just a bonus!
I am impressed on how this film played with my emotions and later on, I even found myself in tears sharing the happiness for both Truly and Taiyu!
The film teaches us life lessons on how growing up can sometimes lead us into wishing to turn back time when were young and carefree. Even though it gave us satisfaction when we become established or working adults, the memories and the people we’ve met back in time helped us in making our decisions today.
Like how Taiyu taught Truly on how to believe in herself!
Film rating: 10/10
Featured Image Credit: Strait times
GIF Source: Giphy, Google
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