Fantastic!

As Good As It Gets

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Having watched many school slice of life movies, I've got to say that this one follows the same logic as the others. It did remind me of Reply 1997 as well. Also, I loved the sweet innocent romance, as the love story, even though it was full of cliche, it was enjoyable and warm. The performances helped with it as well. The pace was nice, not too fast but not to slow to be tiring and boring. However, the ending was a bit of a disappointment for me. As I've said, after watching many school themed movies, I should have expected this to happen. Few of them had a satisfying ending with a closure or at least a conclusion to the romance. Even though the ending was better than others, and gave some nice touch to the story, it still didn't feel right. Other than that, it was an enjoyable movie.

We can't help but to feel nostalgic while watching this movie. It is definitely able to bring us back to be age of our innocent youth. The movie tells us about the feelings that teenagers face around that age, and we can't help to reminisce the memories. The story is quite simple. The girl is a huge fan of an idol, and at the same time, she has a crush on the school's most popular boy. And while pursuing her love, she finds out that her crush is close with the school's most popular girl. And she then teams up with the school's gangster who likes the popular girl, to tear them apart. And so on.It's like, we've all been there, so people may think that this story is a little bit cliché. Sure, it's quite predictable at some parts. But this movie still successfully captures the ups and downs the adolescents face. The hardships of being honest to yourself, the innocent love we have for our idols, and the discovery of love that they are yet to understand; this movie has it all.I personally really like this movie as it strangely gives me warmth. I recommend this to those who love the simple stories from coming of age movies. This gives the same vibe as an also a Taiwanese movie, You're The Apple of My Eye. Watch both, you'll love both <3

I admit, this movie does not deserve a 2 out of 10, but I feel compelled to give it such a low score to bring down the overall ratings it currently possesses. A 7.5 out of 10 is overrating Our Times, granted that You're the apple of my eye, a much more successful version of this movie, is only 7.7.The plot is formulaic and repetitive: a clumsy diamond-in-the-rough type of girl harbors unrequited love for the white prince of the school. Then a black prince comes into the picture, gradually sweeps her off her feet with his charm and sincerity. But then the director drops the old classic study-abroad bomb into the drama as the black prince has to leave the country to study abroad due to his misdemeanor. The two of them are separated for 6 or 7 years but surprisingly (or unsurprisingly), still hold feelings for one another. The movie ends with a profoundly unrealistic fairy-tale conclusion (not just in the fact that the two meet again as if destiny calls on them but also the impossibly romantic setting) which rouses the hopeless romantic girls out there, making them swoon and go "awwww", but bores experienced movie- goers to the core, making them go "fuuuuu..." and wonder why they bought into the praising reviews. In terms of depicting the bittersweet sentiments of first love, Our Times pales in comparison with You're The Apple of My Eye, mostly due to its formulaic and unrealistic nature. You cannot "feel" much because you know it cannot happen in real life or can already predict what is happening next.In short, watch Our Times if you are looking for a movie to while away your time, or if you are a romantic searching for an excessively, over-the-top fairy-tale love stories. *I am not a follower of the You're The Apple of My Eye cult. I'm merely comparing the two movies because of the similarities in the overarching theme of youth and first love.

I've lived in Taiwan for 7 years now. I've seen movies like Jay Chou's "Secret" put a fine twist on the Sci-Fi genre, Cape #7 dominate the box office (pulling in half a billion dollars in Taiwan's currency) and KANO leave an amazing lasting impression --- yet nothing prepared me for the stunning beauty of this simple love story set mostly in 1994 era Haulien.Though the movie has modern day bookends (opening & closing the movie is a sort of "Where did it all go wrong" prologue) the main brunt of the time is spent following Truly Lin as she matures through her senior year of high school. What starts as a simple coming of age story starts taking on a life of it's own through the sheer force of the main two characters, Lin Truly & Hsu TaiYu. (In Chinese, last names are first)Vivian Sung plays the younger version of Truly Lin and Darren Wang the younger version of TaiYu Hsu. Both actors bring such amazing life to the characters that midway through the movie you will have forgotten there are other characters actually in the movie. They both dominate the movie powerfully, showing vividly the awkwardness, determination, innocence and zest for life that so accompany being a teenager. Doubtless, the way these two play off each other will be studied for years to come and copied by many Taiwanese directors and screen writers. Their performance was honestly flawless.I don't want to spoil the movie in any way, but I've already seen it three times in one week and it is really hard not to sing the praise of something so magical --- I guess the simplest way to put it is that this is one of the most breathtaking movies I've ever seen, start to finish. As one of my ESL students remarked on her Facebook page, "went to the bathroom after the movie, and every girl there was puffy-eyed from crying." It really will do that to you, even after the credits start rolling.