The story is simple, but surprisingly compelling. We see Jin Tian's (Wang Likun) journey to a place, to Prague. At first, it is just a beautiful city meant to help her heal; it's a city that her only family member once lived. Later, though, and interwoven with her own love story, Prague becomes that place of being and becoming a new person. What I enjoyed most is how interwoven Jin Tian and Ze Yang's story was with Lan Xin and Dr. Novak's. The links and flashbacks gave a beautiful, yet sorrowful meaning to the idea of having a place and of being in love.
Despite a group of young, fairly inexperienced actors, Somewhere Only We Know featured bright moments. The chemistry between Wang Likun (Jin Tian) and Wu Yi Fan (Ze Yang) was sweet; their interactions with Sophia (Ni Ni) were definite highlights of the film. Moreover, they showed an awkwardness that fit well with two young people in love. Plus, the movie showcased Wu Yi Fan's ability to be a "cold guy," a nice guy, a sweet guy, and best of all, a silly guy. Xu Jinglei took a major risk, and I believe it paid off. Last but not least, Xu Jinglei was awesome herself as the young Lan Xin. She gave off a grace and beauty that brought me to tears at its sincerity.
I loved the music in the film! From traditional Czech music to Frankie Valli's "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" to Wu Yi Fan's "There Is A Place," the music captured that sweetness of new love, of old love, of lost love, and of found love.
Probably my only complaint with the movie lies in it's use of English instead of Czech when there are longer conversations with non-Chinese characters (Dr. Novak, especially). I don't hate the choice necessarily, but I would have liked there to be more Czech involved in the film.
Of course I'm going to rewatch this again and again. It's sweet, funny, yet also insightful. On a fangirl note, why wouldn't I watch it again?
Overall, I give Somewhere Only We Know a 10 because I enjoyed the film so much. I laughed and cried (I dabbed tears at several points during the film), and I thoroughly felt the love between the characters. I also enjoyed seeing the beauty of Prague; I really, really want to visit it now. It gave a wonderful environment and air to encase the beautiful stories within the film. The film made me want to find my own place as well.
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The music for this film I was looking forward to in this film but, even though Wu Yi Fan wrote one of the songs, called "There is a Place for Us", we did not even hear that whole song in the film, and I think it was placed in the wrong place. But, other than that, the music was okay. It might have been also because I don't even associate this song with this film at all. Infact, I assume if I never had heard this song before I would have missed this song. It would have not stood out as a great song but, only as part of an okay soundtrack.
The acting and cast was very well done. I especially enjoyed Sophia Cai Shuya and her performance as Ni Ni, the daughter. She was very cute and I loved her moments with Wu Yi Fan as father and daughter.
I want to thank the director and all the other crew that made this movie possible. I advise anyone to watch this movie, I think most people will enjoy it.
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Story | There's two stories being explained, one during the end of WWII and the other in the present. Jin Tian is in Prague for school but is also retracing some of her grandmother's footsteps to explore her tragic love story. Basically the two stories being explained are being played out the same but with different circumstances. A romantic cliche if you will, but it's something I never get tired of watching.
Cast | I don't know what I was expecting with Wu Yi Fan's acting but I didn't hate it nor love it. He can play a lead, but he has a long way to go with his acting. It was hard to watch because sometimes he acted out a scene well and other times I literally hid behind my pillow. He needs some work but he wasn't the worst I've seen. Wang Li Kun was pretty..okay. I don't know, I feel like she was good but nothing spectacular. Her and Yi Fan were nice together. Chemistry was lacking for most of the movie but I thought a spark or two was seen more towards the end. I actually liked the Doctor actor and Xu Jinglei better. I was much more interested in their story than the main couple.
Music | All I can remember is I'll Be Right Here Waiting For You. It fit so perfectly into the movie that everything else I pretty much forgot. If I remember correctly, Yi Fan released a song for this movie but I don't remember it much..
Overall | This movie overall was a bit of a mess. It all made sense, but it was all over the place. Rushed relationships, some unanswered questions, I really just found myself saying "what" a lot of the time. Shoot, the first 45 minutes I said this movie was terrible. But as it went on, the movie actually did become pretty decent and by the end I was satisfied and say it was enjoyable. The one thing I really did love was the backdrop for most of the movie! Prague looks like such a beautiful city and I can't even lie, 50% of me watched this movie just because it was filmed in Prague.
All in all, decent movie. Not very long at all so it's perfect to watch on a slow day.
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It should be a nice movie, but I'm not feel something very spectacular with it. Maybe I'll give you a list of the positive and negative points in my opinion; and I'll let you make a decision.
Positive :
1. There's a little spot for psychological issues and I always love to watch it (^_^)
2. The chemistry between hero and heroine is good, but in my opinion they can do better
3. The ending is such a relief
4. The songs are great touch
Negative :
1. The story telling feels not too tidy, which bit rushing at some scene but feels so slow at other scene
2. The back and forth plot is always be my taste, but in this movie I found it a bit boring, maybe because the era (I'm not sure too)
3. They provide enough details, but it feels spread all over the story irregularly
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The only part of this movie that i disliked was the terrible english dubbing, but aside from that, I'm in love with it.
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The story itself was pretty slow for the first half of the movie. I would've given this movie a 6, but the last twenty-ish minutes gave it a huge boost. It picked up speed and tied all the loose ends together.
Everyone in the cast was great, save for the female lead. She's not a bad actress, but I just didn't feel connected to her throughout the movie.
This was a beautiful movie with a touching message at the end. There are two storylines that are interlaced throughout the movie in a way that makes sense. As I said before the ending is amazing, and there were no loose ends. I'd definitely recommend giving this a try!
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Nice but once a watch
I have watched a few movies with the same concept, finding an old letter and trying to search for its recipient or sender, eventually uncovering something extraordinary about them. And the people who search get motivated by how they truly old generation loved.I do like the concept of the movie, but the editing of the movie just ruins everything. While Jin-tian is talking to Ze-Yang the scene jumps to old times, but everything looked the same whether past or present so I got confused. The old couple story jumps in between without any screen cut or context, they don’t even mention the year. The back and forth between past and present is like spilled coffee all over the place
I felt that the old couple's story had more impact cause they had a more emotional connection.
Present-day JinTian and ZeYang's story was bland and forced with so many emotional traumas as if they were some sinners. if one of them could have acted maturely and adult it would have changed the impact of the movie. They had chemistry but their visuals are too nice that it covered their flawed acting, they could have done better.
The actors who played Lanxin and Joseph Novak were amazing, others were very mediocre honestly maybe because they are newbies.
The scene where Novak and JinTian see each other was very fine and chilling. The ending is satisfying though.
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I loved the story and how it was filmed.
Also I really loved Kris as the lead and i loved his acting. The role he was playing was just to cute to handle. I never saw Kris like this bevor.
At least I really liked the music in the movie.
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"Vir aqui todos os dias por tantos anos se tornou minha maneira de dizer eu amo você"
Esse filme é maravilhoso. Assisti a primeira vez há uns anos e lembrei dele esses tempos e resolvi assistir outra vez e valeu totalmente a pena. A história é envolvente, o cenário é maravilhoso e eu adorei as atuações. Acompanhamos duas linhas de tempo a primeira mais atual da Jin Tian e a segunda é da avó dela, lá em 1970. O casal de atores que interpretam a avó da principal e o antigo amor nos anos 70 tem uma química gigante e a maioria das partes em que chorei foi por causa deles.Não é um roteiro com grandes reviravoltas, é bem simples para ser sincera e acho que esse é o ponto, nem sempre você precisa de grandes reviravoltas pra contar uma boa história. Uma história que acrescente algo quando você termina de ver ou que pelo menos, faz com que você reflita um pouco no final. E esse filme faz isso.
A ost é ótima e a fotografia é muito bonita, do tipo que no final você tá suspirando e pensando "meu deus, quero viajar pra um lugar assim". Com certeza vou assistir várias vezes.
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