How Are You (2017)

A small and heartwarming coming of age film with fine story. An earlier project of Zhang Yi Jie and Wendy Zhang who would both go on to star in other major shows.

The characters in "How Are You" (2017) connect through their study of English. This conflict is very relatable for someone with an Asian background where learning English is a challenge in itself, but can also be an accomplishment. Although this is your usual light-hearted high school love story, the script is very well written and consistent, the plot carried evenly from beginning through to the end. There is still a lot of misunderstanding surrounding the ending of the story as the majority of viewers felt that the story was not conclusive, but in my opinion that was for lack of understanding of Asian, or specifically Chinese culture.

I sat down to watch this film to explore projects by Zhang Yi Jie. This was one of his earlier works, and the only movie he starred in to date. His acting in "How Are You" was still not fully developed compared to his other works (the character Li Lei was very stiff at times), but he still did a good job in this. Bonus points for the English conversation.

For non-fans: overall, a good childhood story to pass the time.

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