Messy and real
Overall I loved this movie.Set against early nineties Taiwan and university students trying to change a system that has been rife with uncontested top-down power structures.
Following characters that have nuance and depth. This is only a movie, so there isn't the same amount of time to flesh things out as you might get in a drama series. But they use subtlety and care to craft characters that are vibrant and distinct, and each have their own complexities that may not necessarily make them bad people, but certainly could be considered messy people. Flawed people. Struggling to balance protecting themselves and being true to themselves. Real.
There are some serious themes here. Nothing too crazy, but this is not just romance fluff. It is more about figuring out your place in the world and what you actually want from it.
All in all I was very glad to have stumbled across this movie.
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Interesting themes but...
This had a really promising premise and post-martial law Taiwan is one of my favorite historical periods to watch/read about, particularly from the students' perspective.However, I don't think the movie really used it to the fullest — while I liked that the setting was very focused on one university's Fine Arts Department, the character development feels very thin for both our leads, and the plot starts rehashing the same conflicts over and over again.
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