22. Someday Or One Day (Xiang jian ni); movie review

SOMEDAY OR ONE DAY (XIANG JIAN NI)

Cert 12A

107 mins

BBFC advice: Contains moderate bloody images, violence, sex references, strong language

I was at a clear disadvantage to the rest of the audience in screen five at Birmingham's New Street Odeon.

I had not brought a date to the romantic weepie, Someday or One Way and I was unaware of the 13-episode TV series on which it is based.

The latter would have offered background knowledge essential to the enjoyment of Tien-Jen Huang's time-lapse movie.

It starts out easily enough -  a teenager (Alice Ko) literally meets the man of her dreams  (Greg Hsu) while a song plays at the coffee shop where she works.

The pair get along swimmingly, move in together and then she is offered a job, thousands of miles away.

This is a tad formulaic but then lookalikes and time travel become the central focus of the film.

And, frankly, I became a bit lost.

What I could make of Someday or One Day was that a cassette of a certain song could literally cause the world to be changed.

This prompts the question: "Who the heck has had a cassette player or Walkman since 1986?"

Anyway, it transpires that moving through time is not quite as useful as one might think - even when it is essential to undoing tragedy.

Indeed, there are many leaps through the years and every time, I became more confused. 

My befuddlement isn't helped because one of the plot's planks revolves around two key characters looking so similar they can barely be distinguished.

Nevertheless, the romantics who had a history with Someday Or One Day were lapping it up.

                                                               

Reasons to watch: If you know the hit TV series

Reasons to avoid: Impossible to follow if you don't know the characters in advance

Laughs: A couple of chuckles elsewhere in the audience

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 4/10

Did you know? The Someday Or One Day TV series won four Golden Bell Awards - the annual Taiwanese television and radio production awards.

The final word. Greg Hsu: "“I didn’t expect to get this much popularity … It changed me to have a different mindset generally about how I should approach acting and my life. I feel I’ve grown through the series. Because I’ve started to get a lot of attention, I started to become aware of things that I haven’t [before]. South China Morning Post

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