Fantasia Review: You Are the Apple of My Eye (2011)

You Are the Apply of My Eye is a Taiwanese film about an unlikely couple who grow to love each other when the girl, Shen, decides to help Ko with his studies in school. To get an idea of the feel of the film, think of all the immature and sex-joked filled college comedies you could think of, then add in an over the top romance to that story. This obviously sounds like it shouldn't work, but for the most part, it oddly did. 

The first hour of the film was simply showing the fun side of what this film had to offer. It had quirky, and just plain bizarre moments, but it was genuinely funny. An example of that was one of the first scenes this film has to offer is a literal jerk-off between two guys during one of their classes. In this first hour, the romance seemed subtle, and this addition, along with the humour, and self reflexivity, made this film remind me to one of my favourite generations of teen comedies. Yes, I am referring none other than to the amazing genre of 80s teen flicks!

For the most part that film kept that feeling to it, reminding me of a time that people have tried and failed to recreate. Though, at times the plot still detracted from that and started to move a little slower near the middle when it wanted to focus on the more melodrama aspects this film had to offer. These moments were always easy to identify because they a tediously generic piano melody that never changed would accompany them in the background. 

One of the most prominent themes this film had, surrounded the importance of education. Character were constantly complaining about how they had to have perfect marks, and having Shen decide to help Ko in his studies, was one of the most important plot points to the film. Though, when it comes to many schools in Asia, the importance behind constantly getting perfect marks, isn't an exaggeration, so even though for a more Western audience, it's possible certain aspects of the film that focused on it's importance to a character may seem like an exaggeration, that's definitely not the case.   

The cast of characters were a fun bunch, who filled some of the teen character staples. Of course to continue the little doses of weird this film had, one of the more unique characters was one named "Boner" because, not too surprisingly, he always sported one. Ko was played by a first time actor, who for the most part did a pretty good job. In fact, the acting was relatively good all around, safe for one person's friend who was cringe-worthy at times, but you can be happy to know her role was very minimal. 

Anyway, as a whole, the film managed to only lose a bit of steam in the middle, but it picked itself back up for the end. The film's weakness was when it tried too hard to create a sappy romance, but when it added that in with small doses it worked wonderfully with the rest of the plot. In all, this was a funny, witty, and amusing film, with just the right amount of weird to seal the deal in making this a worthwhile watch.