Girlfriend Boyfriend (2012)

Very disappointed :(

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Good start, but then it gets ruined

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Ten years after Chih-yen Yee's BLUE GATE CROSSING (2002, 9/10), which is a powerhouse debut for Lun Mei Gwei, who plays a schoolgirl harbors a secretive lesbian love to her best friend, but is also pursued by the boy who is her best friend's object of unrequited admiration. In Ya-che Yang's second feature after the box office dark-horse ORZ BOYZ (2008), GF*BF remoulds the love triangle with a girl and two boys, and ambitiously tracks their life orbit from late 1980s to the present, however, an unerring selling point is the all-the-rage queer leitmotif. From their high school days in 1980s, Mabel (Gwei), Liam (Hsiao-chuan Chang) and Aaron (Vaughan) are three close schoolmates and rebellious to the militarized education of their school, discernibly Mabel has feelings for the introvert but kindhearted Liam, but the latter never make an initiative to chase after her, instead, a more exuberant and hot-blooded Aaron woos her and they become lovers.In 1990, Liam and Aaron are college flatmates, at the heat of a critical social change which demands democracy in Taiwan, the ambitious Aaron is an avid adherent of student movement, and the three reunite as protestants in a sit-down in front of the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, but little as they know, their future is never how they can imagine. When wine is in, truth is out, during an after-party, Liam finally reveals to Mabel his affection towards Aaron, and Mabel is also devastated to realize she and Aaron can never be together. 7 years later, out of the ivory tower, Aaron marries into a rich family and Mabel is his mistress; Liam, also is a lover of a closet man with a family, they meet again, friendship forever, is just a hollow slogan to save the face, Aaron's attempt to elope with Mabel foils at the last minute in the airport, again Mabel heartbreakingly braces herself to be the bravest one. Liam is the one who knows her best, their train of thought clings to the remembrance of the past, but a malignant tumor will make things easier for them. In the coda set in 2012, a middle-age Liam is the custodian of Mabel's twin daughters, an unheralded Mr. nice guy sacrifices his life to raise the offspring of his best friends one of whom he is in love with and another he is unable to love. A box-office success, and grabbed 7 Golden Horse Awards nominations (encompasses the big 5 with cinematography and a Supporting Actor nomination for the transformative Bryan Shu-Hao Chang as a silver-tongued sissy queen) and won Gwei a coveted BEST ACTRESS trophy for her transfixing performance, who again and again deservingly salvages the film from its dullest and most arbitrary moments, Mabel's tribulations are poignantly presented with a force of impact so powerful and destructive, wonderfully contrasts to Hsiao-chuan Chang's repressed implosion, which is also painful to watch, and it heralds Hsiao-chuan's rosy effort to venture into a wider spectrum as a mature actor instead of a brawny pretty boy who leaves an indelible impression in Leste Chen's ETERNAL SUMMER (2006, 7/10), another ménage-à-trois teen-spirit love confusion. Vaughan, the red-hot British-and-Taiwanese mixed-blooded jock from MONGA (2010) and TINY TIMES series (2013-2014), is a fresh-air but fails to lift the momentum under his belt, his Aaron is the most ambiguous one among the trinity, his comeuppance is never mentioned, but we can conjure up from the context, he is the most pathetic one. One cannot overlook the ambition from Ya-che Yang, who tries to conjoin politics with a youth culture of repression and rebellion extending almost 25 years, but never quite hits the bull's- eye, utilizing conspicuously emotive songs to amp up an atmosphere of grandeur and upsurging emotions also falls contrived and wanting. It is a beautifully shot film nevertheless and the performances are highly recommendable, Lun Mei Gwei and Hsiao-chuan Chang are among my Top 10 lists of 2012 so far.

Taiwanese films are becoming sexy again, and this probably is due in part of its crop of up and coming directors who are now holding their own against the art-house veterans, with their box office success being indication of their connecting with the audience at large, both local and overseas. Writer-director Yang Ya-Che's second feature film gf*bf shows the kind of appeal that's attractive to the general audience with its themes of romance starring a good looking cast, but in essence has a powerful story as gravitas to back it up.Told over three decades from the martial law of the 80s, to the free spirited 90s and of today, the story revolves around three students, rebellious in their own right during their school days, but forming firm relations and friendship during their formative years. The brilliance in the scripting is in how Yang managed to craft really complex relationships between these three primary characters alone that worked on multiple levels, and showed a very fine and keen observation of the human condition, in the way we allow ourselves to be influenced by society at large, whether to conform or rebel against it, and how such decisions affect and change our behaviours, attitudes, and perhaps personality as well.It's about how people change over time due to events and ever growing experience, whether jaded ones or otherwise, and how these changes affect the people around us, especially those whom we care about most. For Mabel (Gwei Lun-Mei), Liam (Chang Hsiao-Chuan) and Aaron (Rhydian Vaughan), life in school meant plenty of opportunities to work against the uniformed establishment, to try and break free from restrictive, and sometimes inexplicable rules. The impetuousness of youth continues into the 90s where the student movement got larger and more proactively vocal, before life in the present requires a lot more responsibility and level- headedness, with a surprise in the twist of narrative thrown in for good measure.The trio's love triangle is what made this film come alive, and that's all that should be mentioned about it. While the title may be that little giveaway, suffice to say the romance in the film, amongst the characters, prove to be the best thing about the movie. All three actors gave convincing performances, that you'll feel every heart break, every heart wrench, and share in their little moments of happiness and warmth when things go their way, albeit not most of the time. Yang Ya-Che shows off some incredible sensitivity in making all of them multi-faceted, and multi-dimensional, and each of the actors did brilliantly to flesh their characters, making all of them pretty much endearing as we chart their ups and downs in life, especially their luck in love, or lack thereof.Gwei Lun-Mei anchors the film, being the female amongst the two male leads, probably put in the best performance to date in a role that has plenty of spunk, yet filled with girly vulnerability when she gets her heart open and prone to heartbreak. There's a little sub plot involving her getai performing mom, and that provided a little bit of a distraction from the main narrative. While Rhydian Vaughan will likely set hearts aflutter with his good looks, playing the brash and sweet talking Aaron, Chang Hsiao-Chuan puts in a performance that's completely opposite as if to starkly contrast in broad terms, two different categories of men, and excelled in playing the strong, silent type who had too much bottled within him. For a reason of course.gf*bf hardly put in a wrong foot in its story telling, and makes the audience work for their reward. There are films which make it easy to understand from the onset no thanks to having everything told in verbatim fashion, but this one allows some piecing together of facts and information, with a little bit of cultural and historical significance put on the side, that makes it unique, moving, and a masterful piece of filmmaking.

"GF*BF" is one of those tragic life experiences disguised within layers of a coming of age kind of youthful romance, but really it is a deep and complicated emotional turmoil about three tragic souls growing up in Taiwan during the 80s period of immense social change."GF*BF" is an immensely difficult film to review, as it is one of those films that is impossible to dislike. It is well directed, stylishly filmed, complicatedly and originally scripted, filled with some truly wonderful and convincing performances, but somehow, it doesn't totally go the distance. In saying so, director Yang Ya-che does a wonderful job in bringing such a complicated and layered script to life and almost pulled it off convincingly. In fact, there are times when I was almost overwhelmed by the volume of feelings and emotions on display, but somehow the film lacks a resonance emotional connection with the audience that could have propel the film to reach its lofty ambitions. Not unlike 2006′s Taiwanese youth romance "Eternal Summer" (also starring lead actor Joseph Chang), the film deals with similar issues and situated during a testing period of time in Taiwan and for youth growing up in general.In many ways the film attempts to say too much, striving to be far too complex and by the end of it, the film itself is caught within its own web. There is just so much potential that director Yang could've explored, but somehow fails to fully capitalize on it. In fact, some scenes are so powerful and notable, namely the intense confrontation scene at the karaoke room, the simple good bye gesture from Gwei Lun Mei looking on by the bedroom window and the brilliant scene at the airport near the end. At times, the quality from these scenes feels as though it came from a different movie all together. However, a few scenes do not make a movie and instead of uplifting the audience to the ultimate emotional connection, the film decides to cut and chop to another time period.Joseph Chang ("Eternal Summer") at times is able to even outshine the always brilliant Gwei Lun Mei ("Secret"). Chang is quietly wonderful in the conflicted role and carries the film with the most difficult character on hand. Rhydian Vaughan ("Love 2012") tries hard, but is given far too little material to work with, other than being a total jerk. In a way, Gwei Lun Mei is fast becoming the Taiwanese's version of Zhou Xun and that's the highest order of compliment an Asian actress can receive in this day and age. Her chemistry with Chang is undeniable and the subtle moments between the two are best left in the unspoken scenes of early tiny touches, wandering eyes and some stirring emotions. What director Yang is able to achieve is being able to create and allow the audience to focus on the two main characters (Gwei Lun Mei and Joseph Chang) that in more than one ways or another are clearly two complete mirror images of each other.At the end of the day, Yang tries extremely hard to convince the audience about the subject matter that he is trying to say. While there are notions of life, love and friendship that one can possibly learn from or even relate, the film seems more occupy with the twists and turns of complexity into the dynamics of the trio relationships than actual cinematic experience for the audience. With that being said, "GF*BF" is easily a good film, filled with some truly wonderful performances, helmed by an ambitious director and illuminated by a difficult period of change in Taiwanese history. One just cannot help compare the similarities with 2006's "Eternal Summer", but of the two films, there is no doubt that Yang takes it much further. A good film that comes up short of its lofty ambitions (Neo 2012) I rate it 8/10

You should really go with your Asian friend.This is the best Taiwanese movie i have ever seen, which talks about love.The way it presents the story is so romantic, that you will literally fall in love with the movie.Main actors and actress are so cute, their acting is natural, sentimental, and tear-alluring.I really hope more and more MADE IN TAIWAN can find its market in the U.S., there are so many people here who appreciates Taiwanese products, especially their amazing movies.Love it