Hua wei mei (Chinese) [Bad Romance]

I have always liked the idea of multiple stories in a film that somehow related to each other towards the end of the film but when there are stories and they have nothing to do with each other feels a little odd. I mean from a perspective that, why did you make a full length feature film out of it when you could easily have made 3 short films out of it. This feeling is even stringer when the overall film turns out to be a big disappointment.

This film is set in Beijing and follows life of 7 young people. We have a single mother who is very busy with work and hope stat she will meet her prince charming one day. She meets a student in the city and after much persuasion by the young boy, she finally gives in and they start having an affair. In the second story, we have a young city boy, who really likes another guy but he was taken. One day by chance they meet after 2 years of wait and our man cannot believe his luck. But the other guy is just nursing a breakup from his boyfriend and is with the guy just so he has a place to stay. This story deals with how one guys is madly and reply in love while the other guy really doesn't care. In the 3rd story, we have a girl who joins french classes and how she gets in between the games of a guy and a girl from the girl. She ends up making out with the girl and getting raped from the guy. Ultimately all these characters get their heart broken.

The stories move so so so slow that it tests your patience. Some of the scenes just drag on forever and ever. The only story that I was remotely able to connect to was the gay angle. It was interesting to see how one person is so much in love with the other one that originally he overlooks his faults. There is an interesting dialogue which says "As long as one person is committed in a relationship, it can go on". The acting was below average by all characters, specially in the French class story.

There are much better films out there that talk about failed (bad) romance. (1.5/10)

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