'Chi chi' de ai

I am not a fan of the now-defunct Taiwanese talk show Mr Con & Ms Csi, which I know ended abruptly last year. It was a hugely successful TV programme that was not afraid to grill its guests with difficult questions and it is not surprising that it had garnered a legion of fans. With Didi's Dreams, the fans are reminded of how much they miss the dynamic duo – Mr Con (Kelvin Tsai) is the director and Ms Csi (Dee Hsu) is everything including the kitchen sink. Get ready for pizazz and a zany ride on the wild side.

Didi (Dee Hsu) is an aspiring actress who can't catch a break, but she will stop at nothing to realise her dream of becoming an actress like her superstar sister Lingling (Lin Chi-ling). At night, she dreams of her alter-ego, a noodle seller in outer space. Then one day, at the doctor's, Didi receives distressing news…

Being a fan of the beloved series, one would immediately catch all the inside jokes, especially the cameos by the show's frequent guest stars such as Evonne Sie and Chen Han-dian. Even the casting of supermodel Lin Chi-ling is probably a deliberate choice since she was often verbally jabbed by Hsu for being prettier than her. Unfortunately, I knew nothing of the series, but I do enjoyed this film for what it is – a wacky and goofy satirical look-in into the internal workings of popular talk shows and the farcical audition process of movie studios.

Tsai and Hsu are in their element as they milked the situations for what they are worth and more. Hsu, especially was gamed enough to look "ugly" for the camera, earning huge guffaws along the way. In one scene she is a wriggling germ and in another she is a zombie who refuses to die. Both scenes show her desperate for screen time. Tsai, in his directorial debut, shows off his philosophical musings via voice-over narration. At one instance, he enthuses that our best memories feel like a dream, and we should never feel sad when it is all over because at least we can still dream it.

IMHO Didi's Dreams works only in parts and the sum total didn't quite hit its mark. The dream sequences of noodle seller, also acted by Hsu, don't feel symbiotic with the rest of the film, so in that respect the ending flourish was only decent and didn't quite hit a resounding crescendo. Lastly, I literally shook my head when Didi receives that piece of sad news from the doc. This is like the number one cliché of Chinese dramas (you already know what I am talking about eh) and it feels like a poor choice in choosing to go down this typical road of melodramatic infinite sadness, but that last flourish did earn back some good graces.

There is still a lot of fun to be had and it is not a poor film by any means. It is a hoot to see Didi go through all the crazy auditions and I love how the narrative takes jumps in unexpected directions.

This movie is including so many artists, comedians that usually participate in variety show"Kangsi Coming". That's the biggest surprise, but on top of that this movie has no plot. However, another part deserves to be encouraged is art of film making. It's full of fantasy and euphoropsia. So, if you are a fan of "Kangsi Coming", maybe you will like it, otherwise, just looking.

I went to this movie not really knowing what to expect or what the story was about. Sometimes, that is the best way to be pleasantly surprised or disappointed. In this case, I was pleasantly surprised. I can't believe how little this movie cost to make. The story is solid, with elements of comedy, drama, and love that just plain work. Kevin Tsai has directed a cohesive story that never gets dull, encompassing themes of self-worth, family-ties, fantasy, and love. The pacing is even and just long enough to pull you into the story and its characters without boring you. Dee Hsu does an excellent job as the main lead and definitely has great comedic timing. When it's time for the dramatic scenes, she really knows how to switch gears into the serious moments of the film. There were sci-fi elements of the film that were definitely dreamlike. The cinematography for the non-sci-fi scenes were very grounded and palatable. This is easily one of the most enjoyable foreign movies I've seen this year and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the end of the film.

Granted, I had expected this to be more a comedy given the movie's synopsis and the movie's cover. But it turns out that this was actually more a drama spiced up with some comedy elements.

So was that good or bad? Well, I found it to be good, because the movie plays on some very good acting performances to bring out some interesting characters and concepts. I ended up enjoying the movie, despite the fact that I had expected to be in for a laugh. That being said, there are the occasional laughs here and there, but the drama weighs more heavily throughout the movie than the comedy does.

I expect that at first the movie seems somewhat confusing to some in the audience, but stick with the movie, because it sorts itself out and it is actually a nice and touching story, if not actually a beautiful story. I will not reveal the plot here, because I think this is something that should be experienced by one self.

"Didi's Dream" (aka "'Chi chi' de ai") was a nice surprise of a movie, and I can definitely recommend that you sit down to watch the movie if you are a fan of Chinese cinema.

And the movie is quite well carried mainly by the performance of Dee Hsu in the role as Shang-guan Didi / Xu Chun-Mei. She is joined by Chiling Lin, whom also puts on a nice performance, but she doesn't really have a big a part in the story as Dee Hsu.

I enjoyed the movie, and the realization of what I had been watching and witnessing when the movie came to a fruition at the end was really quite an interesting approach and twist to the storyline. It was definitely something that I enjoyed.

My rating for "Didi's Dream" is six out of ten stars.