"Sweet Sixteen" (aka "Xia You Qiao Mu") is a movie that I hadn't heard about, but happened to come across by random luck and got the chance to sit down and watch it.
First of all, I don't understand the English title "Sweet Sixteen", because it makes absolutely no sense in terms of what this movie is about. And because of the title, I though this was going to be a romance or a romantic comedy. But it turned out to be quite something else; this was a drama.
It is a story that follows a troubled boy named Xia Mu (played by Kris Wu) whom is taken into foster care, where he grows up falling in love with his foster sister Shu Ya Wang (played by Shan Lu). But when something terrible happens to her, Xia Mu steps up and takes revenge, seeking to right the wrong.
Right, well the story was good, up to a certain point. I will not give away any spoilers at all here. So I will just say that I found the movie to be rather enjoyable up to the point where that terrible event happens to Shu Ya Wang. From thereon the movie just nosedived and became a farce.
The movie does have some good acting performances in it. And I especially enjoyed Shu Ya Wang, because she carried the movie quite nicely.
"Xia You Qiao Mu" had potential to be a memorable movie, but the turn of events to the story at the hands of director Jin-gyu Cho just didn't sit well with me at all. And because of that, then I am forced to rate this movie a less than mediocre four out of ten stars. This was not the brightest moment in Chinese cinema.
