Venti trenta quaranta - L'età delle donne

Questions. One answer. And search of self - definition. Tales of three lives. And crumbs of their world as seeds for happiness. A movie like a dance in rain. Cloudy, clear,cold, fresh, fragile limits. Mirrors of ages and pieces of freedom. A earthquake and some flowers. Not remarkable film but one of many who creates a circle of memories and nostalgic questions. Puzzle , game and exercise of feminine essence. Ordinaries facts and levels of beauty. Essay about small things and relationship. Fights against errors and woman as axis of basic truth. At final, masks of same person or just steps in park evening. Sensitive, delicate, minor, strange, common. A movie. Like open window.

Being a female film, 20/30/40 starts from a female angle to look at life at different stages of age. The stories of Rene Liu and Sylvia Chang are indeed quite stereotype and traditional. Liu, because of lack of confidence in man and marriage under the influence of her mother, has a wild love and sex life. Chang has divorced after finding her husband having an affair and crazily look for a new companion but finally in vain. The magic of the film comes from the director catering to the inner feeling of characters, their thoughts and the actors' superb acting performance.

There are two scenes very touching. One is when Chang doing volunteer work in the hospital she said life is a passage where people around you keep leaving you. It's a bitter monologue but then she said to the patient `if people don't leave me, how can I take care of you now?' The heavy tone is simply turned into an easy laughing mood. It's touching but not emotional.

The other one is when Liu finally has settled down with the man who bought her piano. Liu was sitting in front of the piano with the man's daughter who was playing a song; the man's hand touched her daughter and then moved to the shoulders of Liu. The audiences see only the man's hands touching Liu; yet at the same time feel his heart touching Liu too. The warm feeling coming from Liu's face is such a contrast compared with the previous Liu in love or sex with the other guys.

The story of Li Sin Je is a more brave trial. The relationship she has with the other girl is for audience a fresh experience. It's pure, sensational yet sexually related, a test about the extent of love. The director has dealt with it in a very sensible way giving the characters high spiritual innocence and visually no faulty behaviour. I've seen an interview with the director where she said she believed this kind of friendship exists in a lot of cases between two close teenage girls but it's not lesbian love. I would prefer to say she's given a space in the film for audiences to decide what they think this relationship between the two girls is than having defined it. No matter what one might think, he can't deny it's so pure and innocent.

The blending of the three stories deserves a high credit to the director and is one of the successes. Without this, the film wouldn't have been so profound in content. The characters of the three stories are so close together even though they don't know each other in the film.

The ending is the 3 females, though after very tough period of trial in catching what they aim for, have all failed (Liu also failed because she'd been looking for passion, not settle down). They fail but they don't regret, still brave to face their future and accept what has happened to them a part of their lives. Destiny only chooses what to happen to them but can't decide for them what they should do and go for. They still choose their own ways. They look like loser; actually they are winner.

It's such a great film and we should not simply regard it as a female film because the extent it covers and message it has conveyed is certainly beyond female world. A man like me watched it with little tears wetting my eyes.

I seldom watch Asian movie.. honestly I think most of them are quite shallow, especially the character development part. Before I watch this film, I don't have any expectation.

After the 15 minutes of this film, I am impressed and surprised. Sylvia Chang did a good job. The story, the character, the plot. It's really deep, it make me think.

To me, this is a story about sense of insecurity and loneliness. A 20+ girl, 30+ girl, 40+ girl, the Shi Go, Jerry...

They are all experiencing loneliness and emptiness, they are lost, they need something in life, they try to seek for something that can fill up the emptiness, but it's not work.

Sylvia Chang did a good job, she make you feel how the character feel, how lost they are, how much they need someone to solve their sense of insecurity.

This is a very worth watching movie~ I hope the Hong Kong or Taiwan movie industry able make more this kind of film, which is sincere and deep, and character driven.

I want to thanks Sylvia Chang for her masterpiece~

That movie is by far the best I've seen in a long time. And one thing speaks for itself. There was big applause in the Theater after the movie. That's a thing I haven't seen in years. Every thing just fits: the characters, the story,... Those three women actually do not meet each other, but their destinies do in a unique way. The movie is very funny. I laughed tears. But You never get the feeling that the topic has been made rediculous. It's still a serious. But still you have to consider this a romantic comedy that's just made for watching on Valentines Day (well, I did that).

This movie is about the best 30 years of a woman's life.

20 - feeling alive and trying new things 30 - feeling jaded and hopes for stability 40 - the rebirth of a women

Sylvia Chang has once again proven herself as a powerful director! The 3 stories intertwine very well, while they don't affect each other, you are never really out of the story because you see the other leads at the background.

Li Sinje proves herself to be a great actress, holding her own aside the older and more established actresses. Her story las alot of sexual tension in it, but somehow in a way that most girls would understand. I admire Rene Liu for her powerful potrayal, it is a Rene that you haven seen before. Sylvia, one great looking 40-something, she just draws you deep into the story...

This is one of the light-hearted taiwanese movie that is rarely seen in taiwanese cinema. Everything about this movie is great. It is very different in style and mood from the last few movies that Sylvia Chang has done before.

One last thing to note. The concept of the movie actually started as an album. One day Rene Liu mentioned to Sylvia Chang, why don't the 3 of them do an album called 20:30:40, make it total girl power album. Sylvia loved the idea, so while making the album. She decided to make it into a movie as well. And boy am I glad she did!!! If not, we wouldn't have 3 award-winning actresses portraying such powerful acting in one of the greatest movie! Worth every cent of the ticket.