Movie Review: You are the apple of my eye

First Love, the common theme for romantic films these days. If Thailand has Crazy little thing called love, and Korea has Architecture 101, Taiwan has You are the apple of my eye. Films of this kind  are always a hit because they give a sense of nostalgia to the audience. 

You are the apple of my eye is a combination of CLTCL and Architecture 101. It has the sweet and fun high school days like in CLTCL and the bittersweet ending of Architecture 101 (spoiler!). And like Architecture 101, the story is mainly about the male lead.

The plot —The story begins in 1994 when Ko Ching-teng is in senior high school. Ko Ching-teng and Shen Chia-yi have been classmates since junior high school. Ko Ching-teng is good for nothing, happy go lucky guy, while Shen Chia-yi is an honor student and teachers' favorite. One day, Ko Teng is caught masturbating inside their classroom with another classmate (Yup, you read it right, he masturbates in public. Plus he walks naked inside their house even when his parents are around. Wtf! Maybe this is to add humor, but I think it's more disturbing than funny. Our hero is an exhibitionist?! Who will fall for that kind of guy? Oh well, anyway, that's the only part I hate in the movie.) After punishing him, the teacher moves Ko Teng's seat in front of Chia-yi and asks her to keep an eye on Ko Teng. 

Their friendship starts when he lends her his book and he's the one punished for not bringing  a book. Chia-yi in return helps him to do better in class by giving him lesson exercises. They eventually become close and keep in touch even after high school. Ko Teng regularly makes long distance phone call to Chia-yi and they meet during school breaks and holidays. After a major quarrel, they break up and stop talking to each other for two years. He only get to communicate with her again when a massive earthquake hits Taiwan. He calls her to check if she's fine. (Okay, let's stop here for you to enjoy your viewing experience.) 

Movie link - http://youtu.be/EB0-pTL4568 Rating: 8/10 You are the apple of my eye is an ordinary story. But since it's about first love, many can relate into it and that makes the film special. Surprisingly, this pervert movie captivated my heart. I almost stopped watching it  when I kept seeing scenes Ko Teng walking naked or masturbating. The ending is as sad as Architecture 101's conclusion. Poor Ko Teng. At least, he's now a successful writer. By the way, this film is adapted from the author/director's semi-autobiographical novel of the same title. 
Additional trivia: The real life Shen Chia-yi had to take one year leave from work to avoid the media.