Overflowing with energy, this film takes the typical Taiwanese rom-com genre in new and interesting directions…
Lots of things go missing in this film. Fathers. Prospective boyfriends. Even important days in the protagonist’s life. This protagonist, a young woman named Yang Hsiao-chao (Patty Lee), is led on an adventure to figure out where all these things have gone, and what exactly is going on.
With My Missing Valentine, Taiwanese director Yu-Hsun Chen gives us a film that shares much in common with other popular Taiwanese rom-coms of recent times (such as You Are The Apple Of My Eye and Café.Waiting.Love), but manages to add something extra. The continuously twisting plot, and the experiments in style, mean that you are kept engaged from start to finish, if only to see where things are going to go next.
Like the films mentioned above, Chen presents a world of quirky comical characters. The story centres on Yang Hsiao-chao, an eccentric thirty-year-old post office clerk who has always been a bit of a misfit, living life at a slightly faster tempo than other people. In the extremely energetic opening scenes flashbacks give her back story, with much comedy made of how she is out of sync with the world around her.
We learn that when she was a schoolgirl Yang Hsiao-chao’s father wandered off one evening, claiming to be going to buy a tofu pudding, and then was never seen again. This absence sits in the background of the film, presented as having shaped the way the adult Yang Hsiao-chao is today and giving her character greater depth.
Patty Lee is good in the role, nicely portraying the unusual mannerisms which make Yang Hsiao-chao a bit different from the people around her, and helping us to connect with the character from the start. Yang Hsiao-chao’s ‘oddness’ has also left her unable to find a boyfriend, so that she seems destined to spend another valentine’s day alone.
But then, just when we seem set on the conventional rom-com course of a chance encounter, the film goes off in another, entirely different direction. It is from this point forth that My Missing Valentine becomes increasingly interesting. Yang Hsiao-chao is left with an intriguing mystery to solve and as she hits the road to try to uncover the truth the plot takes one surprising turn after another.
The same kind of free-flowing style has been taken with the direction, with the continual introduction of new ideas – everything from Bollywood-esque musical sequences to scenes of dreamlike magical realism where Yang Hsiao-chao speaks to fantastical characters that appear floating outside her windows or residing in her closet.
Yet while heading off in a different direction from most Taiwanese rom-coms, the film doesn’t drop the light-hearted comedy with which it begun. As we follow Yang Hsiao-chao’s attempts to solve the mystery, there are still many comic moments. In one scene, for example, she falls asleep on a curb next to a cash machine and is then woken by an old lady who, instead of expressing concern, wants to withdraw some money.
These funny moments add an extra sparkle to a film that is already bursting with energy. Like Yang Hsiao-chao, My Missing Valentine always seems to be moving at a slightly faster pace. While it doesn’t say anything particularly deep, if you are looking for light-hearted and entertaining film that goes beyond the conventional tropes of romantic comedy, then this is well worth watching.