Zheng hun qi shi (1998)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Kuo-fu Chen

Writers:

Kuo-fu Chen (writer)
Shih-chieh Chen (writer)

Release Date:

9 October 1999 (Malaysia)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Plot Keywords:

Love | Song | Drinking | Shoe Fetish | Husband Wife Relationship

Awards:

5 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Rene Liu	...	Dr. Du Jia-zhen
Wu Bai
Chao-jung Chen
Bao-ming Gu
Chin Shih-chieh
Yi-nan Shih
Chao-ming Wang
Wen-hsi Chen
Doze Niu		(as Niu Cheng-tse)
Hsueh-Liang Pu
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ming-jie Cai
Ko-cheng Chang
Chen-ta Chou
Chia-lin Chu
Wen-cheng Hsu
Ying-yu Hsü
Wei-cheng Huang
Chih-huang Ko
Chih-ying Lin
Shiow Ling Lin	...	(voice)
Ko-feng Liu
Yu-ching Li
Jin-ding Lu
Ming-jin Lu
Yi-shih Wang
Po-chin Wei
Yao Tzu Wong
Yuan-ding Wu
Chun-yang Yu
Jia-fu Yu

Also Known As:

Jheng hun ci shih (Taiwan) (alternative transliteration)
The Personals

Runtime:

Belgium:96 min | USA:104 min

Country:

Taiwan

Language:

Mandarin

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

France:U

Company:

Central Motion Pictures Corporation

Movie Connections:

References Xiao bi de gu shi (1983)

It's a jungle out there

It's a jungle out there… The Personals is a movie for anyone who hasn't yet found what they're looking for or who remembers how tough it can be to find it. Rene Liu plays an eye doctor who's become disaffected with her present life and is craving something more— namely love and marriage. She's attractive, has a good job, and a decent apartment. Up until now she has done everything she's supposed to do, but it just hasn't worked for her. She's still alone. Now, she decides to take the extreme measure of advertising for a husband in the personals. The search leads her down the slippery slope of the modern dating scene whose universal quirkiness transcends the boundaries of all industrialized societies.

As a parade of diverse characters respond to the ad from obnoxious to bizarre to tragically pathetic (old coots, odd birds, pervs, nerds, frauds, conmen and salesmen), she starts to wonder if her standards are too high? And, watching the film you have to wonder…Do you have to settle for what's there and what you may not want because of social expectations? In Hollywood's hands, this little film would have become a relentless string of crude and infantile jokes and sight gags contrived to make us groan, but instead, this Taiwanese tale serves us up a quietly understated, poignantly humorous look at the dating scene. No matter where the film might have been set, you're sure to hear a ring of truth to it. At one time or another, we've all been there— whether we like to admit it or not.

Might be a little slow paced for some, but, on the whole, a solid little film with which most people will find something to identify. And, whether shy, bewildered, desperate, panicked, or outraged, Liu's performance is surprisingly sympathetic and often quite engaging.