Shi lian 33 tian (2011) Reviews

• A surprisingly well made film

  Gordon-112012-07-03

  This film is about a woman working in a wedding planning agency. She handles her break up while dealing with clients looking for a dream wedding. "Love Is Not Blind" is surprisingly well made. From make up, costumes, set designs, cinematography, the quality across the board is very good. In the vein of "500 Days Of Summer", "Love Is Not Blind" is fun, fluffy and a little quirky. I particularly like the set designs. Every scene looks as if it was lifted out from an modern interior design magazine. Even the way a dinner table is set is so stylish. Together with the portrayal of the dream wedding of ultra rich clients, this film reflects the rapidly changing society in mainland China. It is a simple story but it touches the heartstrings. I like the way the leading girl is untainted by the materialism and extravagance. Her male colleague is funny, and the campness is so well portrayed but not over the top. Another impressive thing is that there are a number of really deep one liners that is thought provoking, such as whether love is a luxury and Louis Vuitton is a necessity. I really enjoyed "Love Is Not Blind", and I look forward to China making more films of this calibre.

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• Sorry, but I found it vacuous

  stevergy20002017-10-12

  Since there is only one review of this film on IMDb, and it is a relatively shallow, positive one, I felt compelled to express my acute lack of sympathy with the writing, acting and overall commercialism of this attempt of the mainland Chinese film industry to prove they can do romantic comedies as well as Hollywood - or, more precisely, the same as Hollywood. First of all, for someone to lose a boyfriend after seven years and to ostensibly recover in about 30 or 35 days is simply not plausible. In addition, she seems not really all that put out by the whole affair. She does fall asleep while working with a client, and she does yell at her boss, but other than these few feeling-sorry-for-myself lapses, she soldiers on with her job and cultivating new interests. Yes, she gets drunk - but this scene was merely set up to allow her ex to put her down with a few of the only well crafted lines of dialogue in the movie. The joke about 'hands-free' vs. 'mute' on a cell phone I've seen more than once before; the coming to care about a guy whom you suspected of batting for the other team has been done better elsewhere; the kindly indulgent advice from her understanding boss echoes so many Spencer Tracy -Elizabeth Taylor scenes; and finally, the pathos of losing your aunt and her story of her husband's infidelity seemed a patch job relatively unconnected to the rest of the film. The main problem is the central character, a girl seemingly chosen primarily for her looks rather than her acting ability, and with the writing, which gave her persona no real depth of sympathy with which the audience could feel any sort of empathy. 3 out of 10.

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