I had pre-conceived ideas of what to expect from the film, and from reading the synopsis, I figured I’d be bored stiff. But I was VERY surprised by how much I actually enjoyed the film!
Even though the dialogue was in Chinese, there were English sub-titles, but it soon became hard to watch the film AND read the sub-titles. But the film was nothing like I expected. There were many times throughout the film where I, and the majority of the room, laughed out loud.
Zhang Ziyi is well known in western cinema due to her starring roles in martial arts films such as ‘Hero’, so it was good to see another side to her acting skills apart from the ones we’re so used to where it usually involves her using some cool kung fu moves on a bunch of hapless men. She played the role of the neurotic Sophie fantastically. One minute she was ‘Sane Sophie’, and then the next minute she was ‘Psycho Sophie’, but both roles were played well.
Even though I praise the majority of the film, it was predictable. Once the film got going, you could see common conventions of western ‘rom-coms’ forming. You knew that Sophie would try to exact revenge on the boyfriend she was dumped by, and then the guy who was helping her would fall in love with her and Sophie would secretly fall for him, and then you knew her ex boyfriend would realise he wanted Sophie back, but by that point it would be too late as Sophie had moved on to her happy ever after. Predictable as it was, it still made for easy and enjoyable viewing.
Personally, I thought the only films to come out of East Asia were martial arts films and horror films, with the horror movies being remade for western audiences before the original is shown. However, this film proved to me just how uncultured I am. ‘Sophie’s Revenge’ was as good as any romantic comedy film to come out of Hollywood. It had all the conventions for a classic film and we take for granted what talented directors East Asia has making films. However, this film is good when marketed to the right people. If this film was put out to a mass audience, there’s no way it would have a good turnover due to people’s uncultured views, just like the views I had before watching the film.
