《向日葵的约定》(2009)

The Promise

Caught this show sometime ago... shown on channel U. Its one of the rare times I actually bothered to catch a local movie (telemovie no less) on local tv with relatively unknowns somemore. The trailer caught my eye and has piped my curiosity enough to actually watch it.

Storywise, its about a teenage girl ShanShan(Played by Julie Tan) around 18 years of age, hampered by MID(Mild Intellectual Disability) who meets a school dropout WenYuan(played by Lawrence Wong) while working in a bakery shop. Shanshan's MID causes her intellectual development to lag behind by years, with her mother(played by Lin Meijiao) saying that she thinks like a naive 10 year old when she's supposed to be "grown up" at 18. She meets Wenyuan one day when she tries to buy a sunflower from him, but in his haste to get on the bus, he doesnt charge her anything. A few days later when she subsequently gets herself lost in unfamiliar area, she saw him and follows him around when she cant find anyone familiar. Initially turned off by her persistent and simple thinking, she slowly grows on him as they worked together in his uncle's bakery. Later in her private little garden where she grows some sunflowers, she confided in him her dreams of going to a field of sunflowers, but in return, he says he has no hopes and no dreams and thinks that she is a little too childish. Despite that, he is touched by her persistence and determination and later he tries to find himself amidst his messy life.

The story progresses slowly but meaningfully as Wenyuan finds her simple thoughts and innocence a rarity in this complicated adult world, and they encounter resistance in both his control freak parents as well as Shan's protective mother, who sworn that she will not let shan get mistreated.

The end of the journey

Its particularly heart wrenching when, as a last ditch effort to bring a closure to her dream, he "elopes" with her to thailand. In the midst of traveling, he finally understand what it takes to take care of her and why her mother had to do what she had done.

As a local telemovie, its unsure if its going to be shown again on TV or even available as a purchase, but its by far one of the best local production i have seen in 2009. It puts lots of high budget movies and dramas to shame. Its seemingly simple and straight forward script is filled with little twists here and there, its dialogue is written well enough that it doesnt feel forced or scripted, and the low profile leads with veterans supporting actors is natural and convincing. Overall, it stirs up lots of thoughts and teary emotions that I never thought I would see in such a production, and it would be a waste if it is not shown to a wider audience. And it is a rarity indeed, that i would lavish such praise on a local telemovie but it is definitely deserving 2 thumbs up.



Enjoy the music~