cremea SPOILERS AHEAD!"Hear Me", or "Ting Shuo" (as it referred to in native language) is a semi-recent Taiwanese film that is part of the current wave of Taiwan cinema that's making a name for itself outside of the more traditional Asian movie making powerhouses…Welcome to the party Taiwan!…The more the better I says!Is this movie "gimmicky"?...YES!. In fact, it's totally dependent on its gimmick to make it all work. With regards to gimmicky movies, I often try to think about what it would be like if you removed the underlying gimmick from the equation in order to better judge it…i.e. would it still be a good movie if you did so?...You just can't do that here though, because there would be no movie without the gimmick.Story: This is a romantic drama that revolves around two deaf sisters who can only communicate through sign language (this is the gimmick). The two sisters do their best to make a living while realizing their goals in a world where the cards are heavily stacked against them. One of the sisters is an aspiring swimmer, and the younger sis tries to encourage and support her while trying to make ends meet for the both of them. Life is tough though, and they keep getting more crap piled on them no matter how hard they try to succeed.Enter our young hero…He works for his family's restaurant and delivers meals all over town. On his route is the athletic/swimming facility for the deaf, where he happens upon the younger of the two sisters. He's not deaf, but he does happen to know sign language, and he's instantly smitten with the young deaf sister upon meeting her. So, he pursues her, and there's your romantic angle of the storyline. The actress playing the young deaf sister is the tiniest and cutest thing ever, and the lead actor who portrays the guy interested in her is suitably "adorable" & likable. She's pretty cautious and somewhat standoffish, but he persists…and, perhaps love can one day bloom between the two if everything works out…they would make the cutest couple ever if so.The two actresses starring as the deaf sisters are really good in their roles…I (obviously) don't know the Taiwanese version of sign language, but, it sure does look like the 2 actresses do…as a result, there's a number of thoughtful and touching/emotional signed scenes between the two of them throughout the film that are very nicely done. The main male lead gets the job done quite well. Aside from them, the only other meaningful characters in this movie are the mother & father of the male lead, and, they are just flat out awesome in their respective roles.This movie also had a very well done end game goal/result that caught me off guard a bit…It's really, really, really, rare that a movie or TV show will make me say; "Hmmm…I wasn't expecting that to happen!"There's a lot to like with this movie…the story is pretty good and well thought out, all the characters are likable, and it's well shot/filmed throughout. Perhaps the most impressive aspect about this film is its musical scoring & sound effects…the "soundtrack" hits all the proper notes when & where needed throughout, and the subtle use of background "noise" when the deaf are communicating is nothing short of outstanding. Bottom Line: This Movie is pretty good… It's an uber cute dramatic love story (with a gimmick) that makes for a great "date night" watch. What's wrong/lacking?...not much, other than its too freakin' long…apparently, Taiwanese cinema also suffers from the same Asian cinematic flu epidemic that frequently strikes other country's films in the region…as such, some "fat" trimming would have definitely benefited this film. Nevertheless, it is quite well done overall as is….And, I just absolutely loved it!So, 8 out of 10 stars for me!...Solidly recommended!

vince4953529 This is a light-hearted romantic teen movie from Taiwan. I felt just like many recent Taiwanese movies, the dialogs could be a little awkward at times, even though the majority of the film was communicated in sign- language. The diminutive yet terminally cute leading actress was good at her role, serving as a reserved character. The male lead character was more expressive in nature, although I felt at times came out a bit obnoxious. The language aspect reflects fairly accurately among the current Taiwanese society today, where the parents speak in Taiwanese while the children replied in Mandarin. In a way it is sad to see a native language is replaced by an invading tongue, and I hope there is a trend coming to slow up this trend. Overall this is a harmless romance Taiwanese movie.

Joanna Marie Tan A debut film for the first time director, Fen-fen Cheng, Hear Me (2009) is a story of a meal box delivery boy, Tian Kuo, who falls In love with hearing impaired girl named Yang Yang. Without difficulty, both of them could communicate well through the use of sign language. The story also revolves on Yang Yang's sister, Xiao Peng, who is deaf and hearing impaired as well. This film will surely make you laugh and cry even at the same time. Even Tian Kuo's parents role in the movie are additional spices and entertainments on the film. Love will be on the air as you watch this film. Even without directly spoken lines, and eyes are really needed, I was amazed on how the actors and actresses gave dazzling performances. Their scenes wherein some of it was just purely sign languages, their eyes, emotions and their actions were so powerful that I really felt their character. The connection between each and every one of them was fantastic. There were a lot of melancholic and hilarious scenes on the film but they blended very well. This movie is for all ages. It teaches us that we should not look down with people who has disabilities but rather accept them for who they are. Disabilities are not a hindrance for us to love a person. This movie tells us that we should appreciate the hard work that one is doing especially when they do it for others. Every single cent of your money is worth it if you watch this film! Unquestionably, you will hear the heartbeat of love.

DICK STEEL The gimmick in the film that allows it to transcend the usual teenybopper puppy love stories filled with an eye-candy cast, is undoubtedly the use of the non-verbal medium of sign language in a film. I don't recall watching any recent contemporary film where the lead characters engage in sign for the most parts of the story, leaving us the audience relying very much on the subtitles (both English and Mandarin with subtle differences) to tide us through. It's a novelty factor, though one that works, and hopefully can help to garner interest such that it shouldn't been seen as a "language" of exclusivity because of impairment, but one which is actually very beautiful with its fluid motion, and as the film suggests, with a certain degree of creative improvisation (hey, so long as you're understood, right?)For Eddie Pang's Tian Kuo the delivery boy for his parent's restaurant, going from place to place to bring their delicious rice sets to hungry masses is part of his daily routine, until a destination at a swimming pool would begin to set his heart fluttering when he falls for Yang Yang (Ivy Chen), the sister of his customer Xiao Peng (Michelle Chen) the paralympic swimmer. So begins the usual scenarios he puts himself into just to be able to reach out and befriend Yang Yang, with the usual dating pursuit complexities that plague any (if I may use the word) normal, budding relationships in the modern world, where telecommunication devices such as Messaging, Email and SMS prove to be essential when communicating non- verbally.The rest of the story is pretty straight-forward with toeing along a formula, though it's kept extremely engaging by the light hearted story and its extremely good looking casts who obviously had put in a lot of work to be natural, believable sign-linguists. Though some may cringe at the more melodramatic moments, the sentimental old me somehow saw it as being able to bring something extra to the table, with the relationship between two sisters so reliant on each other, that it makes you appreciate the nature of that innate love between siblings, and that between family with Tian-Kuo's parents playing key roles here that accentuates the sensitivity (and at times irritability) of how parents can sometimes fuss over their only child. Not to mention too that they almost always steal the show because of their quirkiness and comic timing each time they come on screen, in addition to some slapstick humour that director Cheng Fen-fen slips in from time to time.Running almost two hours long, the story may be a little bit stretched or at times required the suspension of disbelief, for instance that a missionary fa/ther could just bear to up and go preach in Africa leaving two lovely children to fend for themselves. The finale too seemed a little too long and suffered from the usual syndrome that it didn't know exactly when to end and stop at a nice crescendo, but chose to finish things off in predictable, expected fashion. For sharp eyed viewers you'll probably would have prepped yourself for that big surprise reveal even right from the start, but that will not alter the enjoyment of witnessing how things will develop, especially when their first real date really tanked with that unavoidable adversary, and with themes like how one should live our own lives instead of living out someone else's.I can't help but to raise another plus point in the film. There's a bit of the use of Hokkien and Cantonese in the film, and lo and behold they were left intact, though one can argue that the duration of use wasn't significant. To me it was, because it's that continued one small step forward before eventually making that giant leap. It's easy to have dubbed the languages over using Mandarin, but it wasn't, so I'll interpret this positively. And since we're on the topic of languages, I've already mentioned that sign language is beautiful, and after watching this film you're likely more inclined to be a bit more aware of how emotions can be expressed exactly through delicate or more hard-pounding motions.Hear Me reminds us no matter what medium is used to express love, so long as it comes straight from the heart honestly and sincerely, that emotion will be heard loud and clear. Highly recommended, and works perfectly as a date movie.