Cape No. 7: A Highly Enjoyable Film

Cape No. 7 is a Taiwanese homegrown film which is produced with a limited budget. Despite the budget constrain, it proved to be a surprise when it received warm responses from the public as well as good review from the critics.

Plot

Cape No 7 sets in a small village in Taiwan. The male lead, Aga, is an aloof person who spends his life lazing around. He got a job as a postman after the village postman injured himself, but he didn't take his job seriously and he just dump all the letter which he was supposed to deliver for the day into a huge cupboard box in his house. On the first day of his job, there was a parcel amongst all the letters he was supposed to deliver and being curious, he opened the parcel to find it filled with love letters from the past.

The story written in the love letter contributes to the 2^nd ongoing plot in the movie. I would say that there are 2 ongoing stories, 1 about the band and the other about the love story in the letter. The letters were written 60years ago by a Japanese man and it showed the man's love for a woman (in which the letter was addressed to). Those letters were never delivered until the death of the Japanese man lead to the discovery of those letters by his daughter.

The main plot of the movie centered around Aga and the band formed by the villagers, as well a bit about Aga and Tomoko's relationship.

Thoughts

I think that the narration by the Japanese about the story that happened in the past is actually a good idea. It juxtapose with the present love story between Aga and Tomoko. However when I watched the movie, I didn't actually pay attention to the narration by the Japanese, therefore I didn't really follow the storyline and catch the whole story.

The movie uses Taiwanese (Hokkien), Japanese and Mandarin. Since I don't understand Taiwanese, it's quite difficult for me to catch some of the jokes. Sometimes people around me seem to be laughing but I didn't catch the funny parts. After some time, I realized that the English subtitles are not that good in the way that it doesn't express the humor in the dialogues. The Chinese subtitles are more accurate in expressing the meaning and humor, but it takes me some time to read the subtitles in Chinese and I'll miss the funny parts sometimes as I don't read fast enough (I think the Chinese subtitles are in Traditional Chinese).

The cast suits the characters in the movie. I feel hat Van Fan's present image as a rocker now is much better than his image as the "Prince Charming" when he debuted. The other characters are just so lovable that you just can't resist liking them. The talented little girl is cool but cute (I really like her!), the Drummer is funny, and the old man who played the bell is hilarious. All the characters in the movie are unique and special in their own ways and the strong personalities of the characters in the movie contributes to the success of the movie.

The setting of the movie and the way the director filmed and chooses the scenes enhances the beauty of the set. He managed to bring out the beauty of sea and beach of the place and it really made me feel like visiting the place in Taiwan.

The songs used in the movie are catchy and nice to listen to. Besides that, the final performance of the band is filled with surprises and humor and I can't help but fall in love with the music and songs.

In all, this movie is worth the money and you won't regret spending some bucks to watch this light-hearted and humorous movie. The jokes are funny, the casts are likeable and the movie is very enjoyable. I entered the cinema with a high expectation of the movie (because of all the hype about the movie) and sure enough, the movie didn't disappoint me at all and I highly recommend this movie for all.