Asian Film Review: 'Ex' (前度)

I had the chance to go watch the closing film of the HKIFF on Tuesday.  It was the world premiere of Heiward Mak's new film 'Ex',  produced by Chapman To and featuring Gillian Chung (the Twins girl) and William Chan.  It has supporting roles by Lawrence Chou and Derek Tsang.

The basic plot is that Gillian finds herself breaking up with her boyfriend at the airport before a globetrotting trip and is stuck staying a few days with her ex boyfriend and his new gf.  As she deals with her situation her interactions with her Ex inspire a series of flashbacks that tell the story of their relationship, their break-up and what happened between then and now.

Yes that is a lot to fit in a movie, especially via flashbacks!

First of all I'm 100% not the target audience of this film!!  This is almost definitely a movie and a story for women written and directed by women.   

Gillian is a very attractive girl, and gives a good performance,  but I have trouble having a positive impression of her character.  She's basically a serial dater who falls from relationship straight into another,  with plenty of seemingly meaningless fights thrown in between.

Actually the next day I had an epiphany about the film. I think Gillian's character and the girl who plays the ex's current gf  are actually very representative of HK girls... for all their good and bad (disfunctionalism!)  --  perhaps this is why I haven't ended up dating any girls from HK despite living here for 3.5 years!

I'm going to give this movie a 4/10 because I'm a guy.  I think young women who are unsure about their lives and hang on to men as their source of strength and validation... will like this movie much more! :-P

BTW -  The film shown at the closing screening was definitely not 100% done, there was still some color correction that needed to be done.  I'm not sure if this is the final cut....