Another treat from the Chinese golden year 2008 that brought us quite a couple of yuri movies. This movie was so sweet, fun and frustrating at the same time, but mostly sweet. I guess its realness was what frustrated me more because I can totally understand Miao Miao’s actions as they mostly reflect on most real world people and situations. Xiao Ai on the other hand made me wish I had a best friend, or better yet a girlfriend like her. She was just that awesome, that Xiao Ai. Even as she knew her own feelings for Miao Miao she still tried to be there for her as a friend. This movie was just so cute and feeling inducing.

 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

The movie felt too short but it was that perfect kind of short because it makes you want to re-watch it every time. And believe me, every time you do, you are forced to watch every second of it. It’s that good. But best of all is that Miao Miao is the perfect blend of yuri that I love. Very light yet the small actions in it are so strong they make me go gooey inside.

Ai was fascinated with the transfer student from the moment she laid her eyes upon her. I also love how the wind blew at that first moment Ai looked at Miao-Miao. If I wanted to be extreme, I would think it was love at first sight. I mean Ai really was taken with Miao Miao. Spying on her in her mirror while in class then stalking her on her way home on the very first day!

She had it bad.

It’s probably no secret but I really love it when girls hold hands. Yes, I know all girls out there, hand holding is as natural as anything but there is something about hand holding that moves me in strange ways, which is why I am not one for hand holding personally because I get really tense and my blood begins boiling to the point that I can’t pay attention to anything. No exception, I can’t hold anyone’s hand.

And Miao-Miao and Ai were like the gods of hand holding. Ai was so in love with Miao-Miao’s hands and she spent every opportunity trying to hold them and complimenting them. And Miao-Miao too wasn’t making things any easier the way she brought out the Japanese girl in her and strengthened the intimate game. I don’t really see how Ai would have resisted her charms. Actually now that I think about it, we can see that Miao-Miao is not an air-head despite how quiet she is so seeing her let Ai be that close with her I find it telling now. She also knows by the end that Ai was in love with her even though it was too late for Ai to confess her feelings.

Those cooking lesson

Miao-Miao massaging Ai’s shoulders while riding a bike (who does that?!)

 

Using Miao-Miao’s Sunshine hands to heal a stomach-ache caused by menstruation

Miao-Miao leaving her Sunshine hands as cake decoration for Ai

They were so lovely these two. It was interesting to know that Miao-Miao might have been Ai’s first love seeing as how she even got sick from Miao-Miao deficiency whenever Miao-Miao would ditch for the CD shop. Ai changed the term that she got to know Miao-Miao and it was clear that she wasn’t the same by the end of the movie. She was changed by the love she felt for Miao-Miao and she grew up a bit more from the care-free girl she had been in the start. Miao-Miao on the other hand was like a Hurricane. She came, she wreaked havoc then she left. But just like a hurricane leaves with more substance (buildings, cars, trees, land and anything else it creamed up), Miao-Miao went home with…something. I am not sure what but she must have, probably more confidence or, I don’t know.

 

 
 
 

But it wasn’t all roses in the movie. As I mentioned before, Miao-Miao fell for the CD Shop guy and she really went out of her way to get his attention. In fact I was awed by that CD-game shuffling she did. If it were any other guy, they would have fallen for her just from that effort but this one was just not meant to be as the guy was gay, had lost her boyfriend in an accident too which really doesn’t board well in the get back into romance department.

But while Miao-Miao suffered, she didn’t as much as Ai did. Why? Because Miao-Miao asked Ai to help her get a date with the guy. The moment Miao-Miao asked this I guess Ai had already fallen even though she hadn’t know it herself yet because I swear I could see the emotions pass across her face. If this were an anime, this is where we would have had Takanashi Yomi’s emoticons from episode 4 because Ai seemed to have lost it a little as she starting barraging questions on Miao-Miao like what she would want to ask the guy out, who, and when Miao-Miao said she had two tickets to the concert, Ai asked then why only two! Oh Lord! From then on you could clearly see Ai’s smile disappearing. It was depressing to see, alright!

But being the girl she is that helps other people out with their problems (what about yours), she went ahead and talked to the guy for Miao-Miao. The Dude turns them down and now it’s Miao-Miao’s turn to be down. Ai’s chance of happiness because she thought that now they could go together to the concert were short lived because Miao-Miao went all emo and even turned down some intimacy from Ai while they drank their problems away.

Whoa, hold your horses!

Ai goes deeper in depress land as she begins to realise just how much she must like Miao-Miao to the point of missing school. Miao-Miao visits her and the cry for seemingly different reasons but they are actually the same. Miao-Miao cries because Moody Headphones (as Ai calls the CD shop guy) is closed up shop and is leaving and thus breaking her heart. What she doesn’t know is that Ai is also crying for the exact same reason only Miao-Miao isn’t leaving yet but we can guess she’s already broken Ai’s heart. Not stand for her love’s tears, Ai goes to meet Moody Headphones before he leaves and they have a chat that reveals Moody Headphone’s real reasons for turning down Miao-Miao. Ai visits Miao-Miao after she too misses school because of the heart-break and she uses the chicken leg trick to ‘cure’ Miao-Miao of her pain.

 
 

But of course then came time to leave and I dare say I scream every time I see that Airport scene for them two to either kiss or for Ai to confess! I mean Miao-Miao was leaving so Ai could get away with absolutely anything she did. And it really looked like Miao-Miao was waiting for either one of the two to happen with the way she stalled and caressed Ai.

Why U not take the bait Ai, why?!!!!

On the bus back, Ai opens the cake box Miao-Miao had left with her to find the warm hands which finally breaks the walls that caged Ai’s heart. But it’s already too late even as she chases the plane screaming her love out to Miao-Miao.

 

Too late but her feelings weren’t wasted. Miao-Miao knew.

Yep, She knew

I really love this movie. It is simply one of my favourites. Even though the ending was not a happy one, I was satisfied with it. Miao Miao did know how much Xiao Ai loved her. We learn this in her dialogue when she says that for the first time she fell in love and also she was loved by someone, meaning she loved the CD shop guy and was also loved my Xiao Ai. So really, Ai-chan didn’t have anything to worry about it seemed since her feelings were already known. And really, it was already inevitable that Miao Miao would be returning to Japan after the term/semester. Though I guess the writers could have ended the movie less than a year so we had some time for Ai and Miao Miao to play the romance game.

Though I shouldn’t have, I was so stupidly happy when the guy Miao Miao was falling for turned out to be gay. I am a very bad person for being rude to Miao Miao but that truth was very satisfying. Even more was the fact that it was Ai-chan who learned of the truth from the guy. I wonder how she felt at that moment. She probably pumped a mental fist in the air for victory first but then she got sombre when she realised what that meant for Miao Miao.

Miao Miao is somewhere up there win my Top 5 favourite movies so far! We need more movies like this Taiwan. Please make it happen this year as well.

And I sure hope some good soul out there writes a continuation fic about it. I am pretty sure there are Chinese fics already. Too bad English speakers are too lazy!

Sigh

~

Some Pics

And Finally, teh movie….

—————

BT HD Full | HD | SD

DDL SD A | B | C