The
film’s protagonist is Ke Jingteng, a young high school student who doesn’t do
well in school and lacks motivation for succeeding in his studies. One day, he
is caught masturbating in class and is forced to change seats by sitting in
front of an honour student: Shen Jiayi. Not long after, Shen Jiayi forgot to
bring her English textbook to class and Ke Jingteng gave her his book to save
her from the embarrassment and punishment she would receive for not having it.
After this, Shen Jiayi learns that Ke Jingteng is not that bad of a person.
Shen Jiayi happens to be the most prized flower in the entire high school and
soon Ke Jingteng also falls in love with her. As high school ends and they part
ways Ke Jingteng professes his love. After a misunderstanding while in
University, Shen Jiayi and Ke Jingteng end their long distance relationship and
Ke Jingteng finds himself years later attending Shen Jiayi’s wedding, leaving
this romance bittersweet.
The theme
of this story carries a strong essence of Taiwan’s culture and norms in it. To
begin Taiwan is a country that values education greatly and this film embodies
that value by centralizing a good part of its story on the bonding of the two
characters through education. It is later seen that education is greatly valued
when Ke Jingteng started to work harder in his studies and his parent’s
attitude towards him changes drastically as opposed to in the earlier scenes at
the dinner table. Furthermore, the character of Ke Jingteng is autobiographical
to the writer/director of the film Giddens. The protagonist is a perfectly
average citizen of Taiwan and he stereotypically falls perfectly into his roles
in all three stages of his life that is portrayed in the film. When he is in
high school he is an unmotivated teenager, riding his bike to school and
hanging out with his friends. His relationship with his family embodies
Taiwanese culture as his father seems to be the head of the household and
rough/distant with his son. Later in the scene where the 921 earthquake occurred
it help this film connect and bond with the Taiwanese audience.When he is in
university he lined up like his fellow classmates to use the telephones to call
their girlfriends since the school system would result in a lot of high school
relationships turning into long distance ones. All of this shows a level and
degree of realism to the film which we know that Taiwan cinema as adopted from
its European influences.
You Are
the Apple of My Eye is also widely praised for its cinematographic style. The
film is primarily shot in a very documentary style point of view. It starts off
with fairly neutral colours likely to symbolize the simplicity of developing
young love and the innocence of coming-of-age. Many of the scenes were shot
with a very warm tone to it to create the feeling of nostalgia like this one.
The film
also employs various cinematographic tools such as the constant use of shallow
focus and close ups which gives the film a more attention grabbing look as it
highlights the person or object that the audience should be focusing on. For
example in this scene only Ke Jingteng and his mother are in focus and all of
the clutter in their typical household is out of focus.
Gidden
also used a variety of diverse techniques to keep the audience engaged while
telling his romance. There were a few times where the filmed in slow motion,
momentarily freezes as well as uses dream sequence to help move the pace of the
film and change up the tempo. This is seen when Ke Jingteng fights to impress
Shen Jiayi and he is down for the count.
This film
finishes off with a beautiful montage of all the previous scenes the couple has
gone through to leave the audience feeling like they have been taken on a
journey that was truly worth watching.
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