''About Love'' () is a 2005 film. Three stories are told, respectively set in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

, and

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

. The first two stories are about a Japanese person and a Taiwanese person. The last one is set in Shanghai with a story about a Japanese man and a Chinese woman. Some of the characters can speak Japanese and some of them Mandarin. Each story encompasses an experience of a foreigner, either from Japan, Taiwan or China, with a native of a different country. The film was directed by Shimoyama Ten,

Yee Chin-yen Yee Chih-yen (; born 21 November 1959) is a Taiwanese film director. Biography Yee Chih-yen attended UCLA between 1983 and 1988.http://www.taiwancinema.com/ct.asp?xItem=12445&ctNode=39 Filmography * '' Lonely Hearts Club'' (1994) * ''Blue Gate ...

, and

Zhang Yibai Zhang Xiaoling, better known by his stage name Zhang Yibai () (born 14 April 1963, in Chongqing, China) is a Chinese film director, screenwriter and producer. Directorial career Zhang began his career in television and music videos before dir ...

. It was written by Haruko Nagatsu,

Shen Wei Shen Wei () is a Chinese-American choreographer, painter, and director who resides in New York City. Widely recognized for his defining vision of an intercultural and interdisciplinary mode of movement-based performance, Shen Wei creates origin ...

, and Yee Chin-yen.

Plot

In Tokyo, he is a Chinese computer graphic artist seeking to enrich his exposure while she is a Japanese painter struggling to recover from a broken relationship. This is the simplest and sweetest of the three stories, starting with hidden mutual attraction and ending in their first meeting. This is also the only one of the three stories with a "sub-plot" (a really glorified use of the term) of his friendship with two other art students, both girls, one Chinese and one Japanese. In Taipei, she is a local girl suffering from a broken heart and he is a Japanese visitor she asks in the middle of the night to help putting up a wall unit. This is the only story with a scene of brief libido drive which, however, quickly subsides. The rest of the story is on his helping her by asking her ex-boyfriend whether there is a chance of getting back together. Among the three, this is the story that plays most on the language barrier thing, with some absolutely hilarious scenes resulting. In Shanghai, he is a Japanese student renting a room from her mother. She probably has a crush on him at first sight but keeps it deeply hidden when she sees how devoted he is to his girlfriend. But when he gets a postcard from the girlfriend ending their relationship, her attraction to him intensifies, although she never reveals it. This is the most poignant of the three stories. Romance aside, this story also takes a quick jab at the maddening scene of urban development of Shanghai.

Cast

;Tokyo *

Bolin Chen Chen Bolin (; born 27 August 1983), also known as Wilson Chen, is a Taiwanese actor. Early life and education Chen was born on 27 August 1983. While in high school, Chen participated in the Taiwanese variety show ' due to his similarity to Tak ...

Misaki Ito (born May 26, 1977) is a Japanese actress and model. Her maiden name is . Career In 1999, Ito became the Asahi Beer "image girl" and a model under an exclusive contract to ''CanCam'' magazine. She also appeared in commercials for Gateway comp ...

;Taipei *

Mavis Fan Mavis Fan (; born 27 February 1977) is a Taiwanese singer and actress. Life and career Fan began her singing career in the mid 90s as a pop idol, singing songs catered mostly towards children and young teenagers. Fan was raised only by her mot ...

Ryō Kase is a Japanese actor. Early life Kase was born in Yokohama, Kanagawa prefecture. He moved to Bellevue, Washington in the United States soon after his birth, due to his father's job being transferred. He's father Yutaka Kase was former chairman a ...

;Shanghai *

Li Xiaolu Li Xiaolu (, born 30 September 1982), also known as Jacqueline Li, is a Chinese actress and singer. She is best known for her role in Joan Chen's directing debut '' Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl'' (1998), idol drama ''All the Misfortunes Caused ...

Takashi Tsukamoto is a Japanese actor, singer, and model. He has released three single CDs: "Itsudemo Boku wa" (いつでも僕は, Anytime I am...), "Hitorigoto" (ヒ・ト・リ・ゴ・ト, Soliloquy), "New Morning". He also portrayed the character Shinji Mi ...

References

External links

* * * {{Zhang Yibai 2000s romance films 2005 films Chinese romance films 2000s Japanese-language films Japanese romance films 2000s Mandarin-language films Taiwanese romance films Japanese multilingual films Taiwanese multilingual films Chinese multilingual films 2005 multilingual films 2000s Japanese films