‘Dear Ex’ was a dark horse in the Chinese movie scene last year. It won accolades from critics and nominations at the various film festivals. The film picked up 8 nominations in the 55th Golden Horse Awards and won the Best Actress, Best Original Film Song as well as the Best Film Editing.
‘Dear Ex’ was the opening film for the 30th Singapore Film Festival 2018. Unfortunately I missed it as I was away. So imagine my happiness when Netflix announced it will be available worldwide on 1st February 2019.
Gist
When San-lian (Hsieh Ying-xuan)’s husband passed away from cancer, she was infuriated that their son, Song Cheng-xi (Joseph Huang) had been cut out from the insurance payout. The sole beneficiary, Jay (Roy Chiu) is her husband’s lover and she is convinced that he had used underhand methods to first steal her husband, and then the money. Determined to take back what she believes is rightfully theirs, she declared ‘war’ on him
A fight ensues and Cheng-xi is caught in the middle. In a bid to escape from his over bearing protective mother and to find out for himself how bad Jay is, he ended up staying with Jay.
The three of them embark on a journey of grieving, healing and forgiving and acceptance.
Overview
It is not easy to undertake a movie with LGBT theme and not come across as preachy. To be able to infuse black humour into the movie is a big bonus.
I love how the show slowly pans out and the audience discovers the different layers to the characters and not everything is what it seems to be.
Adultery breaks up family, it erodes self confidence of the victim. As a woman, you question yourself if you are good enough. But when that third party is another man, your self doubt takes a double hit and you are even more confused. Her protectiveness of Chen-xi is not only because of the fact he is all she has, but he is also a symbol of the love that she once shared with her husband and the love she thought she had from him.
Jay is loud and uncaring. He sole aim is to stage this popular play some years ago and is broke trying to do so. But as the story unfolds, you discovered he is a broken man, clinging on desperately to the memories of the man he loves. I fell in love with Roy Chiu many years ago in his TV drama, ‘Starry, Starry Night (雪地裡的星星)’ , which was a rather forgettable tragic romance drama, but he was not. He is still an actor that is a delight to wtach.
The translation of the Chinese title is ‘Who loved him first’. That I think is a more apt title and provides an idea to the twist in the story.
‘Dear Ex’ is now available on Netflix.
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