Badminton & Adoration

David strummed & sang backup for Bao Chunlai in Hunan last mth. Bao Chunlai is a highly ranked international badminton player in China, but not as highly ranked or as famous as his compatriot Lin Dan. Why do male sports star in China like to sing? Anyway clip of him singing DT's Ordinary Friend while DT played his guitar. He seemed vry nervous at the start but did quite well. A little late but my review of DT's short music movie 暗恋 (Adoration). If you haven't seen it, watch here first if you don't want any spoilers. Mostly I like it & I think it did showcased a little DT's potential as a director. Also I'm glad he got this story which could be considered semi-autobiographical out of his system before his first movie. I think the love story in the hair salon could be his idea for the musical. If it was, I sincerely hope he had discarded it as it was very cliqued & not vry good material for a movie. I mean come on, boy wannabe rock singer romanced cute girl in salon, gave her ticket to his first successful live performance in club. How clique could you get for a musical?
The story behind Adoration was much better & flowed really well with various flashbacks. The story is very simple & followed various brief meetings between David and Cheryl Yang played by Cheryl Yang herself over a long period of time. Fairly obvious from the beginning that David adored Cheryl but was rejected in a vague sort of way by her when she stopped short of giving him the last 3 digits of her phone no. Both of them went on to have successful careers which were revealed when they next met in a store. David was browsing car magazines but secretly picked up a magazine with Cheryl on the cover. Before that Cheryl heard DT's latest album on the radio in a cab. While they were talking, a pretty young female approached David and it was obviously his girlfriend although he tried to deny by saying they were 'just friends'. It was vry telling here that although David claimed to 'adore' Cheryl secretly but he didn't try to pursue her again nor hesitate to have relationships with other women. There's a scene which I really like when Cheryl who was having drinks with her friends looked across the glass window and was stunned to see DT riding a motorbike to a shoestore opposite. He was there to meet up with his girlfriend who was buying shoes. The forlorn expression on Cheryl's face seemed to say it all. Why is this man who claimed to 'adore' me & even wrote a song for me, doing with another woman? Then DT also noticed Cheryl & he stood still for a minute looking at her. It seemed fated that they chose to remain in their own separate worlds. Earlier DT was seen to call someone on his mobile after daydreaming of Cheryl and Cheryl answered but of cos, he was not calling her but his girlfriend cos remembered he didn't have her phone number. In between there was some interviews, behind the scenes and filming of 2 mvs - Summer Love Triange & RE DT. Then DT was seen filming Marry Me Today mv and Cheryl came to check up the church for a wedding presumedly hers.
Finally DT was woken up by his father so he showered *__* & dressed up smartly in a black suit. It was assumed that he was attending Cheryl's wedding. This part is quite jarring to me cos his house was shown to be full of Cheryl's images from photo displayed to pixs he cut out from magazines on his mirror. It seemed vry obsessive & quite contrary to DT's cautious behavior. But I supposed he wanted to drive home his secret 'adoration" for Cheryl. It was a funeral that DT was attending & Cheryl was the matron of honor in the wedding opposite. Once again they met and Cheryl at last tried to reach out by taking David's hand to give him the final 3 digits of her phone no. However, DT was shaken by her action as it meant his beautiful 'adoration' of her would ceased and quickly took back his hand. We would probably never know who DT was secretly 'adoring' for so long but it didn't matter because it was fairly obvious he wasn't in love. He was only in love with the idea of a love that was so perfect and pure that it would last forever. It was pathetic and selfish I suppose but for David, love was this elusive thing that he didn't have the courage to capture. I like that the behind the scenes of the movie kinda carry on the adoration theme. There were suggestions that Cheryl maybe the one David was secretly adoring, not real of cos but it was a nice touch. At the end of RE DT mv, Cheryl on the stage said out loud that she had been waiting 40 yrs for David to call while David who was sitting below immediately took out his mobile to call her & ask her out for dinner. If only life & love was so easy. I think if the Adoration script had been revised & expanded, it would actually made quite a nice movie. Some of the scenes are really well done & beautifully shot. The chemisty between David and Cheryl is spot on and throughout the movie, you kinda hope they will get together even though you know they won't. So thumb up to DT on his first effort on film.