Movies Round Up Ep. 004 (Call Me By Your Name, Elisa & Marcela, Meet Me In St. Gallen) Bonus Web Series C-Drama: Go Princess Go

I've been hearing great things about Call Me By Your Name since it came out, but my feelings are mixed. Don't get me wrong. The movie is visually beautiful (it's set in Northern Italy, duh) and both Elio (Timothée Chalamet) and Oliver (Armie Hammer) are wonderful but a lot of feelings in me are stirred. And I'm not just talking about to urge to pick up a pack of cigarettes despite not having any for more than 4 years with all the smoking going on in the film 

Oliver is a phD student and we even learn at the end of the film that he got engaged to his on / off girlfriend. Yes, Elio was the aggressor and yes, he's very mature for his age and yes, he's technically of "legal age" in this setting but it's hard to ignore Oliver's current position and mindset in life is very grown up compared to Elio. But I'm not really here to justify what's right or what's wrong, this is just reality especially for a lot of lgbt+ folks. It isn't that unusual to encounter someone older who initiates you into these things, especially for people who are closeted or had slim pickings growing up. 

Although I have to admit, even if Oliver is senior in almost everything else, this felt like a coming of age film for the both of them. I'm sure it wasn't Oliver's first sexual encounter with a guy but I doubt if he was ever that vulnerable with someone.

I loved the movie and thought it was beautifully shot however I feel that it would be better if they made it into a tv/web series to really flesh out the story and characters. It felt like they just spent all their time together in the beginning flirting, then somehow are already deeply in love after being apart for like two minutes (3 years, but they didn't do a good job with portraying the passage of time, I think). The love scene when they first saw each other again was great but after that.. I just want to know what's with the octopus/squid, seaweed and milk? Like why. I genuinely want to know why we wasting food in this house.

Elisa in the real world went to lengths to fabricate his past (even working in a teaching job as a man). After reading that, the film version where Elisa (Natalia de Molina)  disappears for a few days then comes back as a dude to fool the old priest and after Marcela (Greta Fernández) slept with Andrés (Tamar Novas) so people would believe that Elisa/Mario got her pregnant presumably so they could stay in town while they save up before relocating just feels silly.

I've seen some people saying that the acting was bland, but I didn't think it was. In the beginning, Elisa and Marcela exuded top and bottom energy, respectively (lol, I don't know how to phrase it in another way) but overtime Elisa/Mario seemed to become timid and Marcela more mature and somewhat cold. Extremely subtle but it works for me.

I love the soundtrack but I didn't really liked the movie. After watching it, I read a couple of reviews  and I'm seriously confused as to why a lot of people love it so much. Celeste (Bela Padilla) seems like a strong character at first, but she's kinda pretentious for romanticizing Jesse too much. Meanwhile, Jesse (Carlo Aquino) is just weird. I don't care how good looking you are, following someone is just plain creepy.

I could somewhat understand why they didn't contact each other after their first meeting and it's not just because they don't want to "spoil the memory". It is kind of embarrassing to be still hung up about someone you barely knew. But there's just no excuse for what they did next.

Yes, Jesse had a fiance and all but really, it took him 2 years to break off his engagement and pluck up the courage to look for Celeste?  It's a good thing that Celeste has found love - if she was single, best believe she would have made more "perfect" memories with Jesse before wimping out. Again.

Zhang Peng (played by Zhang Zhiyuan) was going to save a girl who fell into a pool but the girl accidentally kicked his head with her heels and he lost consciousness. When he finally wakes up, he's in the past and trapped inside the body of crown princess, Zhang Pengpeng (Zhang Tianai). Without any way to return to his old body, he resigned to just live a peaceful life as the crown princess. However, her husband the crown prince Qi Sheng (Sheng Yilun) isn't very fond of her and is blatantly having an affair with his brother's (Prince Zhao / Jiang Qilin) wife, Jiang Yingyue (An Yongchang). When her life and position was threatened, she made a pact with the ninth prince, Qi Han (Yu Menglong) that they'll be free from the mercy of the crown prince / emperor Qi Sheng someday.

Despite the plot and the low production budget - Go Princess Go has won the hearts of many because it's funny (they didn't skimped on fart and poo jokes). There's still something that I'm confused about. I thought the "Northern Jiang" incident was Prince Zhao's idea? I was wondering why the ninth prince and Pengpeng are still so mad to Qi Sheng about it. I have no idea if I missed something. I also felt like this was all just a big misunderstanding, if the leads have been more direct and honest about their feelings they wouldn't have had to plot against each other continuously. 

The ending is also very unsatisfying. I've watched the two endings, both of them has Pengpeng woke up in a modern hospital where he returned to his old body as "Peng" and he frantically searches for Qi Sheng. In the first ending, he jumps into a pool and flashbacks of scenes with Qi Sheng / Pengpeng as well as Peng are shown (also, Qi Sheng and Pengpeng were stabbed to death in this version) and in the second one, he sees a doctor who looks like Qi Sheng.  I don't know how accurate this is because the source wasn't cited, but I've read someone saying that the director said everything was just a dream. I think there's a third ending as well where they were all just actors but I can't find it.

I think he committed suicide in the ending where he jumped into the pool so I liked the other ending better even though it was too open ended for my taste. 

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