Director: Du Guo Wei
Cast: Slyvia Chang, Josie Ho
A heartwarming story of how a mother faces life and death together with her HIV infected son. It may seem to be like just another story of a HIV carrier, a weepy tragedy with all characters cryiiing aka 'Qiong Yao' style but "Forever & Ever" surprisingly holds a balance of trivial laughter among the sad mainstream storyline.
Directed by first-timer Du Guo Wei who wrote marvellous scripts for Cliffon Ko like "I Have A Date With Spring". There is nothing to rave about in terms of cinematography and the style of editing is rather bizzare at times. The story is however well told through the script and the actors, most of them crossing from the stage play to the bign screen.
The story flow reminds me of "Tempted Hearts", where the past intertwined with the present in the movie, transporting viewers back and forth, constantly comparing the parallels.
A scene that deeply moved me was the part where the dying son was supposed to meet his mother for lunch but never turned up. In the end he came two hours later because he had forgotten where he was supposed to mmet his mother. His mother then realised that he had forgotten a lot of things like her mobile phone number and even their house number. As he ate lunch with her, he gave her a carnation flower in a plastic box wishing her a Happy Mother's Day. Mother said that Mother's Day was still far from today but son told her that he was afraid that he could not wait till then.
That scene was very calm and normal, and they had, in previous scenes talked about his illness and the possibility of death like a normal topic but the more calm and normal it was, the more painful it became for the audience(or maybe me only).
Great performance by Slyvia Chang who once again flaunted her natural acting skills and credit should be given to stage actor too who acted as her dying son.
(rating: 3/5)
-planteater
gaozai's short comment:
I am shocked and sad in the scene when the son pulled down his pants to show his bruises to his classmate and named himself "blue blood man".
Josie and Du Wen Zhe's performance in the film are very good.
Sexy Jiao Yuan looks super sweet and innocent with glasses and pig tails.