Cape No. 7

Following the promotion announcement, May invited me to the cinema. Cape No. 7, having premiered at the opening night of the Taipei Film Festival on 20^th June, is now showing in cinemas.

Although perhaps it is a saccharine melodrama featuring some stereotypical characters from a rural town, interspersed with voice-over scenes delivering another parallel but loose-fitting romance, I'm touched. At several points, I was on the verge of tears. But I was reluctant to show my feelings and thus tears were sucked back.

Cape No. 7 is a domestic feature film I highly recommend.

(Spoiler! Avoid reading the part below if you are concerned that the early revelation of the plot would spoil the enjoyment of the dramatic tension or suspense or whatever elements which undergird the whole film. Sorry, I don't know the HTML to hide them.)

A pickup band is formed under the willpower of the town council chair, who insists that permission would not be granted to hold a Japanese superstar's beach concert unless a local group is cast as the opening act. Assigned as the coordinator of the concert, a Japanese model watches closely to make sure the faltering band will be working.

On his repatriation voyage back to Japan after the war, a Japanese secondary school teacher wrote seven letters to the girl student whom he promised to take to Japan but abandoned. These letters were not sent until he died.

What connects this two stories is the lead singer of the band, who works as a temporary postman in the town. As the Japanese teacher's daughter sends these letters to an old address, Cape No. 7, which is no longer in use, they can be delivered nowhere and are thus meant to be returned.

However, this angst, rage-ridden lead singer actually piles up all the post he should have delivered at his attic. Reading and realising the significance of these letter (after a one-night-stand with the lead singer, as it were), the Japanese model urges him to deliver them at any rate.

Of course, the film finishes with a happy ending: the opening performance by the local band is a big success and the letters are finally delivered to the now-grannie girl.