Embrace Your Shadow

Embrace Your Shadow (摯愛/Zi Oi), or here, is a 2005 Hong Kong movie of the romance/action genre. It stars Dylan Kwok (aka Dylan Kuo) and Fiona Sit. The summary, taken from here, is as follows:

Strong and optimistic teenager Yong Ran (Fiona Sit) had to shoulder the full burden of taking care of the family after his brother died from an illness. Rebellious stubborn Taiwan teenager Zhuo Qin (Dylan Kuo) had been abandoned by his parents since young and thus led a life without family love. To maintain his own life, he had to steal from others. An coincidental meeting caused Zhuo Qin to become attracted to Yong Ran's kindness and determined personality. He found warmth from her family's life wher they relied and helped each other. He decided to help protect this broken family but luck wasn't on his side. Zhuo Qin was chased after by gangsters and Yong Ran was declared to have inherited a terminal illness......

I honestly decided to watch it because (1) it sounded sad [and I have a thing for sad movies] (2) Dylan's in it and he's pretty easy on the eyes (3) I wanted to see how his Cantonese was and (4) I wanted some action. It seemed a good way to end the semester. :) Anyway, it's the "usual" plot about two teens who have to handle responsibilities far before their time with certain tragic twists as well as those mandatory "sweet moments" that appear in pretty much every Asian romance film. Even so, it's a pretty bleak movie - the subject matter, I mean, and the plot - and if you're in the mood for a light-hearted movie, you might want to stay away for a little while.

The movie isn't the most action-packed, but there is a number of fighting scenes, a death scene and a half, some blood, and some love - there's also the involvement of a Chinese gang, the underground - what have you. In the end, it's not a bad movie. There's not much comedy at all, a good number of sad scenes with a dash of angst, and violence. It's good for those days where you just need that mental punch - for this movie gives you one to remind you that your life is not the worst out there. :)

The movie's done in Cantonese and, unfortunately, I couldn't find a streaming video online with English subs, but I did find a copy at Tudou with (Mandarin) Chinese subs. Good thing my Cantonese isn't half bad... as long as I don't have to have a nice, long conversation with someone, haha. :)