A Critique Essay on the Film Work Significant others

Advisor: Wang Toon

Student: han-hsien,Tseng

ABSTRACT

Everyone’s first love seems to dwell in one’s heart forever as the first romance is always something worth reminiscing over and over again.

Divided into two parts, Significant others is a film about growing up. The first part focuses on a girl reaching adulthood; upon leaving an innocent campus romance, she enters a complicated and calculating game between men and women. Human beings are self-contradictory by nature. Those who are socially inexperienced long to become streetwise, but once they have become streetwise, they desire to regain their innocence. People tend to get bored of their quiet lives, longing for something more sophisticated, but once their lives have become too complicated to handle, they miss the simple old days. The second part of the film is about a private detective agency. Desperate times call for desperate measures. It is the last resort for people who ask for help and seek attention. Pei-Hsun, the heroine, is a naive girl who just graduated from university. Enticed by the easy money she is offered, she works for the detective agency to seduce Li Yao, a plan to make him leave his mistress (Yu Chian) and eventually go back to his wife. Pei-Hsun has to shed her innocence to play in a game of love and desire. Gradually, the boundary between truth and lies is getting more and more blurred. Moreover, love always grows at the most unexpected times. Pei-Hsun tells herself that the intimacy is no more than a lie, and the truth is no more than a game; more importantly, it is only money that she is after. But gradually she loses control of her feelings and becomes unable to tell truth from lies.

Everyone must have more or less experienced what is described above in one’s love life. The first stage of growing up is disillusionment. What differs Significant others from the conventional film productions is that the film is destined to have a sad ending. Through the narrative, it leads the audiences to experience what they cannot have but desire in their real lives. Moreover, Significant others raises the issue of women’s self-awareness. Dressed as a coming-of-age movie, it has found a new interpretation of how love is perceived in the eyes of modern women. Moreover, it resonates with its viewers.

Facing the market, it is developed as a genre movie, based on the studies of marketing strategies adopted in Taiwan and abroad. In addition to the market analysis, scrip development, production, marketing and promotion, this dissertation examines the film style, genre and the market influence. Built upon the research into genres including youth, thriller and romance, it analyzes the marketing strategies of a cross-genre film. It is hoped that it will provide advice on how to strike a balance between commercial and artistic merits in film production.

Key words: drama, thriller, romance, chick flick, private detective, infidelity, women’s self-awareness, growing-up