My Missing Valentine (2020)

Chen Yu-Hsun’s latest masterpiece celebrates the connections we make with people and the often-delayed realizations that those connections exist.

Yang Hsiao-Chi is a young woman who, for her entire life, has always moved one second faster than everyone else. While she has learned to cope with it, for the most part, she worries that being out of sync is the reason why she hasn’t found love yet. When an aerobics dance instructor pursues her after meeting in a park, she prepares for their Valentine’s Day date, only to find out after that the entire day disappeared.

I have long been a fan of Chen Yu-Hsun’s works, starting from Tropical Fish. He is alone among his New Taiwan Cinema contemporaries for his focus on comedy, but his films are no less insightful than the films of Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Edward Yang, or Tsai Ming-Liang.

What would a Chen Yu-Hsun film be without quirky, if not extremely eccentric, characters who are, mostly, accepted as normal by everyone else? The family of kidnappers in Tropical Fish who cheer when their crime hits the news, as it will bring them fame; the homeless chef in Zone Pro Site (played by screenwriter Wu Nien-Jen) who fashioned a feast out of the pages of a cookbook; the gang of bandits in The Village of No Return who announce their threatening behavior by aggressively scat singing in their victims’ faces, the list goes on… I am happy to report that My Missing Valentine is no different. To explain any further would spoil a major plot development.

Chen Yu-Hsun has a real knack for not just writing sympathetic characters, but for being sympathetic towards his characters. The humor throughout the film arises from the awkward situations they find themselves in and their banter between each other, but jokes are never made at the expense of characters themselves, including the supporting characters. I think that takes a significantly humanitarian approach to storytelling, especially in an age where some people complain that not being able to mock people for their immutable traits is restrictive for comedy.

The cinematography by Patrick Chou is incredibly varied. Long shots alternate with closeups, and tracking shots occur frequently. It’s fitting for this film, and thanks to an average shot length that is never frenetic, it’s not at all disorienting. Shot/reverse shot sequences dominate dialog scenes, but there is a clear understanding of space and timing and it seems to have been utilized mainly to spotlight the humorous reactions characters have to each other when one says something weird.

The score is your sort of average Taiwanese rom-com score; you might not find most of the music memorable, but it matches the mood and it’s also not blared into your ears. Most surprising to me was the use of English songs for key scenes instead of Taiwanese pop ballads. Because I associate the New Taiwan Cinema filmmakers with such a local emphasis, I was caught completely off-guard hearing it, but it works for the movie, I think. I mean, I wouldn’t complain even if I didn’t like the music, it’s a Chen Yu-Hsun film and we only get one of these every few years.

I’ve only revealed half of the plot in my synopsis, because the film is two acts and I would rather not ruin the surprise of the second act. I will say that the film champions the idea that sometimes, something or someone that might seem mismatched to you at first could very well be synchronized with you in a way you don’t expect. It’s a sweet, lovely idea that the film handles well, and thankfully doesn’t go too far off in a Hollywood direction by refusing to acknowledge questionable behavior. I can’t wait to watch it again.

5/5

My Missing Valentine
119 minutes
2.35:1 AR
In Taiwanese Mandarin with English subtitles
Written/ dir. by Chen Yu-Hsun
Cinematography by Patrick Chou
Released 18 September 2020
Taiwanese production
Blu-ray Disc from Deltamac Taiwan