Book of Love (2016) Poster

(2016)

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A Fine Romance
JohnDeSando12 May 2016
If you take the next right turn, you'll avoid running into Nicholas Sparks, the schlockmeister of many teary romantic novels made into films. In the Chinese Finding Mr. Right 2, you are driving straight ahead into a fine non-Sparks romance that feels just about right even if you shed a few honest tears. Beginning with a shared novel, 84, Charing Cross Road, a relatively Chinese man and woman write to each other by sending to the Charing Cross address.

That novel, written in 1970 by Helene Hanff about her twenty-year correspondence with book buyer Frank Doel at Marks & Co., is enough of a prep for the long-distance of the two Chinese principals. A whole load of misfortune comes the way of the couple, sometimes depicted in almost magic realism but real nonetheless. The actors do a remarkable job endearing us to the characters but letting us see their flaws all the same.

Jiao (Wei Tang), a hostess in a Macau casino, and Daniel (Xiubo Wu), a Los Angeles real estate agent, strike up a correspondence, the former claiming to be from London's posh West End and the latter a west-coast professor. While this looks like we're driving straight into Sparksville, we actually are exploring the insides of these two emotionally-challenged heroes.

And that's what I like about this romance: It feels real because there are many emotional failures, she, for example, with an older wealthy man, and he, well, considers himself like a cactus, wounding those who get too close. Although they have never met, they express feelings in the letters that provide the groundwork for better relationships all around.

Although the main story looks like a promotion of long-distance relationships, it actually is well-constructed promotion of the need to go out to find love, and more importantly, self fulfillment through love's many forms, even if it can't be consummated or even experienced in a real way.

Gambling serves as a motif for her taking chances on finding true love and for him breaking away from easy client marks to return to home and the heart. While she has varying luck with actual gambling, he is less ready to gamble his comforts.

Although having them miss each other while they search is a cheap dramatic device, the story has been rooted in an address that eventually must be faced. Having visited a couple of bookstores in the West End of London, I can vouch for their claustrophobic room and the accompanying intimacy with your fellow humans, not a bad idea given that they are probably brighter than usual.

Do the correspondents ever meet up? Well, in Sparks they would, and one of them might die. Although such claptrap is not the stuff of this romance, you will not know the answer to my question until the final scenes. I'm happy with that turn of events because it hasn't been easy for the two, as it usually isn't for people who love passionately or are passionately in love with the idea of love.

The real bookstore in London now houses a McDonalds. How's that for romance?
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4/10
ery, very ordinary love movies
yoggwork19 February 2019
Very, very ordinary love movies. The procrastinating rhythm and the messy plot have no advantages except for the old couple's bright eyes. It's also said that Sun Tzu didn't learn Chinese, and then he could celebrate the New Year in Chinese, which is the epitome of the whole film.
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10/10
Hits home for overseas Chinese like myself
onlinewarehouse7809 August 2020
"A foreigner in a foreign land will always be homesick"

Very relatable film for me, well worth the watch!
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8/10
Delight...
RosanaBotafogo27 June 2021
I imagined it to be a continuation of the previous one, but the translation of the title (almost always unhappy) led me to the mistake, the script is cute, less intense and without the social criticism, which I liked so much in the previous one, here the fanciful, the poetry, the charm and magic of the novel at a distance, romanticized through the letters, the chemistry of the protagonists enchants, the lightness of the script distracts, Xiubo Wu with his excellent physical shape in the pool enchanted me, delight... Based on the book by Helene Hanff...
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Good actors were wasted by a lousy screenplay
MovieIQTest13 May 2016
What a ridiculous and stupid screenplay! From the very beginning, the leading actress was kicked out by her Mama-San landlord, then turned around becoming a ridiculous casino employee in Macao, the story simply turned into an absurd mess further and further! Then we saw the leading male actor appeared on the screen, a real estate agent in San Marino, Los Angeles, from here on, we could clearly see what a shallow knowledge of the screenplay writer(s) and the poor directing turned this film into a totally hopeless joke. If a real estate agent could be that unprofessional, no doubt this guy didn't even have a real estate license! How could it be possible that an agent can show a million dollars house in San Marino without being approved by the owner and would be allowed to enter such a house without the presence of the listing agent? Then, this so-called real estate agent kept talking nonsense to a rich woman from China, then after he broke into the house without even used a Supra Key and then let the woman to roam in the house alone without his escort and guidance, talked nonsense to that woman's son in a room, and let the son touch and move the belongings of the owner's stuff? This is another proof that most Chinese screenplay writers and the directors never did any thorough search and study of what they were trying to write and direct. Everything detailed in this film just looked so absurd, so unrealistic and so childishly shallow, making this film a pain in the arse to watch. It had forced the movie viewers to lower their I.Q., in order to become an imbecile first to become possibly accepting such a phony, shallow, childish and stupid farce. A lowlife unqualified cheating real estate agent hooked up with a shameless casino escort? It's definitely not right from the start.

This is a horrible film, only tried to cash in from the first more realistic and more genuine "When Beijing meets Seattle(2013)", exactly like another stupid film trying to fool people as the sequel of "Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon", but in truth, only borrowed their original movie titles and signed up those actors from the first movies to fool people. These films are just like Chinese fake merchandise with real names and look-alike patterns but actually just fake stuff. Both fake sequels simply ruined the good originals and turned them sour.

If you consider this film is a good one and enjoyed it, I strongly suggest you to do a CAT-SCAN and MRI, and redo an I.Q. test.
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