My Missing Valentine (消失的情人节) (2020)

There’s a scene that occurs in a cinema and the audience is about to watch a funny scene. Suddenly, a fit of laughter rings out. A second later, the rest of the audience erupt in peals of hearty laughter. Then, out of somewhere in the darkened hall, a lone fit of laughter reverberates in the air. It’s a very clever scene – it essentially opines that in the world of My Missing Valentine human beings are divided into three categories – those who are always faster, those that tread the common path and those who are always slower. My Missing Valentine is a love story about two lonely souls in the first and third categories.

It begins with a mystery.

Hsiao-chi (Patty Lee Pei-Yu) does everything so quickly that she’s always one step ahead of others. She works in the post office and does not harbour any hope to rise up the ranks. A nerdy-looking guy (Liu Kuan-Ting) buying stamps from her every day and her fixed routine are about the only constants in her unexciting life. Hsiao-chi is turning thirty soon and pines for love. Finally, on the eve of Valentine’s Day, a hot-looking guy (Duncan Chou) whom she met at a park, asks her out. But to her astonishment, she wakes up the next morning and finds herself dressed in outdoor clothes meant for the date, nursing a terrible sunburn and Valentine’s Day has mysteriously passed.

Trust me, not knowing the plot from here on out is the best way to go. I included the trailer as it is my common practice, but I would strongly recommend not watching it.

Writer-director Chen Yu-Hsun has conjured a magic quilt filled with bits and pieces of noteworthy films like Amelie, Groundhog Day, Rashomon and a weird episode of Twilight Zone. Chen has borrowed from all his favourite films and remixed the ideas into something endearingly whimsical. It is nearly impossible to watch this without a smile plastered on your face.

This is the perfect marriage of many genres and shifting tones. It is painfully funny without feeling forced, it is philosophical without making you feel stupid, it is effortless genre-bending without a touch of twee. It is a paean to first loves and how time can never dilute its potency. It is about how perspectives shape our worldviews and it is about learning to see the beauty in the mundane.

It comes as no surprise that My Missing Valentine has earned 11 Golden Horse nominations – the most for any film this year. What does surprise me is that this Best Film nominee is an absolute mainstream feel-gooder without a case of affliction, the typical awards bait. I am sorry Mark Lee, I hope this wins everything.

I have ever mentioned that I always know if it’s a great film by the length of conversation my wife and I devote to the film on the drive home. Surprisingly, we kept quite silent throughout the journey. Then, about one kilometre away from our humble abode, she uttered “the movie must be bad because we didn’t talk about it”. As it turned out, all through the journey my mind was swimming in nostalgia and I was seeing the world through kaleidoscopic lenses. It was probably the same with her. With that, a torrent of words cascaded from our hearts, minds and souls. In a depressing year for great films, this is the first time I see the sun peeking out from behind a pageant of dark clouds.

4.5 / 5

PS – it has just won the Golden Horse Awards for Film Editing, Visual Effects, Original Screenplay, Director and yes… Best Film.