Lennon
Member
The Half of It, directed by Chinese director Alice Wu, was recently released on Netflix, thought this campus teenpic just tells a about "he loves her, but she loves her" simple love story, but with The three protagonists complex mixed feelings line, only to find that The film wants to discuss is not just of puberty of young love, but how each one of us learn to express love, how to know what love is and how to grow in love in the harvest.
Love always begins by deceiving, and ends by deceiving
The story begins with a "plot" between a Chinese schoolgirl named Ellie Chu and her classmate Paul. In order to earn some extra cash, Ellie, who is a high achiever but a loner, agrees to write a love letter for Paul to his girl Aster, but she doesn't admit that she secretly loves Aster, either. So Ellie became the writer behind Paul. Through constant online chatting, she found that she and Aster were so compatible, from literature and art to hobbies, but Aster's eyes were reflected on Paul.
As a Chinese girl, Ellie has to look people in the eye in this small town, which makes her not only reluctant to communicate with her classmates, but also afraid to reveal her feelings and queer identity to Aster. In the process of helping Paul pursue Aster, while she enjoys the ambiguous feelings between her and Aster, she can only pretend to be someone else's true feelings. However, this carefully hidden love is not only deceiving Aster, but also deceiving herself.
Love is the boldest stroke you can make
In The Half of It, Paul, Aster and Ellie all have different ideas about love. Paul: I like someone because I want to go out with her and play with her. Aster was always asked whether he should choose the most "right" way and the most "right" person, even if he had to give up his real personality. While Ellie finally gets up the courage to stop Aster from marrying Trig, who she doesn't really like, and confesses her identity and heart to her:
Love is messy and horrible and selfish…and bold.It’s not finding your perfect half. It’s the trying and reaching and failing.Love is being willing to ruin your good painting for the chance at a great one.Is this really the boldest stroke you can make?
From loving blindly, to gradually understanding love, and finally to bravely expressing love, the three main characters in the film all went through different processes, but the same thing is that they all got a better understanding of what kind of person they want to be. Growth is not an overnight process, like love, is not always sweet and success, but with a lot of confusion, entanglement and even failure. Just are you willing to try and make mistakes? If Ellie hadn't spoken to Aster, it would have been one of her biggest regrets before graduation. Even if she might have been misunderstood or even hurt, she was willing to make the boldest stroke of her youth.
