Hear Me (2009) User Reviews

I adore this movie!

[cremea · 8/10 · 20 October 2012]

Hear Me, or Ting Shuo (as it referred to in native language), is a semi-recent Taiwanese film that is part of the current wave of Taiwan cinema that's making a name for itself outside of the more traditional Asian movie making powerhouses. Welcome to the party Taiwan! The more the better I says!

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Is this movie "gimmicky"?...YES!. In fact, it's totally dependent on its gimmick to make it all work. With regards to gimmicky movies, I often try to think about what it would be like if you removed the underlying gimmick from the equation in order to better judge it, i.e. would it still be a good movie if you did so?...You just can't do that here though, because there would be no movie without the gimmick.

Story: This is a romantic drama that revolves around two deaf sisters who can only communicate through sign language (this is the gimmick). The two sisters do their best to make a living while realizing their goals in a world where the cards are heavily stacked against them. One of the sisters is an aspiring swimmer, and the younger sis tries to encourage and support her while trying to make ends meet for the both of them. Life is tough though, and they keep getting more crap piled on them no matter how hard they try to succeed.

Enter our young hero. He works for his family's restaurant and delivers meals all over town. On his route is the athletic/swimming facility for the deaf, where he happens upon the younger of the two sisters. He's not deaf, but he does happen to know sign language, and he's instantly smitten with the young deaf sister upon meeting her. So, he pursues her, and there's your romantic angle of the story line.

The actress playing the young deaf sister is the tiniest and cutest thing ever, and the lead actor who portrays the guy interested in her is suitably "adorable" & likable. She's pretty cautious and somewhat standoffish, but he persists, and perhaps love can one day bloom between the two if everything works out. They would make the cutest couple ever if so.

The two actresses starring as the deaf sisters are really good in their roles. I (obviously) don't know the Taiwanese version of sign language, but it sure does look like the 2 actresses do. As a result, there's a number of thoughtful and touching/emotional signed scenes between the two of them throughout the film that are very nicely done. The main male lead gets the job done quite well. Aside from them, the only other meaningful characters in this movie are the mother & father of the male lead, and, they are just flat out awesome in their respective roles.

This movie also had a very well done end game goal/result that caught me off guard a bi. IIt's really, really, really, rare that a movie or TV show will make me say; "HmmmI wasn't expecting that to happen!"

There's a lot to like with this movie; the story is pretty good and well thought out, all the characters are likable, and it's well shot/filmed throughout. Perhaps the most impressive aspect about this film is its musical scoring & sound effects; the "soundtrack" hits all the proper notes when & where needed throughout, and the subtle use of background "noise" when the deaf are communicating is nothing short of outstanding.

Bottom Line: This Movie is pretty good. It's an uber cute dramatic love story (with a gimmick) that makes for a great "date night" watch. What's wrong/lacking?...not much, other than its too freakin' long. As such, some "fat" trimming would have definitely benefited this film. Nevertheless, it is quite well done overall as is. And, I just absolutely loved it!

So, 8 out of 10 stars for me!...Solidly recommended!

The Sound of Love Speaks Loud and Clear

[jonnyfendi · 7/10 · 14 September 2010]

How do you express your love to someone dear? Thiz movie teaches us how to get through all the boundaries and speaks only from our heart. I went to see thiz film without any expectation. But surprisingly it becomes a spell-binding movie. The Director Fen-fen Cheng made a directorial debut through thiz Taiwanese Romantic Comedy. It's about a delivery boy Tian Kuo (Eddie Peng) who falls in love with hearing impaired girl named Yang Yang (Ivy Chen). Without any difficulty, both of them can communicate easily, although using sign language. The Cast members are not just good looking, but they deliver some dazzling performances as well. The story also revolves around Yang Yang's sister, Xiao Peng (Michelle Chen) who is pursuing her dream to become paralympic swimmer. Most of the times, the scenes are filled with mute dialogue and silentness. I am amazed every time I watch thiz unique couple talk to each other with their sign language, how their hand movements and face expressions interact more effective than our daily language. Meanwhile, the comical interaction between Tian Kuo and his parents is one of hilarious parts in thiz movie. Thiz is definitely not a shallow love drama, but it's also an inspiring story about dreams and aspirations. There are some melancholic and heart-touching scenes, particularly in one of the scenes when Yang Yang and her sister remind each other among their desperation, how hope should always be there to light up their life. The movie confidently teaches us, how we should appreciate every single hard work that is done by someone, where every penny has its worth and value. A beautiful drama speaks loud and clear beyond words. The sound of love is perfectly captured. I hear you clearly ^_^

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A Nutshell Review: Hear Me

[DICK STEEL · 8/10 · 7 January 2010]

The gimmick in the film that allows it to transcend the usual teenybopper puppy love stories filled with an eye-candy cast, is undoubtedly the use of the non-verbal medium of sign language in a film. I don't recall watching any recent contemporary film where the lead characters engage in sign for the most parts of the story, leaving us the audience relying very much on the subtitles (both English and Mandarin with subtle differences) to tide us through. It's a novelty factor, though one that works, and hopefully can help to garner interest such that it shouldn't been seen as a "language" of exclusivity because of impairment, but one which is actually very beautiful with its fluid motion, and as the film suggests, with a certain degree of creative improvisation (hey, so long as you're understood, right?)

For Eddie Pang's Tian Kuo the delivery boy for his parent's restaurant, going from place to place to bring their delicious rice sets to hungry masses is part of his daily routine, until a destination at a swimming pool would begin to set his heart fluttering when he falls for Yang Yang (Ivy Chen), the sister of his customer Xiao Peng (Michelle Chen) the paralympic swimmer. So begins the usual scenarios he puts himself into just to be able to reach out and befriend Yang Yang, with the usual dating pursuit complexities that plague any (if I may use the word) normal, budding relationships in the modern world, where telecommunication devices such as Messaging, Email and SMS prove to be essential when communicating non- verbally.

The rest of the story is pretty straight-forward with toeing along a formula, though it's kept extremely engaging by the light hearted story and its extremely good looking casts who obviously had put in a lot of work to be natural, believable sign-linguists. Though some may cringe at the more melodramatic moments, the sentimental old me somehow saw it as being able to bring something extra to the table, with the relationship between two sisters so reliant on each other, that it makes you appreciate the nature of that innate love between siblings, and that between family with Tian-Kuo's parents playing key roles here that accentuates the sensitivity (and at times irritability) of how parents can sometimes fuss over their only child. Not to mention too that they almost always steal the show because of their quirkiness and comic timing each time they come on screen, in addition to some slapstick humour that director Cheng Fen-fen slips in from time to time.

Running almost two hours long, the story may be a little bit stretched or at times required the suspension of disbelief, for instance that a missionary fa/ther could just bear to up and go preach in Africa leaving two lovely children to fend for themselves. The finale too seemed a little too long and suffered from the usual syndrome that it didn't know exactly when to end and stop at a nice crescendo, but chose to finish things off in predictable, expected fashion. For sharp eyed viewers you'll probably would have prepped yourself for that big surprise reveal even right from the start, but that will not alter the enjoyment of witnessing how things will develop, especially when their first real date really tanked with that unavoidable adversary, and with themes like how one should live our own lives instead of living out someone else's.

I can't help but to raise another plus point in the film. There's a bit of the use of Hokkien and Cantonese in the film, and lo and behold they were left intact, though one can argue that the duration of use wasn't significant. To me it was, because it's that continued one small step forward before eventually making that giant leap. It's easy to have dubbed the languages over using Mandarin, but it wasn't, so I'll interpret this positively. And since we're on the topic of languages, I've already mentioned that sign language is beautiful, and after watching this film you're likely more inclined to be a bit more aware of how emotions can be expressed exactly through delicate or more hard-pounding motions.

Hear Me reminds us no matter what medium is used to express love, so long as it comes straight from the heart honestly and sincerely, that emotion will be heard loud and clear. Highly recommended, and works perfectly as a date movie.

A story of a meal box delivery boy, Tian Kuo, who falls In love with hearing impaired girl named Yang Yang.

[anne-sb25 · 9/10 · 17 March 2011]

A debut film for the first time director, Fen-fen Cheng, Hear Me (2009) is a story of a meal box delivery boy, Tian Kuo, who falls In love with hearing impaired girl named Yang Yang. Without difficulty, both of them could communicate well through the use of sign language. The story also revolves on Yang Yang's sister, Xiao Peng, who is deaf and hearing impaired as well. This film will surely make you laugh and cry even at the same time. Even Tian Kuo's parents role in the movie are additional spices and entertainments on the film. Love will be on the air as you watch this film. Even without directly spoken lines, and eyes are really needed, I was amazed on how the actors and actresses gave dazzling performances. Their scenes wherein some of it was just purely sign languages, their eyes, emotions and their actions were so powerful that I really felt their character. The connection between each and every one of them was fantastic. There were a lot of melancholic and hilarious scenes on the film but they blended very well. This movie is for all ages. It teaches us that we should not look down with people who has disabilities but rather accept them for who they are. Disabilities are not a hindrance for us to love a person. This movie tells us that we should appreciate the hard work that one is doing especially when they do it for others. Every single cent of your money is worth it if you watch this film! Unquestionably, you will hear the heartbeat of love.

Romance

[thejassivakumar · 8/10 · 4 May 2020]

This movie is about the love between a delivery boy and a girl who is hearing impaired. The movie has good chemistry going between them . Even though I do not know the language I had no difficulty in watching this movie because there is very less dialogues and the communication is in sign language. So all audiences can watch it it is a nice romantic movie with no hard feelings . The only problem I thought was that the movie ended too soon.

light-hearted affair

[vince4953529 · 7/10 · 29 July 2011]

This is a light-hearted romantic teen movie from Taiwan. I felt just like many recent Taiwanese movies, the dialogs could be a little awkward at times, even though the majority of the film was communicated in sign- language. The diminutive yet terminally cute leading actress was good at her role, serving as a reserved character. The male lead character was more expressive in nature, although I felt at times came out a bit obnoxious. The language aspect reflects fairly accurately among the current Taiwanese society today, where the parents speak in Taiwanese while the children replied in Mandarin. In a way it is sad to see a native language is replaced by an invading tongue, and I hope there is a trend coming to slow up this trend. Overall this is a harmless romance Taiwanese movie.

Good story

[kasinjay · 10/10 · 3 February 2021]

Good story. Yang-yang is very cute. The movie is very good

More about sisterhood than a love story

[tiffanyswift-01525 · 7/10 · 2 May 2022]

What moves me the most is the relationship between the two sisters. The story stard with a beautiful misunderstanding that the viewer's don't know until the very end of the story. The performance by Yihan Chen was just marvelous,it moved me to tears in the scene where the two sisters talked about their dreams and responsibilities. It's a sweet love story but it's more about the family who sacrificed themselves. It's about how love can transcend language and all the outside barriers.

Good movie

[sathyaaero · 8/10 · 1 March 2021]

The story was good that a cute love between a mute girl and a delivery boy in his own restaurant. The screenplay was non boring. Cinematography and music were soul of this film. The characters like heroine sister and hero parents were well designed and the artists who played those roles were done good. The dialogue and scenes in the climax were so lovely. A good film.

Hear Me

[mu-78821 · 8/10 · 28 April 2016]

The movie is about a deaf girl, Yang Yang, who work multiple jobs to support her sister, Xiao Peng, dream of competing in Deafolympic. One day she met a boy name Tian Kao. They fell in love with each other. But due to a great sense of responsibility to take care of her sister, Yang Yang keep turning Tian Kao down. This is a love story that communicate through sign language. Tian Kao and Yang Yang both are very simple people. They were able to sign to each other because they both live in a community full of deaf people. This romantic story about deaf people is very good and relatable for people in the deaf community. I think both leading actor and actress did a wonderful job signing.

Good film

[xnwmaamyr · 8/10 · 9 November 2020]

The film is good. The essence of the story is about two couples who think that each other is tuned ", and after going through the twists and turns of the love story, they finally unite and love each other. The moral value of this video is that ignorance is the source of misunderstanding.

💗 Listen with your heart 💗

[Lynn_Sithu · 9/10 · 8 December 2022]

I rarely watch Chinese films because most of the ones I saw were exaggerated, too much CG effects but less storyline. This one is one of the few I'd watched and enjoyed, even made it as one of my Hall of Fame movies. Only less than hundred out of tens of thousands of movies I ever watched made it to the Hall of Fame; most are Hollywood movies; the rest are Japanese, Korean, British and French movies.

The movie is about hardworking mute girl and lazy lunch-box delivery boy. The girl had no extra time to play around because she had to earn the money to support her mute sister, a Paralympic swimmer. On the other hand, the boy had so much time to fool around 'cuz he's the pampered child of a restaurant owner parents. Most of the time, I thought I'm watching a silent film because most of the scenes were hand gesture conversation. I'm not saying that it's boring but very interesting because this is my first time for this type of movie. There's a plot twist near the end and you'll be surprised by that. That's why I won't spoiled it anymore.

I'll just express my feelings in number and recommend some of my favorite movies. My rating systems are purely based on the overall feeling of the entire movie and just for expressing emotion numerically in a set format.

First Impression: Impressive {FI = 1/1}

Storyline {S = 2.5/3}; Logical Point of View: Expressive (LPV = 1/1), Moral Point of View: Ethical (MPV = 0.5/1), Sequence: Thrilling (Sq = 1/1)

Characters & Chemistry {C&C = 3/4}; Chemistry between Lead Casts : Sparks fly (CLC = 2/2), Supporting Effect: Supportive (SE = 1/1)

Expectation & Reality: Unexpected {E&R = 1/1}

Last Impact: Satisfied {LI = 1-/1}

Total Point = 8.5-/10, Bonus Point: Music & Originality {BP = 0.5/0.5+}, Deduction Point: None {DP = 0/2}

Grand Total = 9- *Unique*

Movie Suggestion by:

~ Film Genre ~ The Choice (2016) {Dra-Rom} ~ 8.5, Finding You (2020) {Dra-Rom} ~ 8.5, Miracle: Letters to the President (2021) {Dra} ~ 8.5+

~ Point ~ Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow (1963) ~ 9-, Armageddon (1998) ~ 9-, The Parent Trap (1998) ~ 9-

*** You can check my uncut reviews and favorite movie lists by visiting my profile. I hope this can be of any help to movie buff like me! ***