Homerun

I’ve known Z for close to 11 years, but it’s only recently that I found out that she and I more or less share the same taste in film. She let me borrow her copy of Homerun (跑吧孩子) and Voces Inocentes, while I gamely lent her my copy of Tulad ng Dati, Paris Je T’aime, and my favorite Korean movie of all time, A Moment to Remember.

It took me a number of tries, but I finally managed to make my way through Homerun. It wasn’t the lack of interest that failed to engage me; rather, it was the ungodly hour that I kept with regard to my viewing schedule. The past week, I usually start watching at 1am and will be fast asleep 10 minutes into it. But I promised I’d make time for it today, with lots of free time owing to the holiday.

And so I did.

Homerun is Singaporean Jack Neo’s (of I Not Stupid fame) remake of the Iranian Children of Heaven, which recounts the misadventures of two siblings, over a lost pair of shoes. Chew Kiat Kun blames himself for losing his sister Seow Fang’s shoes at the beginning of the movie, which inevitably starts the roller coaster of events they had to go through.

At first, they agreed on a shared ownership of the only pair they have left, with Seow Fang wearing Kun’s shoes in the morning, then running home so that Kun can go to school in the afternoon. This plan is not without complication, as Kun becomes compulsively tardy to class, much to the chagrin of the school principal. However, things look up for them upon Kun’s discovery of a cross-country race for schoolboys where the third prize is a pair of new shoes.

The film echoed similar attributes as Takahata’s Grave of the Fireflies, with the centerpoint being sibling love while perched on the harsh realities of poverty. I liked that in Homerun, the story was more grounded to reality and the portrayal more genuine. But then again, the setting and circumstances in Grave called for more drama, and thus, was actually more engrossing.

But unfair comparisons aside, I generally liked Homerun. I did have qualms with the injection of unnecessary dialogue that spelled laugh at me. Comes across as campy and borderline screwball. But I liked the camera shots and the general mood the film creates. I liked Megan Zheng’s performance as Seow Fang. She didn’t have much speaking lines, but her facial expressions endears, conveying just enough that is needed without going overboard.

And being the first all Mandarin film that I could sit through without the need for English subtitles, I’m certain that that had a lot to do with my general positive outlook of the film.