Suddenly Seventeen : Listen to the small voice within your heart

Suddenly Seventeen: **** stars

China | Drama | Romance | Fantasy

Cast: Ni Ni; Wallace Huo; Wang Talu;

Duration : 90 minutes

Release date : 2016 December

Plot: (wiki)

28-year old Liang Xia (Ni Ni) and 34 year-old Mao Liang (Wallace Huo) have been together for 10 years, and living together for 5 years. Liang Xia assumes that Mao is going to propose after 10 years of being together, and had given up her dreams on becoming a painter just to stay with Mao. However she is disappointed when the diamond he had bought was for his boss, Mr. Gao's wife to earn her support in improving his design company. Her friend suggests to Liang that she should force Mao to marry her by proposing to him in public. However, the plan backfires and Mao ends up breaking up with her. The devastated Liang eats a magical chocolate, transporting her memory back to her 17-year old self. Without the worries of adulthood, she is back to her naive, optimistic self and that triggers a surge of interest in Mao, who she now refers to as “Uncle”. Things turn even more complicated when Liang Xia's 17-year old self falls in love with a younger man, Yan Yan (Wang Talu)

Review:

I usually don't like Chinese given how the women are portrayed in their dramas and movies but Suddenly Seventeen really surprised me. The entire film is focused on the lead who is a women. This film really opened a door for me in the Chinese entertainment industry.

The film is about a 28 year old Liang Xia, who has given all her time to her 10 year old relationship with Mao Liang (Wallace Huo). Just when she thinks he is going to surprise her a wedding proposal just like he had promised he asks her to separate ways. As she is struggling with herself, Liang finds help in a supernatural chocolate that promises to make her young again.

So here comes the twist, on regular standards I expected the film to make her younger win the man and realize that's not what she wants, or send back in time and change her life so that he does not break up with her.

But after eating the chocolates she finds her 17 year old self in her 28 year old body, changing her outlook on life. The film does talk about not loosing yourself in your struggle with time but it is told so beautifully till the end it kept me looking for more meaning.

Ni Ni as the 17 year old and 28 year old shows a drastic change sometimes in the same clothes making it hard to believe if it the same person. I would love to watch her other movies, the actress is captivating and very talented.

I am very glad to see there wasn't a lot of work for the male characters but so happy to see the seventeen year old have her own character arc and hardship she wasn't here to make the 28 year old change but she had her own life going on while she was on screen, which makes Suddenly seventeen a very interesting watch.

I probably wasn't watching the right kind of shows but this, Ni Ni starrer set a new benchmark, and left me wanting to watch more chinese movies .