This was a spare of the moment pick as I was looking through what was new on Netflix and for some reason The Stolen Years stood out. I thought it was a romantic comedy and seeing as I had never seen a Chinese rom-com, this seemed perfect but oh man was I wrong.
He Man wakes up from a month long coma with amnesia. She can't remember the last 5 years. The last thing she remembers is being on Honeymoon with her husband. But now they are divorced, her best friend doesn't speak to her and her co-workers are scared of her. She can't understand what happened. Missing her husband and wanting to understand what went wrong she asks her ex-husband to help her remember by going to the places they used to go together. BUT the film takes a turn away from drama to completely despressing territory.
The film plays out in two halves, the first is about how happy Xie Yu and He Man were and what actually happened in the last two years of their marriage. Its all about how they still love each other and can they have a second chance. The second part is about SPOILER ALERT He Man having dementia. There is an adorable sequence where Xie Yu proposes again which is followed a slow horrible end with He Man in hospital. Its actually heartbreaking and not exactly what I planned on watching at 10am on a Sunday morning.
Next up: France, where I actually did manage to watch a rom-com.
Coming soon