Hear Me Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Hear Me Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 9, 2010

Taiwanese director Cheng Fen-fen's "Hear Me" (2009) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of local distributors Tai Sheng. The only supplemental feature on the disc is a long making of featurette. In Mandarin and Cantonese, with optional English, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

The Couple

I can’t remember the last time I saw a good American film about teenagers falling in love. Can you? In fact, come to think of it, nowadays there seem to be two types of films about teenagers that come out of Hollywood - about horny teenagers doing incredibly stupid things (the American Pie type) and crazy maniacs who like to kill each other (the Spring Break Massacre type). If you think that I am exaggerating, feel free to drop me a note and let me know why.

Hear Me comes from Taiwan and tells the story of a young boy, Tian-kuo (Eddie Peng), who delivers lunch boxes in Taipei. One day, the boy ends up at a swimming pool where he meets a beautiful girl, Yang-yang (Ivy Chen), whose deaf sister (Michelle Chen) is training for the upcoming Deaflympics. He asks for her MSN name and later on the two begin chatting.

The boy falls madly in love with girl and wants to spend as much time with her as possible. He brings her food when he isn’t working and then tries to come to the pool as often as he could. But the girl does not seem as interested in him as he is in her. Most of the time the only thing that is on her mind is helping her sister win a medal at the Deaflympics.

The boy gets confused. At first he thinks that his sign language skills are not good enough, which is why the girl does not understand how he feels about her, but later on she mentions to him that she thinks that they may not be a good match and walks away. The boy becomes desperate, and the more he attempts to explain to the girl how he feels about her - texting her over and over again - the worse things get between the two.

An accident changes everything. The girl suddenly realizes that without the boy her life is empty, even pointless, and that she loves him just as much as she loves her sister, perhaps even more. Eventually, the boy and the girl meet again and then visit his parents, who immediately embrace the girl and welcome her to their family.

The delight of Hear Me is that it never tries too hard to be convincing. There are plenty of overused clichés in it - especially during the second half of the film, where we learn why it is so difficult for the girl to be in a meaningful relationship with the boy - but its constant tiptoeing between melodrama and humor actually makes most of them quite easy to swallow.

The sign language the two protagonists use to communicate their feelings also gives the film a slightly different flavor, one that you won't discover in other similarly themed films. It was fascinating to see how emotions and feelings become unique moves and signs that mean so much.

The acting is pleasing. The young Ivy Chen looks remarkably relaxed in front of the camera and accomplishes a lot with her potent arsenal of facial expressions. Eddie Peng's acting is competent but mostly one-dimensional. Michelle Chen has a very small role in Hear Me but her contribution is invaluable.

Technically, Hear Me does not disappoint. The camerawork is simple but effective. The editing is also convincing; the film runs at approximately two hours but it never drags. The music soundtrack is decent but not essential to the film.

Note: Hear Me was shot to commemorate the 21st Summer Deaflympics, which took place in Taipei, Taiwan, from September 5 to September 15, 2009.

Hear Me Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Cheng Fen-fen's Hear Me arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Taiwanese distributor Tai Sheng.

This is a pleasing high-definition transfer showing rather well that the creators of Hear Me had a limited budget to work with. Generally speaking, fine object detail is convincing. However, clarity and especially contrast levels often fluctuate. Many of the indoor scenes, for example, look soft. On the other hand, the film's color-scheme is convincing. Blues, greens, reds, yellows, browns and blacks look warm but natural. The daylight footage, in particular, is quite good. This being said, mild edge-enhancement is often easy to spot, as well as halos and even some random artifacts. Macroblocking, however, is not a serious issue of concern. I did not detect any serious stability issues to report in this review either. Blown through a digital projector the image remains tight around the edges, though twice I noticed mild background flickering. To sum it all up, even though there are a few minor issues with the presentation, Hear Me looks good on Blu-ray, and I have absolutely no problem recommending it to you. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your PS3 or SA regardless of your geographical location).

Hear Me Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one audio track on this Blu-ray disc: Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. For the record, Tai Sheng have provided optional English, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese subtitles for the main feature.

Considering the fact that silence has such an important role in Hear Me, it should not come as a surprise that the Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is quite modest - the rear channels rarely come to life and the bass is practically absent - but such is the nature of this film. For the record, I did not detect any disturbing pops, cracks, or hissings to report in this review. Generally speaking, the English translation is fine, but there are a couple of minor spelling and syntax errors that I noticed while viewing the film.

Hear Me Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Making of - a standard featurette with raw footage from the shooting of the film and an abundance of comments different from cast and crew members. In Mandarin, not subtitled in English. (46 min).

Hear Me Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Hear Me is an unpretentious, sweet little film about two teenagers experiencing the excitement of firs love, which I liked a lot. Frankly, it was the perfect film to see on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The Blu-ray disc herein reviewed, courtesy of Taiwanese distributors Tai Sheng, looks and sounds good. It is also Region-Free and English-friendly. Give this film a try, folks. RECOMMENDED.