If there is a website that can help you get your love back, would you like to break up another couple? Joe (Jaycee Chan) is dumped by his girlfriend Flora (Fiona Sit). He told his story and a magical website "breakup club," a website helping people to make up with their lovers to director Barbara Wong (Barbara Wong). Wong is very interested in and gives him a camera to shoot his story. However, to get help from the website, one has to break up another couple by inputting their names. Joe gets Fiona back by breaking up his best friend and his girlfriend. However, things might not go as Joe hopes for because the conflict between Flora and him is not resolved. The discrepancy between Flora's ideal boyfriend and Joe's immaturity makes her very sad, and the appearance of the graffiti artist (Hayama Hiro) intensifies the discrepancy stronger.
Barbara Wong, the director of Break Up Club is always conveniently finding the most sensitive topic in this society. After graduating from Tisch School of the Arts of New York University, she produced several films that got positive critics. Her film Women's Private Parts won the New York Film Festival award for best international film. She was also honored as the Most Outstanding Young Director in The 21th Hong Kong Film Awards. She directed Break Up Club in 2009, in which during shooting Jaycee and Fiona fell in love.
Jaycee Chan stars Joe in Break Up Club. As Jakie Chan's only son, it seems hard for him to disconnected with his super-star father. However, it can be seen in the film that he has been able to be judged independently from Jakie because of his amazing performance of an immature and stressful boy who is expected high but unable to achieve the expectation. Based on his relationship with Fiona in reality, their performance make more sense and the chemistry between them is so reliable.
The shooting method of this film is very documentary such as the use of handhold camera, location shooting. The documentary style is very emotionally powerful in the film because it renders a sense of reality, thus making spectators more self-related to the film and more easily find sympathy from the film. The plot is ingenious designed to keep the audience in suspense until the end, spectators finally find that many plots are indicative. For example, there is a scene that Joe picked up an anonymous phone call and in the end, it is shown that the call is from Joe's best friend after he saw Flora dating with another guy.
However, the only thing that makes the film imperfect is the happy ending in that it is so accidental for Flora to change her minds within only last 20 seconds in the film. Moreover, the happy ending totally destroy the all the suspense Babara made in the film in that the film delicately designed to show the discrepancy between reality and fantasy, that even though Joe got Flora back, he could not stay with her forever because their different values and different understanding for life. As a result, such a happy ending is a complete opposite direction towards what the film is trying to say.
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