“The Half of It begins” An adventure about abstract and conceptual “love”

"The Half of It" synopsis

Ellie, an excellent student, is asked to write a love letter for an American football boy. Thanks to this, a friendship has blossomed with him, but the fact that she loves the same girl as him is quite complicated...

Index

• It's not a love story, nor is it a story about wishes coming true.
• Director Alice Wu returns to the film industry after 16 years
• “The most personal thing is the most creative thing”
• Jumping to “the other side of words”

It's not a love story, nor is it a story about wishes coming true.

“Love is the desire and pursuit of perfection”

``The Half of It'' (20) begins with a passage from Plato's ``The Feast.'' Humans were once a combination of a man and a woman with two faces and four limbs. However, the gods fear the existence of humans who are too "perfect" and cut them into two. Since then, humans have desperately searched for their ``other half'' and sought to achieve completeness by becoming one both physically and mentally.

However, the main character, Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis), flatly dismisses the story by saying, ``This is not a story about finding your other half,'' and says, ``Everyone is trying too hard to find their other half.'' . It negates the title, ``Half of It,'' and ends up saying, ``I'm telling you, this isn't a love story. It's not a story about wishes coming true.''

“The Half of It” Preview

The setting is the fictional American town of Squahemish. It's an ordinary country town with a strong conservative Catholicism. Ellie is a Chinese-American high school student who lives with her father, who watches old movies on TV, such as `` City Lights '' (31), `` The Philadelphia Story '' (40), and `` Casablanca '' (42). Ellie's homeroom teacher recommends that she go to Grinnell College in the city, but because of her father, she is considering going to a local university.

One day, Paul (Daniel Diemer), a permanent substitute on the American football team, asks him to write a love letter to the school's most beautiful girl, Aster (Alexis Lemire). Ellie secretly has a crush on Aster, but after some pushing from Paul, she reluctantly agrees. A smart but introverted girl, a stupid muscular boy who can't be hated, and a beautiful girl who feels alienated from the world. In this way, a mysterious love triangle is formed, as if love and friendship are mixed together.

At first glance, this seems like a modern-day Cyrano de Bergerac. This play, which was first performed in France in the 19th century, is about Cyrano, who was shunned by the opposite sex due to his ugly appearance despite his excellent literary and military skills. It was a story about someone writing love letters on their behalf.

However, as Ellie declares at the beginning, ``Half of It'' is not a ``love story'' or ``a story about wishes coming true.'' This movie is a more abstract, more conceptual story about LOVE in its capital letters.

Director Alice Wu returns to the film industry after 16 years