At the first sight, almost everything about “Didi's Dream”, or “Yum Yum Love”, somehow suggests another from the line of the stories about a leftover woman who is single (of course), smart, successful and on an inevitable route into the arms of the least probable yet the most handsome guy around. Yes and no is correct. “Didi's Dream” is romantic, it is comedy, but its heroine is not exactly singe. Or is she?
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At the moment, when one might feel overdosed of all the variations and copies and iterations of (especially) Chinese romantic comedies, here comes “Didi's Dream”, takes it all, shakes it, adds own sparkle and serves a story, well, two stories, that might not rank over the height of Taipei 101 but still keeps a good distance from marshmallowy brain-blocking romcoms. Is it cheesy, sweet, pathetic? Does it have troubled romance, complicated family issues, terminal illness? Does it recall things you have already seen? Yes. Yes. Yes. Still, “Didi's Dream” knows it and owns it and makes it work in the ways it needs.
Didi is in a very working relationship, works in entertainment industry. For the moment, she is a mere comedian but aspires to become a serious actress. You can bet your spleen on it, that she really works hard for it. Oh, and she has an older sister Lingling who happens to be a successful serious actress/star. And most of all, Didi has a recurring dream. In this dream, she is Chunmei, owner of an intergalactic hip noodle restaurant cut out from a parallel world of 2046, serving a special soup that changes its taste according to the owner's state of mind/heart. Chunmei, unlike Didi, has not yet met the man of her life. There is one more thing, Didi has a terminal diagnose leaving her with only one year of life.
“Didi´s Dream” is nonsensical, mish-mashy and quirky charming. It owes a lot to Dee Hsu Hsi-ti (Didi) and her sense of comedy, Jin Shijia (Didi´s boyfriend Kouzi) who acts not only as her counterpart but also a silent anchor to the Bunny Duracell that Didi is, and last but not least to well tamed and timed doses of preparations, jokes, moments of comic humiliation, sweetness, family quarrels, tears triggers, and other elements that pave Didi's path. If many of the scenes seems inspired by TV shows, there is a reason for it. “Didi's Dream” is directorial debut of TV host, scriptwriter and producer Kevin Tsai with Dee Hsu Hsi-ti who was his co-host of TV show ended in 2015 “Kagxi lai le”.
Overall, “Didi's Dream” feels like one of those films, when everyone was having fun making it, while at the same time, they took their jobs seriously, not underestimating the „easy-watching“ genre. It doses its comedy/tragedy/cuteness/heartbreak in just portions to be an entertaining candy. On the other hand, sometimes, it is perhaps too controlled and cautious, resulting in some scenes and ideas feeling cut too early. Yet, whenever it might slide onto the route to a melted pot of obnoxious cheesiness, it winks to assure you that it knows this sketch is about to overstay, and moves the game on.
“Didi's Dream” does not pretend to play a higher league than it does. And that is a compliment. As a single serving sweets, it is clearly not in the league of “Zone pro Site” or “Café. Waiting. Love.”, but it does not seem to mind and quite probably you will not mind it either.
