Often have we seen filmmakers be asked a question about what it takes to be one, and often have we heard them say that all that is needed is an idea and a smartphone. First-time director Liao Ming-yi took this advice to heart and shot his independent debut “I WeirDO” entirely using the iPhone XR.
“I WeirDO” is screening at Udine Far East Film Festival 2020
Chen Po-ching suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), which dictates how he goes about his day. He spends most of his time cleaning around the house and tidying things as his OCD demands. He goes out only once each month to pay his bills and buy whatever groceries he may require and even then, he must live the house only dressed head to toe in personal protective equipments. On one such excursion, he runs into Chen Ching, a girl dressed similarly in protective gear, who Chen Po-ching follows into a grocery store and sees shoplift some chocolate. Chen Ching, as it turns out, also suffers from OCD and the two individuals connect over their common “ailment”, soon falling for each other, creating a drastic but welcome change in each others' scheduled lives. As they fall deeper in love, they promise each other to never change although change, as they should know, is the one constant in life.
“I WeirDO” is a work of two drastically different halves. The first half is a quirky love story between two similarly dissimilar individuals as they connect over a commonality. Liao takes this time to set up his characters well and makes the audience fall in love with them just as they are falling in love with each other. The narrative then follows the two as they go about their excursions together, discover each other's quirks and try to conquer their OCD together, to hilarious results. The audience is effectively put into the shoes of those compelled by OCD, but since it is disguised as a love story and a comedy, it never feels heavy-handed or brooding. It is interesting and often amusing to see them both go through common couple things like having a street-food date or their first kiss with their condition. This segment is very effective in turning the tables of what society considers “normal” with what people that suffer from so-called abnormalities consider to be the normal.
The second half, however, completely shifts gears and what had so far been a sweet romantic comedy becomes a delicate, melancholic story of two souls drifting slowly apart. Where the first half succeeded in establishing the characters as equally normal, the line here is blurred. This makes for a good commentary on social marginalisation. There is a fair amount of predictability to the proceedings in this part of the narrative, and the twist in the tale near the very end almost feels like it might leave a bad taste in the mouth, but Liao redeems himself with a finale that is satisfactory.
The fact that even these predictable moments end up being worth watching is down to the fantastic performances from both the lead actors Austin Lin and Nikki Hsieh. The first half of the story is seen through the eyes of Chen Po-ching and Austin Lin does a terrific job of portraying the besotted OCD sufferer. Both he and Nikki Hsieh share great chemistry, which makes the meet-cute moments of the first half very enjoyable, and the film revels in some of the quieter moments of their early romance, like where they lie in bed and promise each other to never change. The aforementioned kiss scene also is a good example of the same. The latter half, however, belongs to Nikki Hsieh's extremely confident portrayal, making your heart go out for the suffering Chen Ching.
The USP of “I WeirDO” is its claim of having been shot completely on iPhone and if one were not privy to that information, it'd be hard to say it was, because the film looks excellent. The first half adopts an odd, portrait mode aspect ratio and while it takes some getting used to, it succeeds in establishing a limited world for the protagonists. Shots are carefully thought out and composed and bright colours fill the life of the characters. Music is a constant companion, almost like it would be in a work from the silent era. This is oddly as much detrimental as it is an asset, because while the music is pretty good, moving from the whimsical to melancholic between the two halves, its constant presence soon becomes overwhelming and one would hope for it to subside, particularly in the quieter moments.
“I WeirDO” is a narrative that is cute and is wrapped in a lot of love and loneliness. It is quite an accomplished tale of a love blossoming and withering. But most importantly, it is a work that heralds the coming of a strong talent in Liao Ming-yi and I, for one, am excited to see what he does next.
