Para Para Sakura (2001)

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Review - Para Para Sakura (2001)

Dir: Jingle Ma
Actors: Aaron Kwok, Cecilia Cheung, Tien Niu, Chen Qing-xiang (Ah Niu,) Kazuhiko Nishimura etc

Who better to get to act in a "dance" movie than the Sky King of Dance Aaron Kwok? While I think that Aaron is cute in a pretty boy way and I think that he throws really fun concerts and he was cute in a sort of "nezha" way in TVB's "The God and Demons of Zu Mountain," I've never thought of Aaron as an ACTOR.

But Aaron is surprisingly enjoyable in this film, just as I found him surprisingly enjoyable in "And I Hate You So." He plays a rather goofy dance instructor with puppy dog eyes called Phillip. Phillip sees the world in black and white, literally. He can't see color till he sees Cecilia Cheung's Yuriko, except that only she's in colour, the rest of his vision is still b&w.

Yuriko is the daughter of a rich and powerful woman (Tien Niu) who's head of a huge departmental store chain in Japan. Yuriko is on the run because she does not want to marry Kazuhiko Nishimura's character. Yuriko bumps into Phillip and they take to the road.

A little bit of information on what Para Para is. Para Para is a dance that's inspired from the Para Para Dancing video game. The game requires the player to perform a number of set moves defined on the screen and is an advanced version of the Dance Dance Revolution game. Sakura simply means cherry blossoms.

In spite of a title like "Para Para Sakura," the film isn't really a dance film. There is a "kung-fu" style dance in the beginning which sees Phillip fighting against a rival dancer which is kind of cool. But we don't actually see much Para Para dancing till the film's end. Other than that there is only one other major dance sequence that I can remember.

The film is pure fluff but is still rather enjoyable in a goofy, innocent way. The humour is silly and quite funny but never juvenile. And there is a very silly take on the "you jump, I jump" line from the Titanic. Some of the humour is language base so it'll work better if you understand Mandarin or Cantonese.

The film is set in Mainland China and Japan. Not surprisingly, Japan looks good. But I'm surprised by how beautiful the cityscapes of Shanghai and the town they go to look.

However, I have one major problem with the film and that's Cecilia Cheung. Sorry Eric.  I find her and her character annoying. Yuriko is very spoilt and I can't figure out why anyone would find her remotely attractive but then again, I'm not a guy.  Still, I'll be fair, although I don't like her and her character, "Para Para Sakura" is still worth at least one viewing. 

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