Movie Review: At Cafe 6 (PG13)

Jul 13, 2016 04:00 pm

I really wanted to like teen drama At Cafe 6, an adaptation of Taiwanese author Neal Wu's novel. I'm a sucker for coming-of-age Asian flicks such as So Young (2013) and Our Times (2015).

But At Cafe 6 does not belong with these greats.

Set in 1996, the story revolves around high school boys Minlu (Dong Zijian) and Bozhi (Austin Lin), who fall in love with their classmates Xinrui (Cherry Ngan) and Xinyi (Ouyang Nini).

Its attempt at combining humour and nostalgia comes across as forced, resulting in cheesy dialogue.

My main beef is the casting of actors from different cities to play Taiwanese students. Dong is from Beijing, Ngan is a Hong Konger, and their accents give them away.

I'm all for diversity, but not for films where authenticity is key.