I often marvel at how Western film titles are being translated in Chinese for the Hong Kong market (which can be different from the China market). Take “Definitely Maybe” as an example. It is translated into “愛情三選一” that loosely means “Choose One from Three in the Name of Love”. OK, the Chinese title is a lot more poetic and cuter than it sounds in English. And it definitely relates to the plot of the film better. My favorite movie title translation is still “愛.誘.罪” for “Atonement”. The three characters literally mean love, temptation, and crime, which sum up what the story is about. And because of the phonetic similarity of the second Chinese character, the title has a dual meaning of “Love is Crime” when spoken, which also coincidentally reveals a slice of the story.
Back to “Definitely Maybe” – a title inspired by a line from possibly the most memorable scene – the plot is as simple as what the Chinese translated title suggests: choose one girl from three. There are a college sweetheart (Elizabeth Banks), a reporter (Rachel Weisz), and a copy girl (Isla Fisher). On the day Hayes (Ryan Reynolds) receives a divorce paper, his 10 years old daughter Maya (Abigail Breslin) suddenly gets curious about what her daddy’s love life is like after a lesson on … sex education. To make the storytelling interesting, Hayes uses fictional names so as to keep the story engaging for Maya, and the audience I suppose. The film extends beyond the flashbacks into the present time of Maya and Hayes. By and large predictable but has its charm with a rather engaging, unusual, and entertaining storyline. There are quite a few memorable scenes as well.
I missed the little girl Abigail Breslin’s Oscar nominated film “Little Miss Sunshine” and she may be too young for me to remember her performance in “Raising Helen” and “The Princess Diaries 2”. I did enjoy her role as Zoe in “No Reservations” and am still a big fan of hers. Her role as Maya in “Definitely Maybe”, I guess, is rather limited. That’s one of my complaints (and I don’t really like the guy too!).
When Cynthia, TK, and I walked out of the movie theatre, we thought very hard on who Isla Fisher is. Out of all the (grown-up) girls, Isla Fisher is my favorite. When Cynthia mentioned “Wedding Crashers”, I still have no recollection. At home I did some research and ah-ha! She was one of the sisters in “Wedding Crashers” – the sex mania. OK, now I remember that I did like her in that film too. She has also acted in the famous Australia soap opera “Home and Away”. Looking at the period of time she was involved in that opera, very likely I may have watched some of the episodes back in UK when the series was (still is?) pretty big over there. Maybe memory does play funny tricks to us sometimes.
I was apprehensive when I first heard that the filmmakers are making a film out of my favorite chick-lit series “Shopaholic”. When I read that Isla Fisher is taking on the role of Rebecca Bloomwood, all my worries have melted away. Now, let’s hope that the scriptwriters are not going to screw up the plot. “Confessions of a Shopaholic” is only the first installment from Sophie Kinsella’s 5-book series (so far). The chance to see Isla Fisher more on screen is a definitely maybe.