When Love Comes (2010)

Original title

當愛來的時候

Directed by

Chang Tso-chi

Genre

drama film, romance film

Country

Taiwan

Runtime

1h 48m

Rating

6.9 of 10 from 19 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

An underage girl in Taiwan becomes pregnant before marriage. She deals with her family and her own feelings as she figures out what to do. The story shows how the women in her family take charge of their lives.

family dramaearnestemotionally rawslow-pacedtenderbittersweetgroundedintimate

What happens

When Love Comes (Chinese title: 當愛來的時候) is the 6th film directed by Taiwanese filmmaker, Chang Tso-Chi. A mixture of social drama and tragicomedy, When Love Comes, unlike Chang Tso-Chi's previous works that focused on male subjects and themes, When Love Comes explores, for the very first time, the female perspective, with the main theme revolving around an underage girl who becomes pregnant before marriage. "It is the women who lead the world in this film. They are the makers, they take the decisions for themselves and their families." It is a film that delves into the themes of romance, kinship, and personal growth. When Love Comes was invited to be screened and featured at numerous international film festival and awards, including the BFI London International Film Festival as a showcase film, the 10th Kaohsiung Film Festival in Taiwan as the opening film, and the Busan International Film Festival in Asia as part of the Masterclass section. It received fourteen nominations, including Best Narrative Feature and Best Director, at the 47th Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards, making When Love Comes the film with the most nominations at the festival. In the end, it won four awards, including Best Narrative Feature, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and the Audience Choice Award. "A chronicle of displacements, cultural, familial, adolescent, and romantic, When Loves Comes is also in its own way an ode to female solidarity as well as a coming-of-age tale as its feisty young heroine gains the courage to step into herself while preparing for the role of matriarch in accepting her responsibility towards those around her." When Love Comes explores various forms of dependency. On the one hand, the material dependency forces the family to hold onto the seafood restaurant and succumb to the influence of the local gangsters. On the other hand, emotional dependencies can be seen as both burdensome and supportive. The film delves into the concept of family, emphasizing that family is not only made up of members connected by blood. Instead, it advocates for an alternative notion of family that prioritizes a sense of community, where individuals care for each other without emphasizing degrees of kinship. Within this framework, When Love Comes also examines the theme of motherhood and the diverse expressions it can take. Ultimately, When Love Comes is a remarkable coming-of-age story, wherein a 16-year-old young woman discovers the love bestowed upon her and realizes its transformative power for everyone in her family. In When Love Comes, Chang Tso-chi continues his concern for lower-middle-class family issues and skillfully handles the conflicts within families that most people have experienced. One of the most striking aspects is the realistic childbirth scene, where Chang Tso-chi even includes a real newborn baby and authentically portrays the process of cutting the umbilical cord, adding a heightened sense of realism to the film. Additionally, actress Chiu Hsiu-Min, who played Mou Zhongfu's mother in When Love Comes and who won the Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Horse Awards for her role as Ah Chung's mother in Chang Tso-chi's 1996 film Ah Chung, made a final on-screen appearance in this film despite her illness. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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