Till the End of the World (2018)

Watching this movie was a blessing for me. All elements of this movie were so perfectly in tune it made me feel as if I was amongst the actors in Antartica in their plight. It was like every lash of the wind and piercing glare of the sun were mutually experienced. It's rare to find a movie that makes you feel like you have lived and experienced the story. In a matter of 117 minutes, I traveled to Antartica, loved, lost and survived.

The music for this movie was so perfectly fused into the story that it harmonized with the emotions of the actor and helped to amplify the emotions felt in certain scenes. It was subtle yet effective. In fact upon reflection out of all the things I observed from this movie and noticed the music would be the last. And that is because it was so perfectly inserted and orchestrated into the movie. Graceful yet fierce at certain moments.

The actors were both equally pivotal to the progression and success of this movie. Both strong veteran actors who breathed life into the roles they played.
Mark's rendition of Wu Fu Chen was brilliantly portrayed. His character never ceased to bring humor after moments of utter despair and hopelessness. This kept me on an emotional rollercoaster of laughter, tears, and anticipation. To put it simply this man is a genius and I look forward to experiencing his future work.
Yang's Ru Yi was equally captivating. She was able to emotively showcase the breakdown of a strong, independent, intelligent woman as well as instill hope into the viewers and Fu Chen using her incredible inner strength and strong will. Both characters had amazingly strong wills to be able to fight and emerge victorious against nature herself.

It would be a shame to sleep on this movie. If your curious about what I just went through for the past 117 minutes then, by all means, dive into the story.

Consider it a gift from your dear drama addict friend Ghost Princess (GP)
Your welcome ^^

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There really is no need to go to the end of the world.

Despite the two big name stars, this movie about a survival romance in the Antartica is just not bad - it is not especially enjoyable or memorable. It was definitely visually stunning but that is not in and of itself enough - after all, it is a movie not a documentary on Antartica. I tried to like this but while there were some good moments, my overwhelming reaction was that it was boring and forgettable. The love story around an unlikely couple stranded together unexpectedly is not unique but it is a simple formula that often works. The basic problem is that aside from the extremely challenging environment, it must also be super boring to be stranded in Antartica. That is why I have great sympathy for what the two leads were up against. I truly don't think there are that many actors out there that could have been able to pull off this kind of role without ultimately boring the audience. I mean watching someone talk to penguins and seals is only entertaining (to kids) in cartoons. Mark Chao and Yang Zishan did have good chemistry and some of the scenes between them were quite moving. But overall their chemistry was not breathtaking the way it would need to be for this kind of performance that really revolves solely around two characters. Mark Chao's excessive face fur also may have hurt his performance. He is an actor with fantastic facial expressions but in some of the moments that truly mattered the fur really got in the way and his expressions were largely obscured. I suspect this is why he wasn't always convincing in conveying Fuchon's (Chao) love for and dedication to Ruyi (Yang). Indeed, while we can debate over whether he looks better with some face fur, this actor's most successful roles to date have been ones in which he has exposed more face.

It was a also likely a critical mistake to have Ruyi (Yang) break her leg from the very beginning , rendering her pretty much immobile throughout. That left Fuchun a one man show for large chunks of the movie and also limits the scope of the interactions between the couple. While that may well be true to the book, in the movie they could have exercised some artistic license and had her break it later on. After all, Antartica is a very dangerous place with all that slippery ice... it could have ideally occured in the latter half of the movie without much changing the storyline or ending. There was a bit of a Chinese twist to the story at the end that helped at the margin but by then I was falling asleep. While I did like and empathize with the couple, this firmly sticks into the only if you are really bored (for example: stuck in Antartica) and need to pass some time category.

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