VI - Lost Shadows

Both are convinced

that a sudden surge of emotion bound them together.

Beautiful is such a certainty,

but uncertainty is more beautiful.

Because they didn’t know each other earlier, they suppose that

nothing was happening between them.

What of the streets, stairways and corridors

where they could have passed each other long ago?

I’d like to ask them

whether they remember– perhaps in a revolving door

ever being face to face?

an “excuse me” in a crowd

or a voice “wrong number” in the receiver.

But I know their answer:

no, they don’t remember.

They’d be greatly astonished

to learn that for a long time

chance had been playing with them.

Not yet wholly ready

to transform into fate for them

it approached them, then backed off,

stood in their way

and, suppressing a giggle,

jumped to the side.

There were signs, signals:

but what of it if they were illegible.

Perhaps three years ago,

or last Tuesday

did a certain leaflet fly

from shoulder to shoulder?

There was something lost and picked up.

Who knows but what it was a ball

in the bushes of childhood.

There were doorknobs and bells

on which earlier

touch piled on touch.

Bags beside each other in the luggage room.

Perhaps they had the same dream on a certain night,

suddenly erased after waking.

Every beginning

is but a continuation,

and the book of events

is never more than half open.

"Love at First Sight" by Wislawa Szymborsk

The poem written above can greatly describe the film Turn Left Turn Right based on the book A Chance of Sunlight by Taiwanese author Jimmy Liao. In the urban streets of Taipei roam the struggling musician John Liu and an aspiring writer Eve Choi among the vast crowds teeming the city with their half-filled hopes and soaked umbrellas.

Both protagonists share the same address, same building, yet different rooms where their beds' headboards are separated by a wall. But they’ve never met. When he leaves his building he turns right, and when she leaves her building, she turns left. We can see them almost crossing paths on a daily basis. Or riding bicycles heading to a different direction.Or an escalator – one going up one going down. Or at the metro station – one boarding the train the other one exiting. They were just like parallel lines – destined to never meet. But as the film’s tagline says: Even parallel lines might cross paths some day.

On one day they finally crossed paths, only learning that they have already met years ago in an amusement park, when both their schools had organized a field trip to the same place. They remembered exchanging phone numbers but the two never got in touch because of Eve losing her bag on the train along with John's number. They laughed about their past and exchanged numbers again without even asking for each other's names and parted hurriedly due to a coming rainstorm.

But destiny played with them again. The phone numbers written in two pieces of paper were smudged by the rain. Despite that, they strive to contact each other despite all the odds. You can feel the excitement and disappointment as we feel hopeless the two would never meet.

Honestly speaking, I'm not really into romantic-comedy chick flicks. But after watching Turn Left Turn Right, I was in awe. It left me with a warm and fuzzy feeling because of the charming characters and a plot that really touched my heart. This film was really funny, romantic, delightful, and beautiful.