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Review | My Missing Valentine movie review: Japanese remake also known as One Second Ahead, One Second Behind replicates the problems of Taiwanese romantic fantasy

  • In the wake of the #MeToo movement, Chen Yu-hsun’s romantic fantasy My Missing Valentine winning best film at the 2020 Golden Horse Awards seemed a misstep
  • The Japanese remake attempts to address some of the concerns it raised, and gender-swaps the central characters, but is as packed with problems as the original

Reading Time:2 minutes
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Kaya Kiyohara as Reika in a still from My Missing Valentine (category IIA; Japanese), directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita. Masaki Okada and Rion Fukumuro co-star.

2/5 stars

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In 2020, Taiwanese filmmaker Chen Yu-hsun’s romantic fantasy My Missing Valentine was the surprise winner in that year’s Golden Horse Awards, scooping the prizes for best film, best director and best original screenplay.
Not only did it mark the first time a comedy had taken top honours since Stephen Chow Sing-chi’s Kung Fu Hustle in 2005, but its success came despite deeply problematic issues in its story relating to consent that felt wholly out of step with the post-#MeToo climate of the time.

Three years on, Nobuhiro Yamashita’s Japanese-language remake – also known as One Second Ahead, One Second Behind – attempts to address some of these concerns, without altering the sweep of the central narrative.

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By switching the genders of the two central characters, he renders the questions of consent more muted; however, this significant change inadvertently produces new flaws.

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Masaki Okada inherits the role of the unassuming post office worker played by Patty Lee Pei-yu, who lives life one second faster than the world around him.

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