The Shoe Fairy (aka: Renyu Duoduo) — dvd movie review
Uh-oh, I just discovered that I’m a shoe whore. I’ve always bought way too many shoes, but only recently I’ve been actually wearing them like a girl and not a guy, which means I’m not just wearing one favorite pair until they basically fall apart anymore. Oh what a joy it is to cycle! For the longest time, those other “unchosen” soles would be tucked away in the closet, waiting for their chance to see sunlight and be worn to death. Seeing all the unworn shoes in the closet in the Taiwanese dramedy The Shoe Fairy made me weep for them.. well, no not really, I’m not that crazy yet.
The Shoe Fairy is a fairytale at its core with a cute-y cute princess (Vivian Hsu), a kind handsome prince (Duncan Lai/Chow), witty surrealist cinematography, tons of bright colors and a vivid narration (by Andy Lau) to match. Think of it as the Taiwanese answer to Amelie. The tragic bits in the beginning are glossed over the way fairytales do it, describing a little girl’s inability to walk, making shoes basically unnecessary. Parallels are drawn between her plight and her favorite storybook, The Little Mermaid. Through an inconceivable miracle (read: extensive reconstructive surgery), the girl gains motility and grows up with a justifiable shoe fetish, frequenting a shop that has a little underlying pixie dust of its own.
Girl meets boy (in this case, a dentist with a lobby full of hos) and they fall in love in the most adorable possible way. Her name is “Dodo” and his is “Smiley”, Smiley the Dentist. She bakes him the cutest cake ever. He stacks hats on his head to block the sun from her sleeping eyes. How can you stand it?? Well, for one, The Shoe Fairy doesn’t employ a lot of dialogue. It relies on repetition of events which become bittersweet at the pinnacle points where the love story (as in any fairy tale) undergoes its ill trials, one such is the dentist asking his love to ease off on the shoe shopping. Aiyaa!
As for Chris and my love story/shoe story, he needn’t worry. I am a very frugal cat, even for my outrageous and/or prepster taste, which is why I want to take this opportunity to thank Heather for selling me a boatload of Ferragamos on the ultra ultra cheap right before she had a freak leg injury accident of her own. Perhaps there are Shoe Fairies (perhaps Shoe Demons?) out there.
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