Facing Windows and Tempting Heart

Both these titles are English translations of the originals. La Finestra di Fronte is an Italian film and Xin Dong, a Taiwanese/Hong Kong one. (I have to resort to hanyu pinyin since I don't have Chinese script on my computer).

Both these films have theme songs set to pop music that instead of coming across as cheesy, work really well for the movies.

I won't list the lyrics but the gist of the Chinese song is about remembering a love from the past and wondering where he or she is now. It goes roughly like this: He lives only in my heart now, and his memory accompanies each breath I take (which sounds like another song, but I'm going to ignore this; the song really is a lot nicer in Mandarin). What else: the pain of not being able to recall his smell, his voice. Hmm, maybe someone else should be doing the translation. I think I'll have to ask LK to help me out. Thank goodness I married a fellow whose Mandarin far surpasses my own.

The movie is a terrible (as in too effective) tearjerker, starring Gigi Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro. And I got suckered into watching it after my godsister and FatGirl said it was one of their favorite films. The airport scene at the end really broke my heart.

The English title for La Finestra di Fronte is Facing Windows, and the film has a nice subplot about two neighbors with facing windows, played by Giovanna Mezzogiorno (her last name literally means mid-day) and Raoul Bova. Raoul Bova, I repeat! Even with those Clark Kent glasses, he is a dream. Then again, so is Giovanna Mezzogiorno, who really lights up the screen with her face. Those eyes, that hair. To continue, the main plot is about Giovanna's friendship with a strange old man her husband finds wandering the streets of downtown Rome. That story is the more compelling one. The one with Raoul Bova, (again) is a heartbreaker, but less interesting.

Anyhoo, I really like the soundtrack for the film, composed by Andrea Guerra. It has an old Spanish tune, "Historia De Un Amor" or "story of a love," and a terrific end credits track, "Gocce di Memoria," which means "drops of memory." The English titles sound really corny, but the songs are great. I wish I could offer a link, but there weren't any I could find.

Posted by Monoceros at January 15, 2005 12:09 AM