The Story of 90 Coins (2015) Review: A promise Strained Between Love and Ambition

There is a sense of gratification gained through pleasure and also through pain in love. This 9 mins short film, by Director Michael Wong, looks sharp and stands as the testimony of such gratifying experience. An interesting premise is set in this passionately narrated story by the Protagonists. The moments between the lead actors are elegantly orchestrated just as An Wei’s background score and balance the joy and despair in this emotionally invested relationship. It reminds me of Damien Chazelle’s La La Land (2016) where love is weighed against ambition.

Here, the lovers surmise that the moments in their lives are appealing, just as it seems in the beauty of Liwei Jian’s Cinematography in the film. They presume that the warmth in their connection would never get reduced to the coldness that covers the coins in a box that are stored in a corner of a shelf, left untouched. In any relationship, misunderstanding is the base for conflicts. Though the solution to their heart aches seems simple, i.e. Just talk things out it mildly grazes on those few minutes in the short film to show how it feels wrecking and confusing to opt those solutions. But the scenes could have been a little more convincing in the short span of time.

Also Check Out: Fast Film (2003)

The film registers that how it is inevitable to become the weakling in a relationship when one tries hard to fit in and when one cowers from the feelings. It makes you wonder what one could possibly sacrifice for those effortless charm to last till the end which always sweeps of one’s feet in the beginning of a bond. The emotional heft is wonderfully curved and inspire them to want more out of this fragile relationship. It is astonishingly rendered that how they crossed the easy-to-talk-to-each-other phase in their relationship and hit a “wall” where they defy to their time and their low spirits. It is extraordinarily ornamented by the grappling charisma of the leads.

The protoganists offer a sense of authenticity for us to pursue and to mourn with them through their enhanced emotions. Their youthfulness and frightening intensity are delivered fairly as emotional devices. It is shown how some moments in their lives make them to believe to lead them somewhere beautiful but it ends up fooling them and looks upon them for having such a slight of hope. They try to grab onto those shining little moments of hope but, all they are promised with, is a squashed pipe dream before it even begins to bloom. And one would ask, “Is this all because the mankind are conditioned to love the pain more than the love itself?”. The Story of 90 Coins is a compelling and a convincing watch.