How Much Does Love Weigh?
The letter paper weighs 8 grams and the envelope weighs 10 grams. Therefore, a hand-written love letter weighs 18 grams. Given the technological age in which we live, one can easily express love via SMS, e-mail or a phone call and there would be no need for the old-fashioned love letter. It takes effort to fold the letter, put it in an envelope, affix the correct postage and finally carry 18 grams to the post office for mailing. Therefore, if you ever receive a hand-written love letter, you know the love weighs 18 grams.
The movie is about two good friends, Zihua (Alaric Tay) and Ah Hui (Adam Chen) who suspect their wives are cheating behind their backs. Therefore, they devised a very cunning plot to write love letters to each other's wives to test if they would reply (which would be proof of infidelity). Ah Hui's wife, Michelle (Yann Yann Yeo) is a sassy, high-strung modelling agent who is in constant contact with hunky male models. Zihua's wife, Xiao Tong (Magdalene See) is a ditsy hairstylist who loves trashy romance plots and is a straight talker. Ah Hui writes trashy love letters to Xiao Tong filled with every conceivable sappy love declarations (Please help me! I have been robbed. What happened? Please return my heart.) You get the idea. Zihua, on the other hand, fills his love letter to Michelle with literary metaphors (I am not imagining how lovely you look now but thinking how lovely you look imagining the two of us being in love) and quotes from famous love literature.
18 Grams of Love is a brilliant romantic comedy (directed by Yew Kwang Han) which manages to be silly but not slapstick (which is important in my opinion) and at the same time, convey an important message about effective communication to the audience. The two couples got so caught up in their intricate web of love letters that they forgot why they loved each other in the first instance. The seemingly innocent love letters test took on a life of its own amidst the lonely wives' frustrations at their marriage and the jealous husbands' anger at their wives' supposed infidelity.
Eventually, the truth comes to light and the couples learn an important lesson in communication. Besides the central theme of communication, I think the movie highlighted that it is all too easy to forget why you fell in love in the first place. When one gets too caught up with life or your insecurities, you forget what made you attractive to your partner and vice versa. Sometimes, all it takes is a step-back to think why you fell in love and expressing your love for them in 18 grams.
min on Saturday, April 12, 2008
