You Are the Apple of My Eye

The story begins in 1994. An outstanding student, Shen Chia-yi, is popular among her teachers and classmates. Ko Ching-teng, a mischievous and poor student, claims that he has no interest in her, despite being her classmate since junior high school. When Chia-yi forgets her textbook, Ching-teng gives her his, pretending that he is the one who forgot, and is punished by the teacher. Touched, Chia-yi prepares practice exams for him to encourage him to get better grades, and they grow closer, with Ching-teng's grades gradually improving. Chia-yi stands up for Ching-teng against a teacher and is punished, earning Ching-teng's and his friends' respect. On graduation, Ching-teng enrolls at the National Chiao Tung University. Chia-Yi, who was ill during examinations and performed poorly, only manages to enter the National Taipei University of Education with her mediocre test results. Depressed and upset, she is consoled by Ching-teng, who calls her long-distance almost every night from his university. During the winter holiday season that year, the two go on their first "date", during which Ching-teng asks Chia-yi if she likes him. However, fearing she would say no, he decides that he would rather not hear her answer. Ching-teng later organizes a fight night and invites Chia-yi to watch, hoping to impress her with his strength, but instead she finds it childish and disturbing. This upsets Ching-teng, sparking a quarrel that causes the two to stop speaking. During the years after their split, Ching-teng has no contact with Chia-yi. He qualifies for a graduate research course at Tunghai University, where he begins writing stories online. The two briefly make contact after the 1999 Jiji earthquake, when Ching-teng calls to see if Chia-yi is okay. They both reflect that they were not fated to become a couple. Ching-teng begins writing a web novel inspired by their relationship. Years later, in 2005, Chia-yi calls Ching-teng to tell him that she is getting married. All of their old friends gather at the wedding, reminiscing about their youth and friendships. When they gather to congratulate the bride and groom, the friends demand to kiss the bride, and the groom jokingly responds that they must kiss him the way they would kiss her. Ching-teng surprises everyone by kissing the groom passionately. While doing so, he imagines sharing the kiss with Chia-yi instead, with all of the bittersweet memories of their youth being flashed back. ==Cast==

• Kai Ko as Ko Ching-teng (nicknamed "Ko-teng"), a mischievous schoolboy who later becomes a writer (Ko Ching-teng is the real name of the director, Giddens). • Michelle Chen as Shen Chia-yi, an outgoing student who consistently scores well in tests. Although she disdains boys less intelligent than herself, she decides to help Ching-teng improve his grades. In the process, she falls in love with him. • Owodog as Tsao Kuo-sheng (nicknamed "Lao Tsao"), one of Ching-teng's friends. He had a crush on Chia-yi, and once asked Ching-teng to deliver a love letter he had written for her. • Steven Hao as Hsieh Ming-ho (nicknamed "A-he"), one of Ching-teng's friends. He loves to eat, and is the butt of his friends' jokes due to this. He is the only person in the group who has dated Chia-yi. • Emerson Tsai as Liao Ying-hung, one of Ching-teng's best friends. He likes to crack jokes and perform magic tricks, and later becomes a librarian. • Yen Sheng-yu as Hsu Bo-chun (nicknamed "Boner"), one of Ching-teng's friends • Wan Wan as Hu Chia-wei, Chia-yi's best friend. She likes to draw pictures, and after graduating from school becomes a manga artist known as "The Queen of Blogs". ==Production==

Development You Are the Apple of My Eye is based on Giddens's semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. for example, Ching-teng and Chia-yi's fight actually took place over the phone, not in the rain as depicted. At first, the film was on a tight budget; Giddens used his entire savings and mortgaged his house to raise money, Mypaper reported that Giddens was attracted to her during their first meeting, saying that she resembled the real Shen Chia-yi. Giddens describes the two of them as "the Jay Chou and Jolin Tsai of the [Chinese] publishing world". The director said he chose the school because "he wanted so badly to see Ko Chen-tung and Michelle Chen in the school uniform that he remembered vividly". Giddens was also involved in some of this film's theme songs, including "Those Years" (). At first Giddens could not decide on the closing theme for this film; however, after hearing one of Japanese composer Mitsutoshi Kimura's new compositions he chose it and added lyrics. He asked the male lead actor to sing the song in the film, because he felt this would convey the song's original meaning. Giddens was extremely upset by this, and even personally went to Government Information Office to appeal. In Singapore, the film remained unedited, but it received a NC-16 rating, thus restricting the film to viewers above 16. The film was heavily edited for its mainland China release. The scene where a flag-raising ceremony was taking place was edited away, as were the scenes involving masturbation. In total, six scenes involving "negative sexual and pro-Taiwan content" were either edited away or changed. The director also had to add new scenes in order to make the story flow more smoothly after editing. ==Soundtrack==

The original soundtrack album for You Are the Apple of My Eye was released by Sony Music Entertainment Taiwan on 5 August 2011. It contains six songs with vocals and nine instrumental pieces that were used in this film. ==Release==

You Are the Apple of My Eye made its debut in competition at the 13th Taipei Film Festival on 25 June 2011. It then had its general release in Taiwan on 19 August 2011. Internationally, the film was released in Hong Kong and Macau on 20 October On 21 December, Giddens announced on his blog that the film passed the censorship board in China and would debut in that country on 6 January 2012. Giddens had previously expressed a wish for the film to be screened in China so Shen Chia-Yi, for whom he had made the film, could see it and comment. He apologized to viewers in China for being unable to deliver on his promise to show the full story, saying that he "blamed only himself". He added that he "did not think that the China's version was better [than the other overseas versions]." The film subsequently made its North American debut at the New York Asian Film Festival on 2 July 2012. It was later screened at the 2012 Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal. Giddens also announced that a sequel will be produced; it will begin production in 2013, and is expected to be released in cinemas in 2014. It became the most-watched film on television in Taiwan, having attracted an audience of almost 3 million people. In the 15 to 44 years old audience, it had an average rating of 7.14, with the rating peaking at 9.27 during the screening. It was also the most-watched television program on both cable and free-to-air networks in Taiwan. STAR Chinese Movies reportedly purchased the rights to the film for the price of NT$2 million (approx. US$69,000). ==Reception==

Box office You Are the Apple of My Eye grossed more than NT$$20 million at the Taiwanese box office during its soft launch. In total, the film earned over NT$420 million at the Taiwanese box office, making it the third-highest-grossing film of 2011 in Taiwan. and remained the highest-grossing film in Hong Kong cinemas for four consecutive weekends. During the final hours of 2011, it was announced that You Are the Apple of My Eye had grossed over HK$61.28 million, making it the all-time highest-grossing Taiwanese film at the Hong Kong box office. At the Macau box office, You Are the Apple of My Eye earned more than HK$100,000 in its opening weekend, with nearly 100-percent attendance. At the Chinese box office, You Are the Apple of My Eye became the most popular Taiwanese film, surpassing the previous record set by Cape No. 7 in 2008. It was the third-highest-earning film on its debut weekend, grossing about 27 million yuan. Critical response Maggie Lee of The Hollywood Reporter described the film as a "larky retro coming-of-age confection". Russell Edwards, reviewing for Variety, criticized the second part of this film, which he says is "unable to maintain the outlandish phallocentric humor of its first hour". He further criticized the last quarter of the film, which Edwards says "sees Giddens overestimating the charm of his own story". Yong Shu Hoong, writing for Singapore-based Mypaper, said that the "flashback sequences can reek of oversentimentality", although the reviewer added that "the thrills, rivalries and heartbreak associated with high school romance are well depicted with nostalgia and humour" and gave it a rating of 3 out of 5. The film was rated by Mtimes Movies as the "2nd Best Chinese Film of 2011". Film Business Asia gave the film a rating of 7/10, with Derek Elley describing it as "a confident feature" and "slickly packaged in every department", the latter making it "easy to miss the fact there's nothing at all original here". He praised the cast as "well-chosen individually and relaxed as an ensemble". He added, "apart from a slightly draggy second half, the material sustains itself at almost two hours, with generally trim editing by co-executive director Liao." He concluded by summarizing the film's plot as a "simple teenage rom-com, a will-they/won't-they between two opposites, but capped by a neat finale that does deliver some real emotion". ==Accolades==

A Japanese remake was released in 2018. A Thai remake titled My Precious was released in 2023. A South Korean remake of the same name starring Dahyun and Jung Jin-young premiered at the 29th Busan International Film Festival on 3 October 2024. ==Notes==