2003, Comedy
Director: Barbara Wong
Cast: Karena Lam, Candy Lo, Roy Chow

Karena (Karena Lam) is an aspiring writer who has a thing for her editor Jason whom she has never met. Candy (Candy Lo) is a tarot card fortune teller desperate for true love.  Jean (Roy Chow) just wants to make money. These characters along with a few others all live in a flat partying and playing truth or dare. One night at party, the ultimate dare is placed upon them. They must achieve their ultimate goal within a year or eat ***censored*** literally.

It is a very fun film. When American filmmakers try to do something like this (American Pie comes to mind), they absolutely fail. I think it’s due to their concentration of just trying to hit some bullshit punch lines or stupid pay offs.  That’s not a case here. Director Barbara Wong did enough controlling that it doesn’t get too wacky and out of place when it possibly could. Like I mentioned earlier, there are quite a few characters and it is impossible to develop each one completely in a little over 90 mins. Some are more focused than others. Overall it does work. The film is much more concerned about the characters and their situations rather than the overall story. One might not be satisfied because of lack of conclusion or resolution from every characters at the end, but Truth or Dare ends on an uplifting note.

The performances by every cast member are so energetic. You can feel they are having a lot of fun and it shows. In fact, I would not be surprised if they were playing themselves in it. Even at some wacky moments, none of them are annoying. They are very natural and real.

This isn’t anything new. We have seen this before. But it is worth a look. It is something you can throw it in your DVD player as background movie.

Shogo is an award-award winning filmmaker currently hard at work on a new project. Asian Fever is his weekly column devoted to Asian cinema and related topics.