Watch "The Ambiguous Focus" first and without this! It succeeded this movie in every way possible. I went into depth about how much I love that sequel series in a review of mine (look that up on my account please!) but this prequel movie was not it. I'm sorry to those that love it, but this was not my cup of tea AT ALL. Okay that was a small rant, now moving on to the actual review.

This movie was definitely different in tone to the sequel series. Like what the actual f*** how is this the same director for both!? I literally had to double check that it was the same actors even though I knew it was lol and the correct prequel film. I get that the characters are meant to be 10 years younger (ie.18ish) in this so it's a lot lighter in tone which makes sense. But holy crap this must've thrown fans for a loop (like me) who watched TAF first and then this after! I was literally tripping the entire time dude, I'll give it to the actors they are versatile. I hope they get more of the drama dark stuff though because that was where it was attttt. I wonder if they (the creators of this) were literally going for such a huge contrast? Like light vs. dark, early love vs. late love, teen audience vs. adult audience?

So the movie has a comic book/manga-like format to it with the text blurbs and sketched in exclamations. Which was alright. But again because the dialogue was so fast (one of the only issues I had with TAF) it was so hard to keep up. The music was also really annoying, overly loud and distracting. The characters of Nan and Zhe are more like cartoon character stereotypes in this, not realistic at all. Like the athletic type and nerd/nervous type together type of vibe. Watching this it made me thank the lord that Nan's character is completely different in the sequel because in this he got on my NERVES. Just an annoying flirt and "tough guy" for most of it. I guess you could chalk that up to "development" and aging but I don't really buy it. Even in the flashbacks that they used from this or added in from this time into TAF it was a completely different feel. It's a wonder how they took any clips from this and utilized them in both forums without changing the feel of the sequel.

So there is some overlap obviously. Very little but there's some (again not necessary to watch this at all before TAF or even after lol). Like we saw that Nan was a swimmer, but nothing about Zhe being a literal genius. He's a writer in the sequel sure but not a mathematician. So weird! I can also see in this alittle more now as to why Nan would think in the future he's actually inferior to Zhe because of the intelligence. Him helping him with work throughout college and stuff to pass, but again represented and worded SO MUCH BETTER in the sequel. The only think plot wise that I can say I liked in this movie is seeing the dynamic between Nam and his dad, which was a slight question mark in the sequel.

I am so so SO glad I and others got to see what these actors were really really capable of first and the writing/story development. I'm also conflicted because without this it could've been just a perfect stand-alone series. Prequels tend to set off alarms for me because there's such a thing as telling too much. Which is what this was exactly. But it makes me think if it was more similar in tone and in script ability would it have been better? Probably! Doesn't mean I still wouldn't of thought it was unnecessary, but it wouldn't of made me annoyed watching it. We get more than enough exposition in the series with a flew flashbacks to know these two found each other in school. Amongst all of the amazing acting, which couldn't be utilized here because the script doesn't demand that. Literally the movie ends with zero indication that these two could be in love like they are in the sequel, which is at 100% and so strong. I mean I'll forget all about this movie but the sequel series will remain with me forever. So that's what counts. Everyone is different in what they like, I much prefer the latter. Also random final thought, where's Chunzi (aka. Zhe's bff in the sequel)? Wouldn't he make some type of appearance? Or did they meet after college? Idk whatever, it just would've sucked more to see him anyways in this.