You Are the Apple of My Eye

"You Are the Apple of My Eye" (那些年，我們一起追的女孩, 2011) — watch online on iFILM. Written and directed by Giddens Ko from his own semi-autobiographical novel, this Taiwanese coming-of-age romance stars Ko Chen-tung and Michelle Chen.

Ko Ching-teng is the class troublemaker, indifferent to grades and proud of every infraction. He gets assigned the seat directly in front of Shen Chia-yi — top student, school celebrity, the one every boy in the friend group has fallen for. Ko claims not to care. He does. The story moves through high school and into early adulthood, tracing the years between a first crush and the particular feeling that arrives when life takes a different shape than you imagined.

Giddens Ko published the novel before directing the film, and the real Shen read the book about herself before seeing the screen version — a detail that tells you everything about the sincerity behind the project. The film broke box office records in Taiwan and ran massively across Hong Kong and mainland China. Stream "You Are the Apple of My Eye" online on iFILM.