Back in 2014, for many teen love stories readers were going crazy over Jenny Han's To All The Boys I've Loved Before and I was one of them. Honestly, the book was definitely one of my favourite books since Harry Potter. I don't think I have ever picked up and finished a book in less than 48 hours and stalking every bookstore for the next book in the series - again, since Harry Potter. Jenny Han's To All The Boys I've Loved Before made me do that and so does her other books from the same series - P.S. I Still Love You and Always And Forever, Lara Jean. I don't know if I can say the same thing with the movie.
Saturday is about to end soon for me but one thing that I was able to do was to watch the second part of Jenny Han's adapted screenplay of my favourite book and before I began my review of the movie, both the first and the second part, let me just take a trip down in book history. To All The Boys I've Loved Before revolved around the teenage girl who goes by the name of Lara Jean Covey, although sometimes she call herself Lara Jean Song. Lara Jean has never dated and never had a boyfriend until her younger sister, out of anger, sent out her secret love letters to all the boys Lara Jean has ever loved before - that is what she thinks. Truly, those boys are just a few boys that she had a crush on and her biggest crush is her neighbour who happens to also be her big sister's boyfriend, Josh. One of the boys happen to be Peter Kavinsky. Fast forward, after all her letters were sent out, every boy were shocked but Peter, with a plan to make his ex-girlfriend jealous, who also happens to be the story antagonist, Jen, convinced Lara Jean to be his pretend girlfriend. So things went into and in the process Josh too became jealous but both Lara Jean and Peter found out they started to have feelings for each other. And in the end of the story - spoiler alert - the two did not end up together. Well, they did in the second book but just to cut the story short, the two ended up together in the third book too.
Now, come to the movies, honestly, I was so in love with the book that I wasn't sure if I was looking forward to the movie. The books were written in a way that perfectly depicted every teenage girl's first love. From how the first phase started and how it intertwined into the second phase and all the obstacles faced as young couples moved to the next phase. And I guess, I had a strong sentiment to the story so much that it was hard for me to watch the movie.
When news came out about the first book premiering on Netflix, it made me cringe even more because, no offense to Netflix, I am a subscriber but with a lower budget, the story might not be able to capture the sentiment that I held so dearly to the books. Then the casts were introduced and I got even more disappointed. Maybe not Lana Condor who played Lara Jean because she sort of look like my imaginary version of Lara Jean but Noah Centinio as Peter Kavinsky, well, my version of the most handsome boy who is beautiful with dark hair and deserve background music because he looks so good is more leaning towards the likes of Chace Crawford or Shawn Mendes, Not hating on Noah at all, this is just my own imagination when I was reading the book. Even with John Ambrose McClaren, Jordan Fisher is a good looking guy but again my imagination of him was closer to the likes of Corbin Bleu.
So most can probably guess that the movies were definitely not my cup of tea. More than disappointed, I was actually more discouraged but that didn't stop me from trying to watch the two movies which I did and unfortunately, both movies did not tickle my fancy at all despite the growing popularity both the movies and the actors are getting. Again, I have no hate or disrespect for any of the actors, I just had my own imagination of how the people in the book looked like. Nonetheless, for those who have not yet read the book and want to get yourself a copy, you can get them through MPH Online or Kinokuniya Online. If you want to get the hardcover version, drop me an e-mail at fiftytwofourteen@gmail.com. Always and Forever, Fiftytwo Fourteen.
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