First off.

#50ShadesOfKris #LoveShouldntHurt countdown pic of the day from #SomewhereOnlyWeKnow Theatres: http://t.co/wMiXteNKBM pic.twitter.com/kvr3TJJtF5

— China Lion Film (@chinalionfilm) February 12, 2015

What a wonderful thing for China Lion (the distributor of SOWK) to tweet out xD

#50ShadesOfKris #LoveShouldntHurt

Onto the actual review. There will be some spoilers.

YOU WERE WARNED.

Plot: 3.5/5

To be fair, it is pretty run-of-the-mill. It's one of those storylines where a woman, jilted by her fiance on her wedding day, runs away to find a new life and happens to find a guy she falls in love with at first sight. That's the main line, however, there's a ton of other storylines, all of which are explored in the shallows, but never really get that deep. Basically, you have to watch the entire movie, then think about it or talk about it with another person to fully grasp it. Plus it isn't in a set order like, oh, Cloud Atlas, but instead intertwined which makes it a little confusing.

• Jin Tian (Wang Likun) x Pang Zeyang (Kris Wu) storyline: classic 'girl with stable high paying employment falls in love with handsome cellist'
  (A cellist is someone who plays the cello, just in case you didn't know)
• Jin Tian's age and status as a 'leftover woman', which rears its head hilariously as though Zeyang and her shouldn't come together.
• Pang Zeyang x Monica: Kris is a daddy in this movie (not that kind of daddy, you s), and is a loving father to a beautiful mixed race daughter. The mom didn't stick around after the daughter was born. There's a weird continuity error you'll catch a glimpse of that makes the explanation a little weird. Ni Ni (Sophia) clings to the idea that Mom misses her and Dad, hoping she'll come back someday.
• Zeyang's Mom and Dad: They are divorcing, but at the same time, his mother is suffering from some mental health issues. There's a lot of tension since Zeyang's father left to attend to business, causing strife. This is kind of in-the-background more than anything.
• Kris plays a single father who leaves his position in an orchestra to take care of his daughter and his mother. This is a much bigger upheaval than what Tian faces. I mean, come on.
• Lanxin (Xu Jinglei) x Josef Novak (Gordon Alexander): Lanxin is Tian's grandmother (really her father's aunt) and her passing is part of what causes Tian to set off for Prague, because that's where grandmother lived previously. She has a shawl and a sketchbook, not knowing much else. Later it is revealed that Lanxin fell in love with a Czech doctor by the name of Josef Novak at a clinic in Prague, where she worked as a nurse. They know each other for three years, but we only get glimpses, so the storyline isn't explored much at all.
• There's a continuation to the Lanxin x Josef arc, but it's cut short and we're meant to figure it out for ourselves through narration, which is really a cop out.

Overall, that's a lot of plot points to go over in 1 hour, 50 minutes. They could have easily made two movies out of this. As a novel, it could be a trilogy (easily). As fanfiction, a huge, long saga. There is that much to explore and yet they only get into the plot shallowly. There's not a lot of depth, unfortunately.

Script: 3/5

There's some cheesy one-liners in this, but it is a romance movie, so of course it would. There's also a great scene where Tian's friend, Shanshan, compares Zeyang and their friend Luo Ji (who couples up with Shanshan), to vampires from Twilight. Kris can sparkle, it's all good. Otherwise, the script does its work. The English lines are done well enough that they don't feel forced or improperly constructed.

Best line: "Even if I go blind, I will still recognize you. I will see you with my heart."

Another great line: "If there's another war, if the postal service collapses, trains stop running. Even if the city is no more, the Vlatva River will still run, and I will be here waiting for you."

Well, . The lines are not direct quotes, by the way.

Music: 2/5

Not enough of Kris' song. They used the first opening lines and cut it off before the chorus. Shame. Otherwise, it's pretty average again.  

Cinematography & Production: 5/5

This was a really pretty movie. Shot on location in Prague, Czech Republic. The entire city of Prague is beautiful in itself, so it automatically provides stunning aerial views and very cultured backdrops. The editing is well done, it's shot pretty nicely with lots of bokeh to give it a dream-like feeling. Costuming is well done, as is casting for extras to make believable scenes. Although the Pang residence (Kris' character and his character's mom) is really something else with a lot of European antiques crammed inside it which drives home the fact that he and his parents had been living in Europe since he was young. They also go into a lot of real places as opposed to building sets, which is a very nice change from other productions. There seems to be a lot of close-in shots on Kris so his face is prominently in the frame, but that's for the fans.

Acting: 4.5/5

Kris can act, guys. Seriously. He can look brooding, angry, sad, happy, haughty, and yet also kind of detached. Wang Likun does a great job too. She's very animated, shows a wide range of emotions. She's 30, but acts way more spritely than even Sophia, and she plays Kris' daughter for goodness sake. Gordon Alexander, not so much. Granted his character has gone through a great loss and so it would make sense for him to be stoic and kind of stunned for most of the time. Lanxin warms him up and we get to see some emotion out of him. Xu Jinglei, not so much either. The latter two of this grouping aren't actors per se, but a stunt performer and a director (this movie's director), respectively. Overall, everyone who they roped into this project acted well enough (it's a romance movie).

Overall: 4/5

It's not high drama. It's not a super y romance (it's rated G in Canada). It's also not something so bleak that it makes you hate the world. It's a fun romance that also reminds you about the tragedy of lost love. Unbearable separation and the toll it takes on people, sometimes making it hard to continue. Yet it's also about optimism, that no matter what happens, there's always hope that things turn out alright. Plus it has lots of Kris screen time.

Go see the movie. Support Kris.

Additional points:

There's no scene of his Mom calling him 'Little fatty' and the awkward guffaw that comes from Tian. There's also no mention of that "All the girls like him" line. Nor the "I'm not trying to find a boyfriend" with the great comeback of "I have no such plans either... to find a boyfriend" which is kind of disappointing.

You can turn this into fanfiction so easily. Any ship involving Kris will have an easy time as long as you don't mind Kris being a suave multi-talented cellist fluent in Chinese, English and Czech.

People laugh at the "my parents are business owners" line from Kris, which happens at a lot of showings (more than the one we went to)

Don't be afraid of the EXO-L, they are a fragmented, passionate bunch.