YOLO - What’s The Secret To A Hot, Spicy, And Burning Life?

When we talk about YOLO, we associate it with doing something risky, because "you only live once" right? Interestingly, this is the title of the Chinese film starring Jia Ling who is also the director. Though we have seen many films with an actor-director role but with this one, she also went the extra mile by doing something really transformative which showed her dedication in making the film.

YOLO in the Mandarin title is 热辣滚烫 (Rè là gǔntàng) roughly translate to “hot, spicy, boiling, burning life” which would also mean adding some spice to life that has become bland which was the initial situation of the main character Du Leying (Jia Ling) who lives a sedentary life, no motivation to find work, and is overweight. She is pushed by her family to at least get a job but is quite stubborn to do so. However, due to certain events, she is forced to leave their home and get a job on her own.

Following another set of events, she meets Hao Kun (Lei Jiaying) who teaches boxing. This now gets interesting with her enjoying the sport as well as the company of Hao Kun. Not to spoil, but she also got into an amazing transformation as the story progresses. But along the way, there are also a lot of struggles she faced in pursuing her dreams. With this you would now see how dedicated Jia Ling is for the film which no other director-actor has done.

The movie is also an adaptation of the 2014 Japanese film 100 Yen Love which is well suited to the Chinese setting. The ensemble of characters around Du Leying have interesting roles for her character development and can either be someone you would love or hate. But indeed these are things she needs to work with as something she would get inspiration or drive to do a leap of faith, well that is why it’s YOLO.

The film has a rollercoaster of emotions as it also reflects the audience to feel and experience being in the shoes of Du Leying. Showing us our insecurities, and what things in the real world that can make or break us. Despite us having a lot of things demotivating us, we push through and continue and eventually reach that goal.

YOLO did entertain us with its comedy and drama, but it also left us with life lessons that we might have forgotten or were afraid to remember because it was too painful. It did let us to reflect on these scenarios and probably it sparked something inside us to move from our bland, easy, and lazy lifestyle to someone who now takes risks, find love, get hurt, but in the end continues and win at least once.

YOLO is now showing in PH cinemas and distributed by Columbia Pictures.