Just a Nice Guy by Wong Fu Productions - Observations
A look at “Just a Nice Guy” by Wong Fu Productions, proving that indy shorts can fall into the the same false cliches that romantic Hollywood movies does.
I came across a short independent film on YouTube recently by Wong Fu Productions called “Just a Nice Guy.” The video is divided into three parts and I’m going to give my thoughts on them in order.
Part 1: The Problem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrnK-qPARYI
We’re introduced to “nice guy” Nick and his dilemma. He meets a girl through his social group named Amy whom he’s in the “friend” zone with. Another guy in the group, Joe, takes notice of Nick and gives him a speech about what women are *really* looking for and why the nice guy truly finishes last. He invites him to a party to prove his theory. Eh, so far so good. Perfectly displays what it’s like to be a nice guy. Nick’s female friend in the first few minutes talking about how “happy he’s going to make some girl someday” and that “she has a friend who’d like a nice guy like him” really tugs on your heart for the guy.
Part 2: The Lesson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMGeWGvDHTA
At the party, Nick attempts to follow Joe’s advice by acting “cool,” but he comes off looking silly and it completely backfires on him. But it’s not because Joe was necessarily wrong, it’s because the girls saw right through Nick as he was acting completely incongruent and phony with his normal character. You can’t simply transform your identity overnight. Besides, Nick was acting ridiculous…you wouldn’t see Johnny Depp acting like that.
Nick overhears Amy bragging to her friend Kristen about an upcoming date. As he’s standing outside bummed, Kristen confronts Nick fully aware of his real feelings for Amy and does makes a great point that if he treats her like everyone else, she will only see him as a friend. “If the girl doesn’t know, you can’t blame her.” Which to a degree is true, I know that you have to flirt a little to make your interest known. Unfortunately I don’t think she means this, I feel that she’s saying to “admit and tell her all your feelings,” and we know how that really goes in real life…
Part 3: The Risk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5lJL2peXik
Aaaaaannnd I was right. Nick finally confronts Amy about his feelings and says things like the following:
- “…and please don’t be weirded out…”
- “…I just had to let you know.”
- “I’m sorry if you didn’t want to hear it.”
“Please don’t be weirded?” “I’m sorry?” Dude, why you apologizing for being attracted to someone? Geez. Naturally we get the typically happy ending where Amy says she feels the same, cancels the date with the other guy on the cell phone right there, with Nick concluding “guess some nice guys can finish first.”
I think it would have been more accurate and realistic if Nick would have been burned by Amy in act three, then meeting a brand new girl and being confident enough to hit on her and ask her out on a date right there, completely avoiding the friend zone. It still would have been a nice ending and show Nick as learning from his mistakes.
Don’t get me wrong, I do have to compliment the production value of this short and they did a fantastic job with it. The music was good, the actors were convincing and I’d like to check out some of their other stuff. Still, even though I’m the first to say that entertainment just needs to entertain and doesn’t have to be realistic, I just don’t like media which reenforced the stereotypical “nice guy” image that misleads men and DOESN’T WORK.
Actually, this reminds me of a true story similar to “Just a Nice Guy.” One of my friends used to have a female roommate that he eventually started to have feelings for. He confided in me one day that he was going to confront her and tell her everything about how he felt. I nodded, already knowing full well what was going to happen. I wasn’t going to argue with him: guys will not listen to otherwise until they’ve been burned three hundred times and humbled.
His roommate moved out a few days later without notice.
Kevin Chan Says:
March 31st, 2008 at 11:07 am
A friend of mine sent me the link of your blog and I absolutely love how frank you are when you write. Keep it going! (although i hope you manage to lose your vcard soon man!)
Another 20y/o Virgin Says:
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:57 am
The sad part is the ending in that video is like the Cinderella story every girl wants, but the tragic reality is that they aren’t attracted to it.
A great movie you should check out if you haven’t already is Before Sunrise. It’s probably the only film that accurately depicts a romantic relationship from start to wherever it leads. Probably because 90% of it is just them talking to each other. It really separates itself from the romantic comedies or “chick flick” movies made in Hollywood.