Let’s just forget about the dramatic love portrayed in films or novels for a moment. The love that Director Hsu Chao-Jen portrays in <Together> can easily be called Down-to-Earth. Everyone around Xiao Yang, a 17-year-old high school boy, suffers from heartbreak. His friend Xiao Mao and Tian Tian have a lovers’ quarrel. His older sister Xiao Lang gets dumped, but on his advice begins an affair with diner owner Michael. His shopkeeper mother gets close to A Shian, the young man at the shop next door. His father runs a print shop next to Xiao Li, a lady who is about to get married. Xiao Yang, the only one who’s alone, observes these people from a distance, delivering other people’s love letters and reading them. In truth, every one of the characters is very ordinary; there are no spectacular problems in Xiao Yang’s family, either. However, these people turn their eyes to others. Still, their love affairs seem extremely realistic, probably because Hsu drags love down from the realm of fantasy into reality. (KIM Ji-Seok)