"Same Same But Different" is a German movie from 7 years ago directed by the pretty famous Detlev Buck. He is also part of the team that adapted Benjamin Prüfer's autobiographical book here. In there, Prüfer tells his own story how he met a prostitute in Asia and fell in love with her. The two are still together today (living in Asia now) and, more importantly, she is also still alive and apparently at good health despite her HIV infection. The main character here is played by David Kross, who has worked with Buck on several occasions already. Unfortunately, I do not see a great deal of talent in Kross, neither in this film nor in pretty much everything else I have seen him in. I guess I may have liked this more with another lead actor. Luckily though, I did like lead actress Apinya Sakuljaroensuk, who is not only quite a discovery in here, but it's also impressive what she went through for starring in this film in terms of learning new language within a short amount of time. Of course, she is immensely cute, which also helps a lot.
Overall, I have to say that the story is not really interesting enough to me to justify a movie on these characters. Many people make holidays abroad, fall in love and start having a life together despite potential language barriers. If course, the distance was extremely long here and the whole prostitute/HIV background is also something pretty extraordinary, but overall I just couldn't get emotionally invested in this film, even if I really tried. It may have to do with Kross though too. If you like him more than I do, then you will certainly also enjoy these 100 minutes more than I did. On a more positive note, it was fun to see Charly Hübner and Olli Dittrich in smaller roles here as I like these two a lot. But their presence was too minimal to let me recommend this one. Thumbs down.
Overall, I have to say that the story is not really interesting enough to me to justify a movie on these characters. Many people make holidays abroad, fall in love and start having a life together despite potential language barriers. If course, the distance was extremely long here and the whole prostitute/HIV background is also something pretty extraordinary, but overall I just couldn't get emotionally invested in this film, even if I really tried. It may have to do with Kross though too. If you like him more than I do, then you will certainly also enjoy these 100 minutes more than I did. On a more positive note, it was fun to see Charly Hübner and Olli Dittrich in smaller roles here as I like these two a lot. But their presence was too minimal to let me recommend this one. Thumbs down.