Once upon a time (a decade ago), the unspoken consensus in the movie world seemed to be that Asians couldn't do love stories, much less musical love stories. Happy, soaring, blockbuster types that would send audiences home with goofy smiles and humming a tune from the soundtrack? Not happening.

"I used to think so, too," says Wei Te-Sheng, the Taiwanese director and co-writer of the uplifting musical love story "52Hz, I Love You." "Actually, I think that, because Asians are new to this genre, there's a lot of potential for growth. Personally, I had to get over my own hang-ups about the genre, and about love stories in general."

Indeed, cinema reels of romantic joy are not what you'd normally associate with Wei, who cut his teeth as an assistant director to Edward Yang, who spearheaded Taiwan's new wave and won a best director prize at Cannes for the 2000 film "Yi Yi."