2001. Dir: Hou Hsiao-Hsien.
Context:
Transition for Hou to contemporary themes: This film marked a return (after the tentative effort of Daughter of the Nile) for Hou to dealing with modern, urban Taiwan, and came after some failed projects for multi-stranded films (including a project to make films distributed online which the viewer could edit however they choose), one of which involved the magician who ends up in this film. Hou had also experienced for himself the techno scene in Taipei and been impressed by it and its atmosphere and energy. He tries to translate this into the nightclub scenes of this movie.
First film with Shu Qi: Shu Qi previously had only acted in mainstream comedies and sex comedies, but when Hou saw something in her and decided to work with her, she was introduced to a very different kind of cinema. She was made to act in ways that were wholly new to her experience, and in ways that perhaps she had not even previously thought herself capable of. The collaboration would be beneficial for her, as for Hou, and this was the first of their to-date three films together.
The Film:
Narration from 'future': Vicky narrates from 10 years later, as if she is not herself anymore, a different person, standing outside of her own self, of her own body, of her story, narrating her own story as is it were someone else's. (Hence fitting with Hou's detached distanced style).
"Hou and screenwriter Chu T'ien-wen, who has written or co-written thirteen of Hou's films, diffuse whatever dramatic tension might be found in this narrative through their circuitous and elliptical storytelling. Vicky’s voiceover sometimes relays plot information before events are depicted onscreen; in other moments, the voiceover takes the place of dramatization altogether, while individual scenes appear to have no narrative consequence."
Dichotomy between Taipei and Yubari, snowy landscapes of Northern Japan.
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