This Taiwanese film was shown at the Berlin Film Festival in 2005 and had a brief U.S. release last year and has probably turned up at the occasional fest; it is not however likely to be shown at your local multiplex nor, for that matter, to be available on DVD, except possibly as a Far East import. I certainly do not anticipate a UK DVD release unless I was prepared for a movie that would be cut to ribbons by our enlightened censors. To put no further point on it, despite certain jollities, there is little to distinguish it from pure porn in places and with a misogynistic bent at that; I gather it specialised in festival-showing walk-outs. So where did I view this masterpiece?: off a German/French satellite arts channel (Arte); fortunately dialogue was sparse so I was able to follow the extremely weird story.
Directed by auteur Ming-liang Tsai who has made some of the most exquisitely boring films of recent years like "Good Bye Dragon Inn" and "What Time is it There", his cinematic style is marked by scenes being held for what seems like minutes with no action whatsoever. This film revisits the two main characters from "What Time..." who were briefly seen in the director's equally tedious short "The Skywalk has Gone". He was originally seen selling knock-off watches on the street, but has now packed that in to become a porn actor; she has returned from her sojourn in Paris and is looking for him. Meanwhile the city is suffering a drought, bottled water is like gold, and folk have turned to watermelons for comfort. Believe me, you will never view that fruit again with the same eye when you discover the uses that have been found for them in this movie. The film ends with a vicious sex scene involving a possibly dead porn actress and an oral sexual assault on our heroine. Some critics have suggested that this art house trash is actually a satire on the porn industry and the dryness of our lives; pull the other one!
What finally makes this film watchable, if not comfortable, is the oddity of the director's vision and the fact that the hard sex scenes are interspersed with boldly-coloured musical numbers including some camp Cantonese renditions of Western pop songs. So yes, I probably would like to see this one again (with English titles this time), but that is more than a little unlikely. File this one under movies that you are not likely to ever see...
3 comments:
Teaser.
'the fact that the hard sex scenes are interspersed with boldly-coloured musical numbers including some camp Cantonese renditions of Western pop songs. '
Sounds like a night in soho....
What do you make of the films for radio?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/thecityspeaks.shtml
Ir wasn't that pornographic - less so in some ways than 'Lust, Caution' - though
the background possibly makes it seem pornier than it is. The finale is a little
hard (ha ha) to take. What is wrong with taking the film as it stands - the
continuing story of an ill-matched couple...
Post a Comment