Yoyo Jae
This review may contain spoilers
The futility of rebellion ...
WOW ... this 1992 movie was very thought provoking and really really well done and is as relevant today in 2023 as it was in 1992 ... 31 years later.
The OS, a simple low repeating tune, and the amazing cinematography created a palpable sense of heaviness and dankness of a decaying world. Everywhere, inside and outside, was so confining ... so chock a block full of stuff but so 'dead' and 'empty'. The built environment, always in a state of decay and repair (which never seemed to make any overall difference), was mirrored in the trapped lives of the characters inhabiting it. Decay and alienation ebbed and flowed in their lives like the drain in Ah-Tse's apartment, like the low repeating tune that played in the background ... ever present ... ebbing and flowing ... every step forward they made, they were pushed back three ... never getting ahead ... always wallowing in decay. The alienated and dead pan looks on everyone's faces ... I wondered how they kept on going on when nothing seemed to make any difference .. not even rebellion made a difference.
The 360 degree "cause and effect" and the interconnectedness of all the events that played out in everyone's lives was very well scripted and very thought provoking ... from that fateful meeting where the taxi mirror was smashed to the same taxi bringing the 'smashed' perpetrators back home ... the Father leaving the door to their apartment ajar after having slammed it in his son's face telling him he was not allowed in ... the hug between Ah-Tze and his girlfriend Ah-Kwei while standing in the overflowing drain water, both wanting to escape but having no idea where to escape to or even how to escape ... it really hit hard ... it felt so desperate and hopeless ... like a terrible oppressive black hole that mercilessly swallows up any joy and pulls you back in every time you try to escape ... the futility of it all.
At the end of the movie, feeling really emotionally depleted, I wondered ... how would things have turned out if Ah-Tze hadn't smashed the taxi mirror and Hsiao-Kang and his Father ended up going to the movies ... hmmm ... sadly, I think it would have only delayed the inevitable ... one way or another their souls will be consumed by the decay.
The OS, a simple low repeating tune, and the amazing cinematography created a palpable sense of heaviness and dankness of a decaying world. Everywhere, inside and outside, was so confining ... so chock a block full of stuff but so 'dead' and 'empty'. The built environment, always in a state of decay and repair (which never seemed to make any overall difference), was mirrored in the trapped lives of the characters inhabiting it. Decay and alienation ebbed and flowed in their lives like the drain in Ah-Tse's apartment, like the low repeating tune that played in the background ... ever present ... ebbing and flowing ... every step forward they made, they were pushed back three ... never getting ahead ... always wallowing in decay. The alienated and dead pan looks on everyone's faces ... I wondered how they kept on going on when nothing seemed to make any difference .. not even rebellion made a difference.
The 360 degree "cause and effect" and the interconnectedness of all the events that played out in everyone's lives was very well scripted and very thought provoking ... from that fateful meeting where the taxi mirror was smashed to the same taxi bringing the 'smashed' perpetrators back home ... the Father leaving the door to their apartment ajar after having slammed it in his son's face telling him he was not allowed in ... the hug between Ah-Tze and his girlfriend Ah-Kwei while standing in the overflowing drain water, both wanting to escape but having no idea where to escape to or even how to escape ... it really hit hard ... it felt so desperate and hopeless ... like a terrible oppressive black hole that mercilessly swallows up any joy and pulls you back in every time you try to escape ... the futility of it all.
At the end of the movie, feeling really emotionally depleted, I wondered ... how would things have turned out if Ah-Tze hadn't smashed the taxi mirror and Hsiao-Kang and his Father ended up going to the movies ... hmmm ... sadly, I think it would have only delayed the inevitable ... one way or another their souls will be consumed by the decay.
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