That was an excellent one.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Fleeting life...Radical; magic Silence; electricEuphoric.......A bridge; blue lights above; the girl walks through the neon lights... The music plays; a happy, energetic, young song; it captures the energy of youth.The moment is captured; one moment of euphoria; freedom; the young soul trying to capture life, and transcend the world; ecstasy.These moments pass us by; we aren't always aware...we worry a lot, but there are some moments where life becomes an ecstasy experience; where we lose ourselves in the magnificent chaos, and life freely, and happily.The beauty of life....Abstract frames Lone figures, focused; backgrounds are blurredSilence.....Though in life there is the darkness, and depression; but without darkness, we would not know the beauty.Long shots, tackle and mirror the nature of time; our uncomfortable, and somber; melancholy; dismal; sorrowful moments. Endless, but eventually they will end.We trap ourselves in the toxic situations; couples are trapped in limbo; why do we torture ourselves? Do we enjoy it? We surround ourselves in madness and sadness, however terrible.The voice in our head; we replay our moments.The dark undergrowth is shown; but it does not have to be; perhaps the answer lies in front of us, in our grasp; yet we don't see it. The repetition of life...Happy Emotional Silent despair..Confused longing...The transitions, that represent the time between the situations faced each day; like time between bodies.Colours; blurred lines; visionsAbstract; framesThe musical motif that represents life's intoxication; exhilaration and elation; dreamlandMagic realism That we sometimes attain in life...Melt and vanishThe nature of time.....

I find that I can't get this film out of my mind. This is one of the saddest, most depressing films I've seen in a few years. I think one of the reasons why it is so sad is that the director juxtaposes scenes where Shu Qi is radiantly happy to those where she's stuck in her miserable life, and I think this contrast amplifies the depressing circumstances we see. As others have mentioned, this film doesn't have much of a plot, and I personally find these kinds of films difficult to appreciate. But for some reason, I find myself strangely compelled by this film. I agree with an earlier poster that the opening scene of Shu Qi running in slow motion with the techno music throbbing in the background (from a PHENOMENAL soundtrack as others have also noted) is extremely powerful and compelling. Early in the movie, I also liked the scene where Shu Qi is being "checked out" by her whacked out boyfriend, and she barely tolerates it in classic passive-aggressive style. I think the long takes with little action work because Shu Qi is so compelling (re: gorgeous), that she can just sit there smoking a cigarette and the audience (or at least me) is totally captivated.

I don't get Hou Hsiao-hsien. I saw Goodbye South and rated it a 1. Each film (this and Goodbye) features aimless idiots in a monotonous "slice of life." They're not just lowlifes. They're lowlifes that offer no insight. They are boring in their self-indulgent childishness. The women seem to be these pretty (or breathlessly gorgeous in Qi Shu's case) innocents who stick by men who are bad for them. It's really not entertaining to watch morons do nothing. Awful.I gave this a 3 only because of Qi Shu and the background music.I'm curious to watch Flowers of Shanghai. Or maybe I should only watch a film of Hou's from 1980-1989. The person who wrote his mini-bio on IMDb says he won seven awards out of his ten films during that period. Bribery?

Concerning various aspects of everyday people's lives in Taiwan, it seems natural for Hou Hsiao-Hsien to desire to make a film about the doping youth in Taipei. But it may not be his realm and the attempt appears to be failed. Generally youth culture in a film shines when a youngster who is fascinated about it makes the film. It may not be impossible for the older to do it, but the filmmaker has to be at the youth's eye level. Hou Hsiao-Hsien did it from the older generation's viewpoint; as a result, even if it is accurately depicted, the youth scene looks dull. Besides, out-focused long takes, which Hou Hsiao-Hsien apparently adopted to yield the sense of being high, are just too painful to look at.