FROM TAIWAN : VIVE L’AMOUR! – AIQING WANSUI

Ok, this is quite a heavy duty art film. Golden Lion and FIPRESCI prize at the Venice film festival among other prestigious awards. This being common knowledge, the showing at the film festival this year started out chock-a block. A lot of enthusiast but a few serious connoisseurs too, all settling down to watch a film one doesn’t often get the chance to see… Now, the film is a Taiwanese film, again I haven’t seen many of these either so I didn’t know what to expect. Neither, it appears, did my fellow spectators because from 15 minutes into the film onwards, there was an exodus to the door – right throughout the film (even 5 minutes before the end which I found rather excessive, I mean, after sitting through it for almost two hours you couldn’t take 5 more minutes? Seriously?). My point is this film is NOT for everyone. I find I am more able to watch films like this because I see them more as a job now – since I will begin actually studying them this fall – and I have trained myself not to get bored so easily shall we say. However, well, the film is almost a silent film. I mean, there is sound but almost no dialogue at all – a total of maybe 50 lines at the most in total, in two hours. Which is why half the audience ran screaming (well not screaming but the rate they were going I bet they felt like it) from the room. Be warned.
This is the story of three almost random individuals who “run into” each other in Taipei. May, a lady real-estate agent literally runs into Ah Jung, a street vendor, on the street. The two somehow take a liking to each other and May takes him back to an empty yet partially furnished flat for a night of passion. Little do they know however, that homeless sales-rep Hsiao Kang has got hold of May’s spare keys and set up there as his home. After May leaves for work the next day leaving Ah Jung at “home” with the keys, Ah Jung also thinks the house isn’t such a terrible place to crash for a few nights. So the bizarre trio starts using the house. At once. And completely unaware of each other’s presence. They will, of course unavoidably run into each other in the end, but will this actually help them communicate in any way? You will have to watch the film and see.
Taken in context and given the message the director wants to give, the lack of dialogue actually makes complete sense. Well, it’s big cities, modern life, and isolation. It’s living side by side with thousands of people without even addressing a word to them. Think of modern day apartment buildings. The flat in question here is big, very big, but if you think of small flats, I mean ignore the partition walls and doors, we live in the same amount of space with complete strangers for years and years without even knowing their names. The most basic things, the most basic desires go unsaid. Talk about “The Sound Of Silence”… But director Tsai Ming-Lang doesn’t paint a completely bleak picture. Little touches of wry humor, much like in real life makes one smile in spite of the bleakness of the general picture… I would describe them but I really don’t want to, the picture in the film is so complete of itself that taking one little piece out would really spoil the film.
Apparently the film divided critics at the time of its first showing 16 years ago, well I can see why. It’s hard to watch in more ways than one, but I would recommend you at least try if you feel you can cope with the lack of dialogue… It’s not as easy as it seems but you may well find it rewarding in the end…