Taipei Story (1985)

Taipei Story: Directed by Edward Yang. With Chin Tsai, Hsiao-Hsien Hou, I-Chen Ko, Su-Yun Ko. Lung is a former member of the national Little League team who lives with his old childhood sweetheart Ah-chin, a traditional family woman. Although they live together, Ah-chin is weary of Lung’s past liaison with another girl.

“This is a quiet, caring, patiently observed film about that most difficult thing to make into interesting drama: the everyday lives of basically decent and normal people, in this case an on/off again couple as played by Chin Tsai (why wasnu0026#39;t in she more films, I wonder, she makes a good impression here) and Hsiao-Hsien Hou (usually a director, also quite excelleng), who have to navigate the loss of and seeking employment, heavily flawed family (a debt-addled dad for her, wayward and ultimately tragic brother for him), and what atmosphere a city like Taipei, so bustling and at night neon-drenched and polluted and seemingly full of (as Yang and company show) self-interested middle class people. It gives empathy for everyone, and letu0026#39;s scenes breathe.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI think itu0026#39;s understandable if this isnu0026#39;t someoneu0026#39;s cup of tea, but on the other hand it isnu0026#39;t perhaps a keen idea to see this before the other Yang heavy-hitters like Yi Yi or Brighter Summer Day: this has somehow even *less* incident than that – if anything, at least for what is about the first 45-50 minutes, Yang as a storyteller reaches the apex of George Costanzau0026#39;s pitch of a u0026quot;show about nothing… what did you do this morning?u0026quot; I got up and went to worku0026quot; u0026quot;Thereu0026#39;s a showu0026quot; on Seinfeld – but I was invested in these people precisely because Yang doesnu0026#39;t gum up things with anything approaching cliche or convention.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;s stripped down so that that actors can bring their own life and lived-in experience (Lungu0026#39;s weariness and discontent, a face Hou brings in almost every other scene and, whether conscious or not, adds immeasurably to this being as great and pained and sad as it is), and he and the DP find dozens of wonderful ways to shoot this city, in interior and exterior, so that we can understand innately what itu0026#39;s like to be there, in those office rooms, the bars, that bedroom, then on those streets and the FUJI-FILM backlit roof) without calling much attention to the style. Itu0026#39;s seamless, meditative, yet totally natural at the same time.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd that ending… it made me feel like had I seen this when I was younger (ie my first big bursts of making short films in college) it would have inspired me to want to get a camera and shoot something like this. In a strange way it is inspirational in that itu0026#39;s not necessary to add the same old Screenwriting 101 stuff you get taught so often. This is more about capturing a mood, of being on a street at night with just a couple of those overhead lights and that solitude and aloneness. It didnu0026#39;t happen all at once but I loved this one.”