Jia-Li’s husband has disappeared. A clue at a beach suggests that he was drowned but no body was found. The film focusses not on the search for the husband, but on the reunion of Jia-Li and her brother’s ex-girlfriend, a successful pianist. The two women share insights on life and memories of growing up, and the struggle they face accepting or defying traditions in their romance and marriage. The film’s deliberation on changes in Taiwanese society and family, its mood of contemplation and reflection, went well beyond the melancholic tone of traditional Taiwanese films about women.
Tag: 1980s
The film tells the story of a fly, which falls into a large garden on an autumn day. The fly is fleeing because the occupant of the house wants to hit her. During the few minutes of the story, the viewer sees the world through the eyes of the fly, describing it from the insect’s point of view.
Rudyard Kipling’s tale of how the elephant got its trunk has always delighted with its playful use of language. Never has there been a more satisfying rendering of this “Just So” story, which explains what the world was like “in the beginning of years when the world was new and all…”. Illustrated by Tim Raglin.
A writer starts running into the characters he’s created in real life. Alberta is his fantasy woman, who starts out as a sexy rock singer. However, when the bad guy in his novel gets his hands on the manuscript and starts making changes of his own, they are all in for a wild ride.
Geoff, a journalist in his mid 40s, returns to Australia from 15 years abroad, leaving behind him in the U.S. a failed marriage and three children. He meets Maureen, the girl he was in love with when he left Australia. She is married to an older man, George, who she loves but have no children. Maureen – who once fell pregnant but had an abortion – tells Geoff her husband is sterile and asks for him to impregnate her.
Fred Tan’s Split of the Spirit is a macabre tale of supernatural possession, necromantic battles, and the vengeful phantom of a woman scorned. In Tan’s stylish neo-noir thriller, a renowned female choreographer becomes overtaken by the specter of a murdered woman, who forces her to enact revenge upon the men who have wronged her.
An old man is outraged at the city when a teenage boy is beaten to death after being denied refuge in the old man’s home. A young teacher is determined to learn the truth about the murder of one of his students, a Hispanic teenager, who is beaten to death in a racial attack. He was denied refuge in the home of an old man and his wife.
In the fall of 1963, Louise is a 13-year-old girl who lives with her widowed mother. Before she is set to leave for boarding school, she discovers a box belonging to her late father. The box contains secret documents in additions to condoms, but Louise thinks they are balloons. She also learns her father was a member of the secret order of Freemasons. While at boarding school, Louise attempts to explain to friends what the Freemasons are. The girls form their own version of a Masonic club. Meanwhile, Louise’s mother finds the box in Louise’s room and inadvertently thinks her daughter is sexually active. Louise learns her parents’ marriage was not what she thought it was.