| | "No matter you agree or not, Edward Yang suggests the real murderer is Taiwan itself."
Mahjong (麻將) Director: Edward Yang (楊德昌) Main Cast: Ko Yue-lun (柯宇綸), Chang Chen (張震), Wong Chi Zan (王啟讚), Tang Cong Sheng (唐從聖), Virginie Ledoyen, Elaine Jin (金燕玲), Yeh Chuan Chen (葉全真) Year: 1996 
It is pretty questionable why Taiwanese cinema suddenly comes to the world stage at late 1980s to 1990s with full of gloominess and hopelessness. City of Sorrow (悲情城市) by Hou Hsiau Hsien (候孝賢) has already linked the connotation between Taiwan and misfortune, Tsai Ming-liang's (蔡明亮), a Malaysian-born Taiwanese director, rebels without a clear cause in his debut Rebels of Neon God (青少年哪吒), Chu Tien-wen (朱天文), long time screenwriter collaborating with Hou Hsiau Hsien including City of Sorrow and Dust in the Wind (戀戀風塵) etc., wrote her most famous novella The Glamour of Fin de Siecle (世紀末的華麗), its name is the best conclusion about how I am impressed with the Taiwanese cinema in 1990s. Among all the dispirited, I love Edward Yang the most. I always think parallel between Edward Yang and Michelangelo Antonioni. The Italian director is widely regarded as the master of alienation; we can find the collapse of relationship and trust, the meaninglessness of life, with somewhat surrealistic or existentialistic elements such as make somebody cinematically disappearing (Blow Up, L'Avventura, or even Eclipse, if you regard somebody is actually missing in the ending sequence). Edward Yang his interest is not in disappearing, but murder. In his films I have ever watched, Terrorizer (恐佈份子), A Brighter Summer Day (牯嶺街少年殺人事件) and Mahjong (麻將) all involved murders. No matter you agree or not, Edward Yang suggests the real murderer is Taiwan itself. Actually, it is quite a terrible thinking. Wong Kar Wai would say you have been dead since you born in Aesop Fable style, but he just states it for stylishness; Godard makes lot of things die in his cinema, yet he just did it for his own rebels; but why Edward Yang's Taiwan is really murdering somebody? I mean why does he that serious? I cannot find the answer in Mahjong, all other his films neither. Mahjong is not same category as Terrorizer and A Brighter Summer Day. We find overwhelming absurdity throughout whole film; illogic is not the matters in director's mind. Also, emergence of Viriginie Ledoyen brings a globalized image of Taiwan. For me, it is pretty uncanny while I am watching the scene that Ko Yue-lun and his father running a hostel for foreigners, as I also lived in similar hostels in Taipei with a Westerner owner who can speak fluent Mandarin. The ending seems optimistic, but don’t forget kiss on lips would bring you bad luck. As a fan of Edward yang, it is pretty warm to see Chang Chen and Wong Chi Zan again, the two outstanding youngsters in A Brighter Summer Day; as a person can never get out from the shadow of Rebels of Neon God, I feel pretty surreal about the similar appearance between Ko Yue-lun and Chen Chao-jung (陳昭榮); as a witness of murder in Edward Yang's Taiwan again, I still feel puzzled yet deeply associated with that obscure hopelessness. Obscure Rating: 9/10 http://imdb.com/title/tt0116962/ |
