Vive l'Amour

Rating:
Summary: An overrated piece of garbage
Review: "Blow Up" had good photography, if not much more. This movie has nothing.

Rating:
Summary: An overrated piece of garbage
Review: "Blow Up" had good photography, if not much more. This movie has nothing.

Rating:
Summary: Antonioni Meets Lubitsch...
Review: A breathtaking view of isolation and loneliness; Taipei is the setting for the story of three characters who use an empty apartment building for their own purposes, barely aware of the other inhabitants. Slowly, quietly they affect the others' lives. Elliptical, dreamy, with spare dialogue and a rigorous, deliberate pace, Tsai-Ming Liang captures a palpable sense of unrest and disquiet in a lanscape of skyscrapers and industrial ooze. The setting's Taipei, but the characters could be in any big city; alienated, desperate for connection and unable or unsure of how to reach the other souls. There are moments of hilarity and disconcerting emotion, but ultimately the film creates a sense of quiet horror; in Liang's mirror, we are just ghosts taking up space in the concrete.

Rating:
Summary: Problem of Suicide and Homosexuality Treated with Compassion
Review: Director Tsai Ming-Liang handles the character of Hsiao-kang (Kang-sheng Lee), a young gay man full of loneliness, uncertainty, restlessness and shyness, with a great deal of tenderness, gentleness, mercy and parental affection. We don't know a lot about our character Hsiao-kang going in, except that he's ostensibly an educated, white-collar professional in sales; he's gay and he's suicidally depressed at the opening of the film. As the movie unfolds (like a quiet flower) however, we begin to realize that Hsiao-kang's depressed because he's unfulfilled, because he's lonelier than hell; he needs to find love; he's desperate and going a little nuts -- he doesn't seem to have a friend in the world. Luckily our director is so compassionate; instead of allowing his protagonist to get away with killing himself, he instead offers Hsiao-kang a second chance at life, and there is evidence by the end of the movie -- Hsiao-kang is no longer quite so suicidal, but is indeed endeavoring to work through his feelings more constructively, and struggling to connect better with others, especially with another man he's deeply interested in. Yet the struggle ahead of Hsiao is enormous, and director Tsai is not a sentimentalist. "Life is hard" could be the mantra for everything that goes on in "Vive L'amour" (ironically titled). Or as James Joyce put it, "life is a wonderful, wonderful opera, except that it hurts!" Life does hurt; for all of us. Bottom line: We care about what happens to poor Hsiao-kang. We want him to heal, to be okay with himself, to come to grips with who he is and what he wants, to get over his seemingly insurmountable obstacles (interpersonal as well as intrapersonal), and to find fulfillment(s) in life. Director Tsai Ming-Liang makes us like him. We yearn for Hsiao-kang's happiness, and we cheer him on... We would like to see a sequel to "Vive L'amour" in which Hsiao-kang continues his life's heroic journey, and hangs onto life's balance-beam courageously. And come to possess the man of his dreams too! We want that for him. Everybody needs to love and to be loved in this universe. In Buddhism we are taught that "the meaning of life is to be happy and to make others happy." This movie is a very effective "Part 1" or prequel to that much-wished-for denoument for this very brave young character. Our heart goes out to him, and to his creator.

Rating:
Summary: another absorbing film from Tsai Ming-Liang
Review: Just adding to other people's comments. Briefly, one "well-adjusted" man (Chen Chao-Jung) enters the life of two lonely individuals (Yang Kuei-Mei and Lee Kang-Sheng) in urban Taiwan. One of the ideas I like most is that one makes physical contact but experiences only one brief moment of emotional comfort; one experiences emotional comfort but only one brief moment of physical contact.

The acting from the 3 stars is totally natural and convincing. The long periods of "silence" is beautiful and effective.

Mandarin with English subtitles that you can't turn off. But this is not a problem since there is little dialogue. No Chinese
subtitles. I don't speak Mandarin but from the dialogue that I did understand, the translations were well done.

Rating:
Summary: Tragic-Comedy at its Best
Review: Ming-Liang Tsai has never failed to deliver the goods when it comes to describing our postmodern existence in an Asian city. Vive L'amour tells a story of three persons in an empty studio apartment in Taipei. It is a manage-a-trois that never happened. This movie is not for the faint-hearted. Its poetry lies in its sparseness. Imagine, there's only about 30 mins of dialogue in the 150-min movie! Watch the pivotal 10-min scene at the end of the movie where the female protagonist walks round a park, sits down and cry, all in one take. Vive L'amour shows us all the things a good movie should be, what Hollywood films have consistently failed to do.

Rating:
Summary: Dark, disturbing, yet so beautifully done
Review: This film is by no means easy viewing: no soundtrack, virtualy no dialogue, extremele static camera work. But this is filmmaking at the highest level. The film says all it wants to say about love (or lack thereof) and loneliness without rsorting to conventions. Cinematography is perfect, and acting is subtle and superb. Do not expect to be entertained. However, if you are looking for a movie that will challenge you to think, this one is for you.

Rating:
Summary: A voyeurs delight...
Review: This movie intrigued me when I saw part of it on a few years ago. I recently purchased it and timed the film at 23 minutes before any character dialogue begins. It is a film about the feeling of isolation in a changing world. The people are making their way in life without a feeling of community, family, and direction. You see and feel their sense of despair and yearning to connect with someone even if it is under peculiar circumstances. I give it three stars only because it lacked some elements that would have made me feel something for the characters. I realize the director probably did that purposefully to drive home the point of being disconnected from community in a large city. It was like a voyeuristic look into the lives of people who are on the edge emotionally.