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Directed by: Ming-liang Tsai Starring: Kang-sheng Lee, Shiang-chyi Chen Reuniting the would-be lovers from What Time Is It There? and the short film The Skywalk is Gone, touching on sexual issues similar to Vive L'Amour, and incorporating of the same kind of bizarro musical sequences from The Hole, this is like the ultimate Ming-liang Tsai film. In the midst of a Taiwan drought, water (yes, water again!) becomes a treasured commodity, and watermelon juice is now the beverage of choice. Trust me, you'll never look at the watermelon the same way again. Our heroine runs into our hero and at last they begin to form a relationship. But will it be threatened by his new career as a porn actor? This is Tsai's most light-hearted work with a lot of humorous moments, and even includes a tribute to Annie Hall. The musical scenes are uproariously hilarious and shot gorgeously in vibrant colors. Never before has Tsai displayed such joy in a relationship. But that doesn't mean he has entirely abandoned his trademark scenes of isolation, emphasizing physical space and barriers between characters to illustrate their emotional distance. The movie is extremely raunchy (doesn't go so far as to show genitalia, but it comes mighty close). However, the porn scenes are presented as ridiculously silly, awkward, and ultimately quite disturbing. It's only the quiet moments of shared contact between the leads that show true sensuality. I didn't think Tsai could top himself, but he did. Absolutely brilliant. (I recommend you see What Time Is It There and The Skywalk is Gone before seeing this, but it's not required)       RATING: 5.5 PROS: best Tsai film yet CONS: slow scenes likely to turn off non-Tsai fans ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0445760/ FitFortDanga fucked around with this message at 00:29 on Jul 31, 2005 |
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Jul 31, 2005 00:22
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 08:11 |
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Beautifully shot and a pleasant mixture of typical Tsai content and humor. As FFD mentioned, the isolation is extremely evident in this movie, particularily when coupled with the silence. I don't think this is Tsai's best, but it's definitely up there. 4.5/5.5
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Aug 1, 2005 11:39
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I envy the OP for getting on this review first, but I would have said the exact same things anyway. I was in Hong Kong for three months this summer and this movie played at an arts cinema; I made the mistake of taking my girlfriend, and she didn't really get it. The colours are truly brilliant and the most amazing part was the contrast between song and silence. My own interpretation of the drought and watermelon thing is that water represents the true essence of a healthy relationship, which all of Taiwan is depleted of, and all that is left is watermelon, representated as pornography, a product related to water but at the same time a mutation of sorts. 4.5/5
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Aug 17, 2005 16:29
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Once in a while, there comes a movie that I really, really hate. This movie is filled with so much pretentious bullshit and wacky pre-production ideas that it made me sick to the core. I could imagine the director going "wow, if we just put this in, this will all be crazy and zany". Parody musical numbers, watermelon sex, forcing a penis down a girl's throat, singing mermen? Geez, time to tell my artsy cinema friends about this great movie! This movie is boring, explicit and unfunny, but worst of all, I get the feeling that this is how Ming-Liang wanted me to react. The whole movie was an attempt to provoke through poor quality, bad taste and rubbish ideas. gently caress this movie and gently caress the pretentious fools who worship at the altar of this hack. I'll never force myself through a bullshit movie by this guy again.
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Oct 14, 2005 10:23
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