A rather dejected Mei-li Chen lives with her extended family in the suburbs. She drops out of college when the boy she has a crush on finds a girlfriend. Mei-li eventually ends up selling tickets in a movie theatre. A great camaraderie then builds up between the two cashiers in the small ticket booth.
An espionage thriller set in the 1950s and adapted from the novel "Year Suan/Plot Against" by May Jia. Tony Leung Chiu Wai plays a blind man who works for a piano tuner. He is recruited for a spy mission because of his exceptional hearing.
Xia-dou and Ji-dan left their families and friends in Thief Village to sit in a dungeon as subsitute prisoners in exchange for favor from the local law enforcer. The warden, knowing they are good in physical skills, sent them on a side job. The kids broke in a heavily guarded examination ground, swapped two exam papers for the client and stole a pair of golden eyes from a big lion chop for themselves. The missing gold detoured the detective's trail to the master schemer. As the conspiracy unfolded, the governor decided to eradicate the whole village to cover up his involvement with the master schemer. Life in Thief Village has never been easy. But fate never mocked them so hard. It turned out that the gold they so cherished was fake. So were many other things they believed in. In despair, Xia-dou's Great grandfather, the 125-year old personage called upon the sky and recevied a most fantastic answer.
To achieve his dream of being a trumpet player, a man leaves his hometown and works in a touring operetta troupe. He falls in love with a girl but then contracts tuberculosis, forcing him to give up the trumpet.
The film consists of three stories: One about a 5-year-old girl, one about a teenager, and still another about a 30 something woman involved in an affair with a married man. Without providing a definite answer whether the three leading actresses are playing the same person in different stages of life, the movie instead hovers on several consistent themes that keep on emerging in all the stories. For example, the image of drops of blood on the clothes, in the shape of maroon flowers.
In the final days of the year 1999, almost everyone in Taiwan has died from a strange plague that ravished the island. As rain pours down relentlessly, a single man is stuck with an unfinished plumbing job and a hole in his floor. This results in a very odd relationship with the woman who lives below him.
Drama / Romance / Historical - Based on a traditional Chinese opera, this animated feature tells the tale of a 4th-century scholar who finds himself confused when he becomes attracted to a fellow student. Unbeknownst to him, the "he" is a she in disguise.
This is a collection of three films by emerging Taiwanese directors all revolving around the theme of strong, young women involved in mayhem of some sort. In all of them the theme of alienation within the crowded streets of Taiwan runs strong.