Taipei Exchanges
第36个故事
Taiwan, 2009, colour, 1.85:1, 81 mins.
Director: Xiao Yaquan 萧雅全.
Rating: 5/10.
Beautifully mounted but wafer-thin story of two sisters running a boutique Taibei coffee house.
STORY
Taibei, the present day. Zhuo Enduo (Gui Lunmei) has always dreamed of having her own western-style coffee house, and with the help of her younger sister Zhuo Enqiang (Lin Chenxi) finally opens Doris’ Cafe. However, after an optimistic first day with all her friends and former work colleagues, there are few customers. With the place full of useless presents, Zhuo Enqiang has the idea of advertising it as a swap centre and, as people linger to decide what to exchange, business slowly picks up. After a while, it is not only objects that are offered, but also stories, including those by Zhou Qunqing (Zhang Han), who has collected 35 bars of soap from around the world and has a story to accompany each of them.
REVIEW
In the decade he’s spent making TV commercials since Mirror Image 命带追逐 (2001), Xiao Yaquan 萧雅全 – an in-house director at 3H Films, owned by Hou Xiaoxian 侯孝贤 – has discarded many of the pretensions that plagued that first feature and with the same d.p., Lin Zheqiang 林哲强, has developed a cleaner, less affected visual style here. (One of the first Taiwan features shot on Red One, the movie has a gorgeously clean, pristine look that matches its trendy, coffee-house subject.) On the scriptwriting side, however, Xiao has developed less: like Mirror, Taipei Exchanges 第36个故事 is basically a series of vignettes held together by its lead cast, in this case Gui Lunmei 桂纶镁 (here required to do little more than look other-worldly pretty, as in Blue Gate Crossing 蓝色大门, 2002, and Secret 不能说的秘密, 2007) and, as her younger but more forceful sister, sassy newcomer Lin Chenxi 林辰唏.
As the well-travelled but less educated sister, Lin energises a film that often cruises along in neutral, despite its interesting central idea of a cafe in which stories are bartered for goods. Xiao seems at a loss how to develop the idea, which ends up as just one of several devices – including vox-pop street interviews, scenes of the two sisters being nagged by their mother, and even one sequence of Gui’s character talking on a sofa to her alter ego – that stretch what could have made a charming half-hour short to feature length. The idea of having one sister who is well-travelled but less educated and another who is more educated but so far hasn’t left the country is also weakly developed, and as a result looks more like a script device than credible background. And the character [played by Taiwan’s Zhang Han 张翰] whose story-telling kick-starts the central idea – as well as contributing to the movie’s Chinese title, which means “The 36th Story” – is also woollily drawn. With its almost fairytale portrait of Taiwan’s capital – the film was commissioned by Taibei City Government’s Department of Information & Tourism – and cocktail-lounge music by Lei Guangxia 雷光夏 and Hou Zhijian 侯志建 (Mirror Image), Xiao’s second feature is technically smooth and never boring to watch. But it’s as wispy as the froth from a cappuccino machine.
CREDITS
Presented by Brick Image Team (TW). Produced by Brick Image Team (TW).
Script: Xiao Yaquan. Photography: Lin Zheqiang. Editing: Tao Zhujun. Music: Lei Guangxia, Hou Zhijian. Art direction: Li Dungang. Costume design: Li Cailing. Sound: Guo Liqi, Du Duzhi.
Cast: Gui Lunmei (Zhuo Enduo/Doris), Zhang Han (Zhou Qunqing), Lin Chenxi (Zhuo Enqiang/Josie), Atari Kosuke (Japanese customer), Ba Yu (Sonia), Ma Yuli (mother), Zhang Weicheng (neighbourhood leader’s son), Steven Tam (Mai), Zhang Shiwei (Hugo), Li Junjie (Lin Dongqing), Zhong Jiahua (narrator), Alemela Rowan, Jonah Levi Taylor (backpackers), Huang Congwen (florist), Zhang Yuwen (neighbourhood leader), Li Kunming (his friend), Dalama’a’nai (tourist guide), Lin Mengjin, Li Jiaying, Lin Xiaojun (airline stewardesses), Lin Qingying (Japanese customer’s friend), Yang Zhiming (regular customer).
Premiere: Hong Kong Asian Film Festival (Asian Wide Angle), 30 Oct 2009.
Release: Taiwan, 14 May 2010.
(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 16 Sep 2010.)