Ni de jintian he wo de mingtian (2013) Reviews

• A quirky film from Taiwan/USA but very variable

  marklear-12014-01-03

  This is a Taiwanese film set mostly in New York, mostly spoken in English, but also subtitled in both English and Chinese. (Some of this English subtitling is delightfully odd - look for the spelling of "rain" for example.) It is largely a series of short encounters, many quite amusing, some sad, and some just puzzling. The settings range between small rundown apartments, little shops and even phone booths. All the time you will be (if you are like me) trying to see where the film is actually "going". We return to the same characters quite a lot (especially the two male leads), and they all play roles we come to expect. However, there is a lightness of touch throughout, which is good. In the screening I attended, this approach was not to everyone's liking, and quite a few folks left during the film (but the majority stayed). Without giving too much away, I especially enjoyed the segments involving the cassette player (yes, an audio cassette), and one involving a ferry. However, like many of these low budget films, there was not enough time and money spent on scriptwriters. I left the screening thinking just what the film could have been if only the script had been better integrated - the whole was a lot less than the sum of its parts.