Taiwan Film Days ’10: Seven Days in Heaven

Seven days ought to be enough time for a lot of people to cycle through each stage of grief at least once, maybe twice. Understandably, scrupulously observing the traditional Taoist seven days of ritualized mourning takes a toll on Mei and her brother in Wang Yu-lin and Essay Liu’s Seven Days in Heaven (trailer here), which screens this weekend as part of the San Francisco Film Society’s Taiwan Film Days at the Viz Theater.

Unlike her street vendor father, Mei left for the big city to make something of herself. Yet, theirs was always a loving relationship, as we come to understand through flashbacks. The good news is a distant relation who also happens to be a priest will oversee the arrangements to ensure everything is done properly. In a way, this is bad news as well. At least his partner, corporate entertainer and professional griever Chin has a knack for shaking down the local political wheels for more tangible expressions of condolence. Still, the round-the-clock program of sacraments drives Mei and her decidedly unmotivated brother to near exhaustion.

Though not as emotionally devastating as Yojiro Takita’s Academy Award winning Departures, Heaven is still a rather complex and insightful examination of the grieving process. It might even be educational for some Yankee audiences, introducing them to customs like the burning of spirit money. While not every character of the large ensemble is as sharply drawn, it is anchored by a highly sympathetic, identifiably realistic protagonist, the more-or-less dutiful daughter Mei.

Indeed, Wang Li-wen (best known as a producer) is quite remarkable in Heaven, really lowering the emotional boom in the film’s quietly powerful epilogue. She also has some lovely bittersweet father-and-daughter moments with veteran Taiwanese character actor Chang Chia-nien (a.k.a. Tai Bao) that Wang and Liu shrewdly never let get too saccharine. While the roles of her brother and cousin are a bit underwritten, Cheung Si-yin always brings a welcomed infusion of energy to the necessarily depressing proceedings as the dynamic Chin.

Yes, the dramatic possibilities of funerals have often been explored cinematically, but Wang and Liu end Heaven in a place not often seen on film. Liu’s screenplay (based on her essay-story) has a few gentle laughs mixed in here and there, but the dramedy unquestionably leans more towards the dramatic. Definitely recommended for the honest humanity of its father-daughter relationship, Heaven screens this Saturday (10/23) and Sunday (10/24) as part of the SFFS’s Taiwan Film Days.

Taiwan Film Days ’10: Tears

Detective Guo is one of those crusty late middle-agers who can thoroughly kick the butts of men less than half his age. In an American film, he might have been played by a Clint Eastwood or Tommy Lee Jones fifteen years ago. However, the hardened cop carries a lot of baggage that might finally catch up with him in Cheng Wen-tang’s Tears (trailer here), which screens this weekend as part of the San Francisco Film Society’s Taiwan Film Days at the Viz Theater.

Guo has not cried in ten years, but he is clearly sick at heart. Separated from his wife, he has no enthusiasm for patching up the family unit. For years he has been passed over for promotion, preferring to alienate his fellow officers with his cynicism and contempt for espirit de corps. It hardly helps ingratiate the prickly detective to his colleagues when he gets a bee in his bonnet over the apparent open-and-shut overdose death of a young supposedly former junkie.

Yet, Guo has a soft-side. He regularly volunteers at a long-term care hospital and looks out for Xiao Wen and Xuan Xuan, the two cute young women who work at an all-night betelnut kiosk. Perhaps, they are all linked by some secret in Guo’s past, but Cheng will not yield them up too quickly and Guo certainly isn’t talking. While Tears is somewhat coy about where it’s headed, at least it has someplace to go. Some of the more self-indulgent directors of the Romanian New Wave (ahem, Cristi Puiu) should take note of how Cheng crafts a deliberately paced intimate character study that never feels like a drag.

In fact, Tears is quite an intense, if slightly idiosyncratic, variation on the cop in search of redemption story. Tsai Chen-nan is pitch-perfect as Guo, looking like the personification of world-weariness. He perfectly captures the bearing of a veteran cop, while projecting the turmoil churning deep below his façade of resignation. Taiwanese singer-songwriter Enno Cheng also sneaks up on viewers, bringing substantial nuance and depth to Xiao Wen. If not as demanding a role, Taiwanese heavy metal superstar Doris Yeh is at least suitably energetic as Xuan Xuan.

While Hsin-Hua Feng’s digital cinematography is rather pedestrian and several flashbacks from minor players merely serve as unnecessary distractions, the combined strength of Guo’s character and Tsai’s performance doggedly pull viewers through. A gritty, street smart film that definitely earns its occasional moment of sentimentality, Tears is a very strong selection for Taiwan Film Days. It screens this coming Saturday (10/24) and Sunday (10/25) at the Viz Theater in San Francisco.

Taiwan Film Days ’10: Hear Me

While the Beijing 2008 Olympics were rife with controversy, the 2009 Deaflympics in Taipei earned high marks all the way around. The Taipei games also helped inspire a ridiculously cute teen rom-com that deals respectfully and forthrightly with the hearing impaired. A huge hit in Taiwan, Cheng Fen-fen’s Hear Me (trailer here) has a good heart and an earnest cast that should translate well when it screens next weekend during the San Francisco Film Society’s Taiwan Film Days at the Viz Theater.

Tian-kuo is a gooney delivery boy working for his family’s restaurant, who somehow picked up considerable fluency in sign language. It comes in handy when he tries to put the moves on Yang-yang, the sister of Xiao Peng, a Deaflypian swimmer in training. Though Yang-yang is the younger sibling, she is her sister’s sole financial support, willingly juggling multiple jobs to support her dreams of a gold medal.

By contrast, Tian-kuo only has one job, which he does rather poorly, but of course his nagging yet big-hearted mother and “aw-shucks” father are not about to fire him. Being an idiot (but a well meaning one) he inadvertently offends Yang-yang. Deeply heartsick, he desperately tries to make amends, but Yang-yang is more concerned with her other family tribulations.

A sweetly luminous screen presence, Ivy Chen displays a dynamic spirit and considerable dramatic range as Yang-yang. For his part, Eddie Peng makes a likable enough goober as Tian-kuo. Their chemistry together is pleasingly credible, even though she ought to be well out of his league. Adding further heft, Michelle Chen’s spot-on supporting turn as Xiao Peng is believably nuanced and ultimately quite moving.

Granted, Hear hardly breaks any new rom-com ground, but its execution is surprisingly strong. In fact, it pulls off a potentially gimmicky ending largely through the strength of its engaging cast. For cineastes, Hear might be a guilty pleasure, but for most movie patrons, it should be an entertaining crowd pleaser. It is really impossible not to have some affection for the film. It screens next Saturday (10/23) as part of the SFFS’s Taiwan Film Days.

Taiwan Film Days ’10: Monga

Forces from the Mainland have their eyes on Formosa territory. It is a familiar story, but in this case it is the Chinese syndicate looking to dislodge the traditional Taiwanese neighborhood triads in Doze Niu’s Monga (trailer here), which opens the San Francisco Film Society’s Taiwan Film Days next Friday at the Viz Theater.

In the 1980’s, nearly every densely packed block of Taipei’s Monga neighborhood has its own triad, like the Temple Front Gang. It is here the fatherless Chou Yi-Mong finds a sense of belonging. Recruited after standing up to a pack of bullying classmates, Chou (a.k.a. Mosquito) makes fast friends with Boss Geta’s son Dragon Lee and his three running mates. The fab five fight like unit, though they know the rules of the streets dictates they might eventually find themselves rivals. Frankly, Mosquito often does not understand why they are brawling, but the friendship is real. It is even realer than real for Monk, who is devoted to Dragon in quite a suggestive way.

Of course, the nature of their camaraderie is such that betrayal is inevitable, especially with the Mainlanders looking to move in. Indeed, the young gang princes find themselves caught up in a power struggle between those who want to maintain local control of organized crime, like Boss Geta, and those who want to cut a deal with the Northern triads, most notably including Grey Wolf, Mosquito’s mother’s mysterious old flame.

Though Monga was selected by Taiwan as its official foreign language Oscar candidate, it is a highly commercial film (in a good way). Energetically mixing teenaged coming of age angst with gritty street level gangster power games, it pretty much has all the elements. There is even young love, street smart as it may be, when Mosquito falls for Ning, a beautiful young prostitute often demeaned for her nearly invisible birthmark.

Monga features a number of young Taiwanese television and pop-stars who likely brought a built-in fan base to the film in the ROC. However, they are well suited to their roles, particularly Ethan Ruan as the intense Monk. Mark Chao also seems to appropriately grow into the role of Mosquito, while the haunting Chia-yen Ko projects a fragile vulnerability as Ning. Yet, the silver coiffed Niu might even upstage his cast appearing as the intriguing Grey Wolf.

With generous helpings of Big Brawl style street fighting and unapologetically tear-jerking romance, Monga has something for a wide array of Asian cinema devotees. Thoroughly entertaining, it deserves a productive life on the festival circuit and even a shot at specialty distribution. It should be a crowd pleasing opener for SFFS’s Taiwan Film Days when it screens at the Viz Cinema next Friday (10/22).