A young woman urgently seeks to navigate the maze of contemporary Taipei and find a future. She hopes that her boyfriend Lung is the key to the future, but Lung is stuck in a past that combines baseball and traditional loyalty that leads him to squander his nest egg bailing her father out of financial trouble.
Qing mei zhu ma, 타이페이 스토리, 청매죽마, 台北ストーリー, 青梅竹马, Тайбэйская история, Qing Mei Zhu Ma, Una historia de Taipei, Una història de Taipei, História de Taipei, Historia z Tajpej, Taipei Hikâyesi
UK
BFI London Film Festival
Hong Kong
Japan
South Korea15
Hong Kong
Japan
South Korea
UK
A monument to all the things left behind during the unforgiving process of forging an identity.
lonely people in neon cities is my favorite genre. a sobering reminder of how much we lose in the march for something better.
"It cannot be said that Taipei is a modern and Western-style city, in the same way that one could affirm this of Shanghai, for example. Rather it is an example of some generally late-capitalist urbanization (which one hesitates, except to make the point, to call postmodern), of a now classic proliferation of the urban fabric that one finds everywhere in the First and Third Worlds alike." - Frederick Jameson, The Geopolitical Aesthetic
"How was Los Angeles?"
"It's just like Taipei."
A very lazy viewer could point to the Western pursuits of the two main characters in Taipei Story and draw the conclusion that the film is a comment on American influence on the far east. Chin (Tsai Chin) has a…
The scene where they're out riding around in the night and the neon lights show the outline of the buildings but nothing of stone or steel can be seen in the darkness, that scene could stretch for an eternity. The bright colors against the pitch darkness might be a simple effect, but it creates this illusion of infinite depth, of structure in a void, of a frame without context. The movement in this scene (and many others) is faster than expected but still quiet, still fluid, and the shift in perspective it gives somehow makes the unending depth feel even deeper, even greater. The pace of this moment (brief yet with incredible impact) fuels the sense of urgency of a world of cold electricity, and in that, you can feel the world leaving behind the grainy baseball memories.
tsai chin's hair.... her GLASSES.... her wardrobe... her everything????? absolutely iconic
Among the most palpably sad films I've ever seen, nearly every frame a miniature tragedy in which gulfs of space are precisely arranged for maximum feelings of loneliness. Two people sitting in front of a TV, sometimes touching but nonetheless worlds apart; clutter on a dresser counter; clubs where groups of friends are set in isolated clusters. THe contrast of the woman whose depressive slumps are offset by her being pushed forward at a rate faster than her most hustle-prone boyfriend, whose seeming goodness and loyalty masks regressive attitudes that manifest as violence. Above all, the film captures the way that technological and developmental changes in society can lend individuals a sense of personal stasis even as their lives move just as quickly, subverting the usual individual/tech dichotomy by suggesting we merely don't feel our changes, much the same way we don't feel ourselves hurtling around the sun as the Earth spins rapidly.
From the opening shot, already can we see the collusion of Antoinoini and Ozu that will reach its fullest manifestation in Yi Yi, but to write about an artist such as this one in merely cinephilic terms barely can scratch the surface - if not an outright disservice. On initial viewing, the riffing on Antoinoini is obvious - indistinct relationships between shot geography and the individual characters within these shots, as always indicating isolation if not complete alienation between two characters that are even in a relationship. But where this starts to deviate from both of Yang's influences is significant: a distinct political dynamic which only becomes clearer upon multiple viewings - even though the basic idea of the central…
Taipei Story is a masterpiece of inner feeling. It reflects the calm of life, through still shots of windows and beds and phones, and yet it reveals a constant inner chaos. Taipei was the centre of a new middle class in a rapidly developed economy. Edward Yang made cinema that probed the hypocrisies and weaknesses of middle class living. In Taipei Story people feel lost in an urban maze, using sunglasses to hide their soul. A moving Pepsi can becomes a symbol for a shallow modern society. The lead couple is torn between clinging to the past or fighting to move forward. They feel special, but these are the same motions that every generation experiences. Yang was the master at…
When we came across an abandoned playground it had just started to rain, giving the grass an open, welcoming, lush scent that made the area feel like it was calling out to us. We were too grown up, too big, too adult to really enter the play area, but there was an old swing set that felt more attainable. The swings were covered in rust, and looked like they hadn’t been used since we were kids, but we took the chance anyway. You could have called it a time machine, but everything was off, different, weird. I couldn’t get the momentum I used to, and the subtle bouncing of my breasts going up and down with each push of my…
Phantasms of the past invading the present realm with its armies of melancholy, solitude, even metaphysical elements disturbing inner peacefulness, all of this presented in broken relationships, untied emotional bonds of a reality that is no more, against a urbanized backdrop of technological and microeconomic changes. I can't ask for anything more: my introduction to the well-respected Edward Yang was a complete emotional experience and my favorite of his as well so far.
97/100
Dos poucos filmes que sabe transformar um contexto histórico e cultural macrocósmico em relações dramáticas efetivamente pessoais. O que, no fim das contas, é a maior das políticas: o personagem como reflexo do seu contexto não apenas por uma relação generalista, mas definidora. A identidade inalcançável não como busca dramática de opção meramente narrativa, mas maldição evidente.
