goodbye south, goodbye

in hsiao-hsien hou’s ‘goodbye south, goodbye’ i was thankful that for a change we got to see a more contemporary chinese landscape. aimlessly wandering through taiwan, from the periphery of the city to the hinterlands, the film follows a loose plot line concerning two businessmen / hoodlums and their circle of friends and colleagues. constantly living from day to day they seem to think only about their next moment. somewhere in the distance there is a blurry vision of where they want to be instead- heading a restaurant in shanghai, but they do not seem to know how to get out of the endless cycle of everyday issues to be able to make a move. in the movie the plot line constantly seems to dovetail into itself, moving from one incident to another, making moving seem like standing still. and in the middle of these in long shot sequences from a car or a train down the landscapes of the city make us lose our way along with them.