millenium mambo

enraptured by its own formalism, this film by taiwan's hou hsiao-hsien told a story about a young woman’s inertia that keeps her caught between a loser boyfriend and a gangster friend/lover, this was a film that left me completely cold. the neon lit or bead curtained interiors of clubs and apartments were too lush, the characters too much like more such ornamentation on the screen. the claustrophobic style overwhelmed what little the film wanted to say. all this useless beauty. it seems like this is what the world expects out of cinema from south east asia, think wong kaw-wai, and this film delivers obediently.