Millennium Mambo (2001)

A hazy, fragmented, and elliptical look at a young woman and her relationships in turn of the century Taipei. Vicky (Shu Qi) started dating Hao-Hao as a teenager. Now they live together in Taipei in a small apartment without jobs or direction as their relationship degenerates. Eventually Vicky gets a hostess job that leads to a relationship with criminally connected Jack.

Even that brief description is more plot heavy than the movie itself feels. It consists of the characters fighting, flirting, or fucking in the shitty apartment or at bars and night clubs, with occasional snowy sojourns to Japan. And even more than that, it consists of silences or spaces between things happening. Probably a good 1/3 of this movie is just watching Vicky smoke cigarettes and emote. Luckily director Hou Hsiao-hsien found a perfect subject in Shu Qi, her beautiful expressive face carrying the weight of these scenes. I am glad I am not currently trying to quit smoking, because her impossibly pouty lips puffing on a cigarette would be extremely triggering.

The opening scene is the highlight of the movie. The camera follows Vicky as she walks down a covered sidewalk at night, fluorescent lights glowing overhead. Her hair bounces in slow motion as she looks back at the camera, putting us in the place of one of her lovers walking behind her. She smokes and smiles and laughs as her dreamy voiceover narrates relationship troubles with Hao-Hao. She bounces down a set of stairs and disappears into the darkness and we cut to the title screen. The mood here is incredible, somehow it immediately brings back the feelings of youth, flirtations, endless hazy nights, and the feeling of floating into a new love. Much of the rest of the movie is the flip side of that coin, the recurring fights and irritations that start to accrue over an actual relationship (and in Hao-Hao's case, when another person's damage starts to harm you through emotional or physical abuse).

Arthouse movies that are basically plotless, and/or atypically shot and structured are hit or miss for me. Sometimes they can be a unique and invigorating break from mainstream and genre movies, sometimes they can be ponderous and insufferable. Millennium Mambo thankfully leaned more towards the former, thanks in great part to a captivating lead in Shu Qi. I also have to give credit to the recurring song "A Pure Person," an original composition by Lim Giong. Its pulsing synths and background noises accompanied by ethereal guitar and vocals instantly stirred a wistfulness and nostalgia in me even though I had never heard it before.

The movie can be frustrating in its slow, shapeless structure. I understood the elliptical nature of repeating the opening narration later, but I did not understand why there were multiple other times where Vicky described an event in voiceover and then we would actually see that event play out in the next scene or two. I sometimes wondered if the movie was going to add up to anything, but by the ending voiceover about the snowman I was tearing up. If you can handle a movie that's nothing but vibes and mood (and understanding that often the vibes are fucked, and the mood is mood-y), check it out. If nothing else, I will be returning to that opening sequence and the song "A Pure Person" many times. If it's not on your wavelength, you may be as bored and frustrated as my wife, who said the only part she enjoyed was Shu Qi's pouty lips.

Realness: fighting in an apartment too small to get away from the other person, and not being able to angrily slam a beaded curtain.