Filmmaker in Focus: Mark Lee Ping-bing. New digital restoration.

A stylish and seductive submersion into the techno-scored neon nightlife of Taipei, Hou’s much-misunderstood marvel stars Shu Qi as an aimless bar hostess drifting away from her blowhard boyfriend and towards Jack Kao’s suave, sensitive gangster. Structured as a flashback to the then-present from the then-future of 2011, it’s a transfixing trance-out of a movie, drenched in club lights, ecstatic endorphin-rush exhilaration, and a nagging undercurrent of ennui.

Our screening on Thursday 5 September, 2024 was introduced by Tony Rayns.

Cast:
Shu Qi, Jack Kao, Tuan Chun-hao