What do a female car thief, the car owner, a driver, a prostitute, three
foul-mouthed puppeteers, an assassin and a bus driver have in common? Why, they
are all trapped on the minor roads of Taipei when all major roads are closed for
12 hours by the Taiwanese government. All characters do not meet, for in essence
the three stories (four actually) has only their cars brushing by each
other.
The first story involves an assassin. He kills a political figure and
escapes, at first on a motorbike, but when it runs out of petrol, he hijacks a
bus for a means of escape, but instead a father-son bond is formed through the
night between the assassin and the bus driver.
The second involves the driver of a rich person. He wanted to go see
his girlfriend for her birthday but the diversion caused him to be late. Then,
he got up a travelling whorehouse and later, I believe in a state of anger and
reminscent of scenes in the movie Crash, he tries to exert his sexual
displeasure by crashing into other people's cars.
The third is actually two stories. This involves a female car thief who,
using the stolen car's owner's handphone, calls the orginal owner and a feeling
develops between the two. Also within the three puppeteers, who got lost trying
to get to Taipei, got into HER car and funny things happen.
This is, overall, a great fun movie to anyone who thinks that all TAIWAN
movies are dull. Like Wu Nien-jen's Buddah Bless America, this is
light-hearted compared to other works. One should really check out Wolves Cry
Under The Moon, for it is Ho Ping's most ambitous project by far, which took
five years in the making.
From FULL
ALERT FILM
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