Darkness and Light

viewed May 3, 2000 at AMC Kabuki

for full information about this film, click here

For my final film of the Festival, I decided to take it back to the mother land.  Directed by Chang Tso-chi, a former assistant director to Hou Hsiao-Hsien, this is an incorrigibly bittersweet film about an atypical Taiwanese family.  Kang-yi (Lee Kang-I, making a stuning debut) is a beautiful, energetic girl, home for the summer and helping her family's massage business.  The home is shared with their employees, a trio of blind masseuses -- but the relative who shares center stage with Kang-yi is her mentally challenged brother, who is nothing short of a riot.  This simple-minded but remarkably naughty boy sets his sister up with a good-for-nothing but fatally handsome boarding school dropout.  Their tryst sets a neighborhood gangster into fits of jealousy, leading to several startling bursts of senseless rage and violence.  

The film is firmly rooted in the Taiwanese aesthetic, with long takes and an attentive eye towards its characters.  Chang works wonders with a cast of amateur actors -- it seems to be a trend among a few of the films I have watched at the Festival -- the works of Kiarostami being the most notable example.  Especially endearing to me is the setting of the film, the dingy and dangerous harbor city of Keelung, home to my mother's family.  It certainly captures the seediness and the hazards that my family had always tried to hide from me.  But most importantly, it captures the lives of a special family on its own terms, and the fragile dreams of a young girl.

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