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Disfunction and disadvantage: `The Best of Times'

Wing Fan and Kao Men-jie star in The Best of Times, by Chang Tso-chi. PHOTO COURTESY OF CHANG TSO-CHI FILM STUDIO

Chang Tso-chi's (張作驥) returns with another movie about youth, the lower stratum of life in Taiwan and tense and dysfunctional families, themes that have won him several awards in Asia, with The Best of Times (美麗時光). Like its predecessors, this movie is a sympathetic portrayal of the disadvantaged that dabbles in fantasy.

Though filmed in a realist style, it escapes the heavy-handedness and cliches that infect many films of a similar scope and ambition, and realizes its subject with honesty and vision.

Set in a decrepit neighborhood in an anonymous town in Taipei County, The Best of Times failed to make a good impression at the recent film festival in Venice, and the pace of the movie will seem alien to those accustomed to Hollywood blockbusters. Those patient enough to give it a chance, however, will be rewarded. Chang presents a sincere picture of the directionlessness of life for two young men, Wei and Jie.

Nineteen-year-old Wei and Jie are two care-free cousins growing up in a large extended family of mixed (Taiwanese and mainland) origin.

Film Notes: The Best of Times Directed by: Chang Tso-chi 張作驥 Starring: Wing Fan, Kao Men-jie Running time: 114 minutes Taiwan release: Tomorrow Language: In Chinese with both Chinese and English subtitles

Wei's twin sister suffers from Leukemia and Jie's father, an army veteran from the mainland, rages against the government that has forgotten him, drinking and gambling all day to forget his troubles.

Wei and Jie escape from their troubled family's maelstrom by being careless and by dreaming. Wei practices with his nun-chuks and dreams of becoming a martial arts hero like Bruce Lee. Jie joins a Taoist chanting group and believes that he is becoming a magician.

A horse in the alley outside the window of Wei's dying sister is mistaken for a unicorn, and a drainage ditch that runs next to the family's shabby home is host to an enchanting scene when a flock of white ducks land gracefully in its fetid water.

Like Chang's previous works, sadness pervades throughout the film, as can be seen in the film's cinematography: the lights and shadows of a rainy day, sunsets by the sewer and coral reefs in the sea.

There are few actions scenes in the movie. The action comes when Wei gets promoted from his job as a parking valet at a nightclub. The local mafia boss, Brother Gu, makes him a debt collector and gives the cousins a gun.

The gun, as well as their own carelessness, proves to be Wei and Jie's undoing. After accidentally blowing away Brother Gu, the cousins try to escape to Ilan.

But then Wei becomes ill (it seems he has symptoms similar to his sister's), and the cousins return home to face the death of Wei's sister and the wrath of the angry gangsters.

The acting in The Best of Times is superb. The two young actors Wing Fan (范植偉) and Kao Meng-jie (高盟傑) have excellent on-screen chemistry, each logging a very natural and touching performance.

Fan's good looks might even make him a star one day.

Chang winds the dramatic tension tight throughout the movie, showing again why his movies are compared to fellow Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien's.

Chang's three previous films are Darkness and Light (1999), Ah-Chung (1996) and Midnight Revenge (1994).

Darkness and Light, about a teenage girl who lives with her blind family in Keelung, won the Tokyo Grand Prix and the Golden Horse awards for editing and best screenplay, as well as the Silver Screen award at the Singapore International Film Festival for best Asian feature film.
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