Like most art-house films, Hurricane Festival is steeped in metaphor. Maybe the world doesn't need another story about happy-on-the-outside drifters looking for their lost souls, but thankfully Hurricane Festival seems to elude this cliche. A confessed Woody Allen fan, Lee enjoys the self-deprecating element of storytelling through film, and seems eager to hold himself and his work up to a mirror of skepticism. "It's kind of my personal metaphor," he laughs. "Being a magician is like being a filmmaker -- film is a great illusion."
"The magician's journey is like my journey, just like a filmmakers'. We're both trading in something that doesn't exist. One of my friends pointed out that throughout my writing, all my characters have a certain craziness to them, like they're always chasing something. There's a hole in their life. They go through all the hardship of their journey, and at the end they don't get what they want -- they get something they didn't expect. I feel this is just like the journey of human life, a common theme."
So will Taiwanese of similar age to the characters in the film actually "get" Hurricane Festival?
"I don't know, we will see," says Lee. "I think the new generation is more interested in playing video games than watching this film." He laughs again. "But I hope they can relate."
Hurricane Festival (颱風紀念日) is playing at Warner Village Cinemas Monday Nov. 22 at 2:30pm.
RSS