Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮) scored big at the 55th Berlin Film Festival with his erotic musical The Wayward Cloud (天邊一朵雲), which earned the Silver Bear Award for Artistic Contribution, the Alfred Bauer Award and the Fipresci Award.
Descriptions of the movie ranged from "disgusting" and "sexist" to "daring," "brilliant" and a "masterpiece," and have added to public curiosity about the film, which is currently scheduled for Taiwan release in April. The Government Information Office yesterday agreed to release the film without cutting its sexually explicit scenes.
Meanwhile, the selection of other Asian film releases this weekend is plentiful. Coming out this weekend are Rice Rhapsody (海南雞飯) starring Silvia Chang (張艾嘉), ethnographer Hu Tai-li's (胡台麗) documentary Stone Dream (石頭夢), and the Fantasy of Asian Film Festival, showcasing five films from Thailand, two from India, seven from China and one from Hong Kong.
Rice Rhapsody looks into the delicate art of making Hainan chicken rice and mother-son relationships. The film can be seen as a twist on Ang Lee's (李安) Eat Drink Man Woman (飲食男女) and The Wedding Banquet (喜宴).
Jen (Silvia Chang), a mother of three sons, is an expert at making Hainan chicken rice and uses her mother's secret recipe to open a restaurant and raise her children alone after being abandoned by her husband 12 years earlier.
Jen's older sons, Daniel and Harry, are gay, causing Jen to worry whether she will have grandchildren if her third son, Leo, turns out to be gay too.
She and her best friend, Kim Chui (Martin Yan, a famous TV chef) devise a plan to keep Leo straight by bringing a French exchange student to live with them. Leo develops a strange but intriguing relationship with the French girl named Sabine, which greatly pleases Jen.
Things begin to crumble for Jen when Kim becomes the toast of the town with his invention of a new dish that challenges her chicken rice. Kim becomes a national celebrity overnight, and Jen's self-esteem is threatened.
Their conflicts come to a head when Jen participates in a cooking contest with Kim and other chefs from Singapore. Food unexpectedly becomes a medium that not only nourishes their bodies but also opens their hearts.
Hu Tai-li's Stone Dream is a touching documentary about an old veteran and his attachment to Hualien. The story is told through a prose-like narrative and poetic images. It also touches a sensitive issue in Taiwan: national and ethnic identity.
The story revolves around Liu Pi-chia (劉必稼), an 81 year-old who was press-ganged into the army in China and came to Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek.
Liu first appeared in a documentary of the same title made by Chen Yao-Chi (陳耀圻) in 1965. The film featured him to exemplify the diligence of a traditional Chinese farmer.
After several decades, Hu and her crew unexpectedly met Liu in a village where the new immigrant population consists of mainlander veterans whose wives are from different ethnic groups, mostly Aboriginal tribes.
On his farm, Liu met his wife, an Amis widow with two kids, one of whom develops an interest in collecting rose stones.
Liu and his family are like those rose stones, coarse on the outside but when cut open or polished, reveal wonderful beauty on the inside.
Accompanied by classical Chinese lute music, the film subtly tells Liu's memories of developing his land in Hualien, his relations with his son, his wife's sudden death and finally, his feelings about being Taiwanese.
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