Love, innocence and sex are seen Taiwan-style

Following the box office success of local horror flick Heirloom (宅變), two Taiwanese romance films with broad commercial appeal will hit the big screen this weekend.

Falling... In Love (戀人), co-starring Lan Zheng-long (藍正龍) and Lee Kang-yi (李康宜), is an urban allegory on the frustrating

relationships between men and women who are bound by sexual desire.

Fishing Luck (等待飛魚) tells the love story of innocents in the secluded paradise of Lanyu Island (蘭嶼).

An award winner at this year's Venice International Film Festival, Falling...In Love is director Wang Ming-tai's (王明台) second feature film and looks at the impossible search for love among a group of 20-somethings.

Alan (played by Lan) is a 27-year-old valet at a love motel who supplements his salary by boxing in underground matches. As a self-abasing, cynical guy Alan doesn't know how to love and tries to run away from his girlfriend Angle (played by Lee) and their tottering relationship.

Alan meets a 40-year-old woman who persists in waiting for her mafia boyfriend to return. The two embark on a dangerous affair, finding brief liberation from the daily grind of life in their fiery sexual encounters.

Angle, a 25-year-old hair stylist, is a strong modern woman trapped in her

relationship with Alan. However, she never loses faith in love. Lonely and hurt, she grows close to her new neighbor, Bella, a 29-year-old woman who, while trying to

escape from a broken marriage, also

embarks on an affair with Alan.

Unaware that the subject of their affection is the same man, the two women share their most intimate secrets and try to find the secret of true love.

After having worked in the film industry as a producer, screenwriter and director for over a decade, Wang says he has progressed a great deal from his 2002 debut Brave 20 (鹹豆漿).

Shot using long close-ups, minimal dialogue and saturated color, his latest release creates a visually astonishing world that successfully portrays the inner states of its protagonists.

Fishing Luck is the first feature film from veteran documentary filmmaker Tseng Wen-chen (曾文珍), who has won numerous awards for her non-fictional productions.

Venturing into drama for the first time, Tseng returns to her favored theme of aboriginal culture. Set on Lanyu island, the film depicts a pure and simple love story between a young woman from Taipei and a local tribesman who leads a tranquil life surrounded by family and friends.

A sophisticated woman from Taipei, Zing (played by Mando-pop singer Linda) visits the island on a business trip to survey the signal coverage of cellular phones in the remote area.

She relies on the cell phone to maintain relations with her boyfriend in Taipei.

Zing accidentally loses her wallet and is left without enough money to pay for her accommodation, or return flight to Taipei. Behong, a young man of the Tao tribe, (played by Aboriginal musician Biung Wang (王宏恩)) kindly offers her a place to live.

Their love gradually blossoms and Zing realizes true love can't be maintained over the telephone.

However, after Zing's wallet is recovered, she returns to Taipei. Upon her departure, Behong gives her a wooden flying fish hairpin as a gift. Time passes, and as the flying fish season looms again Zing and Behong wonder whether they will ever find true love.

Selected for the competition sections by both the Tokyo and Pusan International Film Festivals this year, Fishing Luck successfully juxtaposes a world of innocence and