Tue, May 15, 2001 page11

• Taiwanese director takes fate in his own hands

  Hsiao Ya-chuan's debut film 'Mirror Image" won rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival, putting him in the international spotlight

  • By Yu Sen-lun / STAFF REPORTER
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  Taiwanese filmmaker Hsiao Ya-chuan (蕭雅全), whose debut film deals with fate, did a lot to improve his own future at the Cannes Film Festival last week, where he premiered Mirror Image (命帶追逐) to widespread acclaim.

  Hsiao is known as one of the best young filmmakers in Taiwan and has taken a large step in broadening his recognition abroad with Mirror Image which was shown in the Directors' Fortnight portion of the Cannes festival.

  

  Mirror Image is a film about manipulation between people and fate.

  PHOTO COURTESY OF HSIAO YA-CHUAN

  Mirror Image will compete for the Camera d'Or, a prize for first-time feature film directors. And on Saturday Hsiao was awarded the festival's youth award issued by a panel of seven French film critics to recognize films that represent young people's lives and stories.

  

  Mirror Image was praised for its lively portrayal of the lives of young people in Taipei.

  PHOTO COURTESY OF HSIAO YA-CHUAN

  Hsiao has also received funds and promotion plans for Mirror Image and his next two filmmaking projects from French film companies. Celluloid Dreams, which has distributed Tsai Ming-liang's (蔡明亮) works in France, will distribute Mirror Image and will co-produce Hsiao's next two feature films.

  Mirror Image involves a game of flirtation between a man and two women in Taipei, each of whom is trying to manipulate the others' fate and lives. Shot in a playful, humorous style with jazzy background music, the story focuses on the main character Tung-chin's (東清) small personal world -- the pawnshop he tends while his father is in hospital.

  

  Picture of "Mirror Image"

  Tung-chin was recently in a car accident which left him with a scratched palm and was told later by his nurse that without a lifeline on his palm he was now in control of his own fate, something which he has come to believe quite strongly.

  Eiko, Tung-chin's girlfriend, is an avid palm reader who hangs out at the pawnshop. The two of them use different ploys to get prints of customers' palms. But the palm lines that Eiko is most interested in is Tung-chin's. She wants to know more about his future. Meanwhile, Tung-chin begins an affair with a female customer named Xiao De-le (曉得了), who in turn attempts to manipulate him.

  "I think Tung-chin has fooled himself," Hsiao said at a press conference at Cannes last week. "For me a lifeline is meant to be a limit to one's life. And losing his lifeline makes Tung-chin believe in a false idea that he has broken the limits," he said.

  "So he is like a guinea pig that I created for my experiment, who in the end reverts back to his original limits, back to an ordinary life."

  "This is also true for the two girls, who tried to break free of control in their own different ways but find themselves trapped by their own limits that they set up."

  The playful environment that Hsiao portrays in his film through his camera work and humorous story was also a hot topic of discussion at the festival.

  "Before I start shooting, I usually have the rhythm and structure of the images in my mind, which I perceive as important elements in my film," Hsiao said.

  For Peggy Chiao (焦雄屏), a film critic and producer, Hsiao's film style shows a new sensibility toward Taiwan and Taipei through his images. "He has captured the carefree life rhythm and the light-hearted life philosophy of the younger generation. In his films, Taipei looks no different from other cities," she said, which sets it apart from the works of other Taiwanese directors such as Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢) and Edward Yang (楊德昌).

  Hou is in fact one of the producers of Mirror Image. Hsiao was previously a student of Hou's and worked as deputy director on Hou's Shanghai Flowers (海上花) and also worked on several commercials directed by Hou.
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