OK, despite being warned that it isn't your typical Edward Yang movie, I still wasn't prepared for this. It's such a comical concoction that I wonder if its satire would have eluded the viewers. Sure there are plenty of Yang trademarks: intimate dialogues, naturalistic/amateurish acting, and bits of random violence. In this case, though, the story doesn't flow well, making it hard for me to overlook the flaws, er, his trademarks. To be fair, it is a very funny movie, if you can understand Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese -- a pretty tough order. The subtitles that came with this movie were so bad that I gave up early and tried my luck with my native tongues. Yay! The movie does slowly build and pounce on its point, the overly rapid development of urban life in Taipei and the superficiality of the city life. In the end, I think that point and the satire are delivered, but can I excuse all that amateurish film making and scene constructions, to call this a good movie? No... unless for someone who's already a big Edward Yang fan. Also, this movie was known in some countries as Couples, and while there are may couples in the movie whose relationship are dissected, this theme is a pretty big fail here.
Oh yeah, Virginie Ledoyen was in this movie and she actually spoke a couple lines of Chinese. I was surprised by the accuracy of her pronunciation, better than the kids in a documentary on bilingual eduction Speaking in Tongues (2009).
