Films

A good watch! It follows a wife who hires a "mistress dispeller" for her husband, in an attempt to break up his affair and thus keep the family intact (or as intact as still possible). What I enjoyed most was the mundanity of it; how a man who is stuck in his life decides to do something just to, for a moment, feel a tinge of aliveness. How another far younger woman throws herself at this slob, just for validation... Are these feelings of love and deep appreciation for the world rare? As in, does the median affair just mean less because the love was never as strong in the first place? Then again, this is how all who have loved must feel. Their own little experience, so euphoric for them, smoothes out into a statistic.

A good watch! It follows a wife who hires a "mistress dispeller" for her husband, in an attempt to break up his affair and thus keep the family intact (or as intact as still possible). What I enjoyed most was the mundanity of it; how a man who is stuck in his life decides to do something just to, for a moment, feel a tinge of aliveness. How another far younger woman throws herself at this slob, just for validation... Are these feelings of love and deep appreciation for the world rare? As in, does the median affair just mean less because the love was never as strong in the first place? Then again, this is how all who have loved must feel. Their own little experience, so euphoric for them, smoothes out into a statistic.

It goes without saying that this Film is extremely long. This, in addition to having to read subtitles for the entire runtime, made for a rather exhausting watch. The plot centres around a group of schoolchildren in Taiwan, and the fight between rival gangs there ultimately culminating in the murder of a girl. The story is a true one, and it doesn't shy away from the rather bleak realities of the characters lives. Their slow coming of age, from first kisses to fights to an enjoyment of music... There are the usual plotpoints of needing to get into the better school, parents grappling with joblessness and all that is the utter regularness of peoples lives. My favourite character is probably Honey, the charismatic and honourable gangleader, whose pride is ultimately his downfall.

It has been a few months and this really hasn't been on my mind in a while; It was worth the watch and feels almost like a novel in that sense. I'd recommend it to someone to enjoy with a friend, to plan to talk for a long time after and maybe even at some breaks in between. I recommend reading this review for more.