Millenium Mambo

Toronto International Film Festival Program Book
2001

Millennium Mambo
Hou Hsiao-hsien
Taiwan/France, 2001
119 minutes Colour/35mm
Production Company: 3H Productions/Paradis Films/OrlyFilms/SinoMovie.com
Executive Producer: Hwarng Wern-ying, Gilles Ciment
Producer: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Eric Heumann
Screenplay: Chu Tien-wen
Cinematographer: Mark Lee Ping-bing
Editor: Liao Ching-sung
Production Designer: Hwarng Wern-ying
Sound: Tu Duu-chih, Kuo Li-chi
Music: Lim Giong, Yoshihiro Hanno
Principal Cast: Shu Qi, Jack Kao, Tuan Chun-hao, Takeuchi Jun, Takeuchi Ko Production: 3H Productions

“Looking at the young friends around me, I find that their life cycle and rhythm, birth, aging, illness and death move several times faster than those of my generation. This is particularly true among young girls: like flowers, they fade almost immediately upon blooming. The process occurs in an instant.”—Hou Hsiao-hsien

Vicky is a hostess at one of Linsen North Road’s trendy Yao-tou bars. Engrossed in the narcissistic lifestyle of nightclubs and Ecstasy pills, her romantic attention is divided between two men. Hao-hao, her neurotic and jealous live-in boyfriend, constantly suspects her of infidelities and goes to absurd lengths to check up on her. Vicky resolves to break it off with him once she has drained the $500,000 from their bank account. Jack, an enterprising gangster with a personal stake in the bar where Vicky works, begins an ambiguous love affair with her which may or may not lead to a closer, more intimate relationship. His presence in her life becomes both a source of trouble and a beacon of salvation.

The first in an intended series in which Hou aims to record the changing lifestyles of people in Taiwan, Millennium Mambo was originally touted as a change of direction for the filmmaker. Given the film's neon-saturated urban setting, hedonistic, angst-ridden characters and detached, complacent voice-over narration, one would be inclined to think that Hou has taken a cue from the younger generation of Asian filmmakers, but the long takes, convincing realism and highly-refined sense of staging all convey Hou’s unique cinematic language. A story of female entrapment scored by a throbbing techno thump, Millennium Mambo features a radiant performance from Hong Kong starlet Shu Qi, photographed with playful luminescence by cinematographer Mark Lee Ping-bing (In the Mood For Love).
—Noah Cowan