Vive L'Amour (1994)

Three lonely young denizens of Taipei unknowingly share an apartment used for sexual trysts.

Director:

Ming-liang Tsai

Writers:

Ming-liang Tsai, Yi-chun Tsai

Stars:

Chao-jung Chen, Kang-sheng Lee, Kuei-Mei Yang

10 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Chao-jung Chen	...	Ah-jung
Kang-sheng Lee	...	Hsiao-kang
Kuei-Mei Yang	...	May Lin

Storyline

The film focuses on three city folks who unknowingly share the same apartment: Mei, a real estate agent who uses it for her sexual affairs; Ah-jung, her current lover; and Hsiao-ang, who's stolen the key and uses the apartment as a retreat.

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Plot Keywords:

apartment | real estate agent | wrist slitting | sexual identity | sexual confusion | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in The Story of Film: An Odyssey: New Boundaries: World Cinema in Africa, Asia & Latin America (2011)

User Reviews

Lonely Taipei in the 90s

I've seen a lot of movies and this might very well be my favourite ... it just gets me, probably because of how much I identify with Hsiao-kang and May Lin. It was my first taste of "slow cinema" and of minimalist film, and I loved it. I've seen it many times now. It's meditative and sad and funny. Nobody does loneliness and anomie like Tsai Ming-liang.

But please be aware of what you're getting into before you watch this film and leave a 1-star review. Slow cinema is not for everyone. For some people, watching this movie will be like picking up difficult poetry when all they've ever read up until that point was popular fiction. Vive L'Amour is not the most inaccessible work from Tsai Ming-liang, but it is not accessible to the average person who expects a certain level of pacing and noise and motion from a film (there is barely a line of dialogue in the film's first 20 minutes). Ideally, audiences should dabble in more accessible art house films before coming to slow cinema. Or they should check out Tsai's Rebels of the Neon God before this.

Details

Country:

Taiwan

Language:

Mandarin

Release Date:

22 July 1996 (USA)

Also Known As:

Vive L'Amour

Filming Locations:

Daan Forest Park, Taipei, Taiwan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Central Motion Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1