The Great Buddha + (2017)

One day when Pickle's and his colleague, Belly Bottom's television is broken, their lives are changed forever.

Director:

Hsin-yao Huang

Writer:

Hsin-yao Huang

Stars:

Cres Chuang, Bamboo Chu-Sheng Chen, Leon Dai

21 wins & 31 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Cres Chuang	...	Pickle
Bamboo Chu-Sheng Chen	...	Belly Bottom (as Bamboo Chen)
Leon Dai	...	Kevin Huang
Shao-Huai Chang	...	Skaya / Sugar apple
Yi-wen Chen	...	Congressman Gao
Na-Dou Lin	...	Peanut (as Na Dow)
Kuo-Lin Ting	...	Yeh Feng Ju
Yung-Feng Lee	...	Deputy Speaker
Yueh-hsin Chu	...	Singer (as Pigheadskin)
J.C. Lei	...	Gucci
Mei-Hsiu Lin	...	Sister
Pei-Fang Wang	...	Peanut's Uncle (as Xiao Liang Ge)
An-Shun Yu	...	Shun
Vincent Liang	...	Deputy Commissioner
Hsien Tuo	...	Pickle's Uncle (as Tuo-Shen Chen)

Storyline

Pickle is a night security guard at a bronze statue factory. His colleague, Belly Bottom, works as a recycling collector during the day, and Pickle's biggest pleasure in life is flicking through the porn magazines Belly Bottom collects in the small hours in the security room. Having late night snacks and watching television are an integral part of their dull lives. One day when the television is broken, their lives are changed forever. The story involves gods, the middle-aged men's sexual desire and the conversation between ghosts and humans.

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Plot Keywords:

night guard | security guard | factory | recycling | television | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama

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Details

Country:

Taiwan

Language:

Min Nan

Release Date:

15 February 2018 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Great Buddha +

Company Credits

Production Co:

A-Yao Film, Cream Film Production, Mandarin Vision

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Color:

Black and White Color (some scenes)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Official submission of Taiwan for the 'Best Foreign Language Film' category of the 91st Academy Awards in 2019.

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Soundtracks

To Have, or Not To Have
Lyrics by Chiau-hoa Ong
Composed & Performed by Sheng-Xiang Lin

User Reviews

Taiwanese arthouse film

Watching this in the UK probably meant most of the subtle Taiwanese life references went over my head and whilst there is humour in the film, I didn't laugh once. The story centres around 2 struggling lowlife misfits where one is a night security guard at a Buddha statue factory and the other a refuse recycling collector. It's a sort of bizarre snapshot of a series of events. There's a theme of vulnerability and exploitation, references to faith and local culture. It's mostly filmed in Black and White and is unusual in having the director intervening occasionally with a narration. The film manages to hold a certain mood, it's filmed in an interesting way and is as they say 'different'.

My rating: 6/10 and only that high for it's absurdity. Recommended for the art-house crew. Beware there isn't much of a cohesive story to this and the trailer is made up from some very carefully selected scenes.