"Millennium Mambo" A flower running at the speed of sound, chasing fragments of the night

Flowers of Taipei

The slow, back-and-forth framing of Millennium Mambo sees Vicky and other characters repeatedly enter and exit the frame, and often the screen is empty, yet the camerawork is so godlike that every shot remains aesthetically intact.

" Flowers of Shanghai " (1998) was shot entirely indoors, decorated with the glittering decorations of a high-class brothel. "Millennium Mambo" can be said to be an extreme application of the style of " Flowers of Shanghai ," but the more you watch it, the more you wonder how it was shot. Not only does the viewpoint change one after another within a single shot, but the camerawork also incorporates the "distraction" of our vision. We are not always looking at one point. Even when talking to someone, we almost consciously or unconsciously shift our viewpoint to another place. Porous camerawork. The shots that show this film's unique style are first shown in the room where Vicky and Hao live.

"Millennium Mambo 4K Restored Version" ©2001 3H Productions / Paradis Films / Orly Films/SinoMovie.com

Hao gets involved with Vicky after she comes home from the club. The room where DJ Hao and Vicky share is an extension of the club. Vicky takes off her clothes, puts on loungewear, pours herself a glass of alcohol, and lights a cigarette. The camera drifts as Vicky moves from the back room to the front room, from right to left. Hao kisses Vicky's neck. Vicky lights a cigarette while being kissed. Vicky's elegant indifference at this point is bothersome to Hao, who is clinging to her body. Hao doesn't stop kissing her neck. Vicky picks up the glass and takes a sip while being kissed. Hao wants to control Vicky. Vicky is ordered to open her legs. With a visual obstacle in the form of a table in front of her, the camera continues to voyeuristically capture the two of them. In this scene, Vicky has a dry coolness, like a woman in a manga by Kyoko Okazaki.

If Flowers of Shanghai is the story of a woman trapped in a high-end brothel, Millennium Mambo is the story of a woman trapped in the city of Taipei. Not the flowers of Shanghai, but the flowers of Taipei. There is a correspondence in style and subject between these two masterpieces. No matter how aimlessly Vicky lives, time passes inexorably. There is movement even in the stagnant, indolent time. Millennium Mambo's terrifyingly inventive camerawork is attentive to what passes, what is overlooked, and yet at the same time, it captures the same distracted attention of our eyes. We, like Vicky, are unable to notice the time passing by.

The speed of sound of youth is stalling in the city