|
Review
by Kozo: |
Taiwan has never sounded
lovelier than in The Most Distant Course, the
feature-length debut of director Lin Jing-Jie (Bad
Girl Trilogy). The film follows three disparate
characters suffering their own forms of alienation
and heartbreak. Xiao Tang (Mo Zi-Yi) is a young sound
recordist who's apparently a bit of a mess. When we
first meet him, he's late for his job, and is about
to pay the price; he oversleeps, and shows up late
for a film shoot only to discover that he's been replaced.
After apologizing to the crew and the director, he
ends up weeping along the roadside, sound equipment
slung over his shoulder and fuzzy boom mike in hand.
Cai (Jia Xiao-Guo) is a psychiatrist
who takes his role-playing a bit too far, into counseling
sessions containing sexually explicit diatribes, or
even into his dealings with prostitutes. One day,
while getting ready for another day at the office,
Cai switches from his standard shirt-and-tie get-up
into a casual outfit, whereupon he abandons his job,
and begins a seemingly aimless road trip. He ends
up at a roadside shop, where he attempts to seduce
the local betelnut beauty, before getting involved
in a potential blackmail scam. Thanks to some contrived
but entertaining circumstances, he gets bailed out
by Xiao Tang, and the two hit the road together.
Finally, there's Wu Ruoyun
(Guey Lun-Mei), a young office worker whose status
as a third party in a relationship leaves her frequently
alone, nursing a bottle of liquor. She's alienated
by her current life, but finds solace in audio tapes
she receives in the mail, labeled "Sounds of Formosa".
Each tape contains ambient sound from around Taiwan,
including audio collected from windbreak forests,
local fish markets, aboriginal tribes, and the simple
sound of waves. The tapes are not meant for Ruoyun,
but for the former tenant of her apartment. However,
Ruoyun begins listening to the tapes anyway, using
them to escape from her daily commute and office grind.
One day she decides to chase the source of the sounds
herself, beginning her own personal journey.
The Most Distant Course is an involving, but not very forthcoming motion picture,
choosing to introduce its characters in a rather unrevealing
fashion. There's no voiceover and little expository
dialogue here. Each character is introduced in the
midst of their lives, and deducing exactly what they're
about takes patience and time. Luckily, writer-director
Lin Jing-Jie has a winning narrative device in Xiao
Tang, who's compiling the "Sounds of Formosa" for
a former girlfriend who jilted him. The tapes are
reaching Wu Ruoyun instead, creating a minor tension
that the two lovelorn young people will one day meet
and perhaps ease each other's heartbreak. However,
that outcome is secondary to the journey itself, and
thanks to Xiao Tang's pursuit of sound, the film's
slow-paced narrative unfolds pleasantly. The characters
gradually reveal pieces of themselves, and along the
way the audience is introduced to Taiwan's sights
and sounds, which seem simultaneously familiar and
yet uniquely beautiful.
Lin's use of sound helps
bring us closer to the characters. The beauty of the
sounds and the characters' attraction to them are
convincingly conveyed, allowing the audience to empathize
with the characters. Ultimately, the destinations
they reach are not very special, nor do they necessarily
meet standard audience expectation. Each character
may not find what they're looking for, but some measure
of peace or understanding is discovered, with the
outcomes sometimes quietly devastating. Some characters
reach an obvious catharsis, while others don't, and
their differing fates are subtle and affecting. The
themes and emotions in The Most Distant Course don't qualify as new, but the way in which Lin Jing-Jie
spins them onto celluloid feels compelling and even
accomplished.
Mo Zi-Yi is exceptionally
sympathetic as the sensitive Xiao Tang, giving his
character an innate and compelling likeability. Guey
Lun-Mei is remarkable in her emotion-saturated introspective
gazes; the young actress has seemingly cornered the
industry on emotional depth via only one or two facial
expressions. Both actors, however, are outshone by
Jia Xiao-Guo. The actor's deep voice and intense,
rough charm make him a very imposing and charismatic
figure, and his journey is arguably the most affecting
one. It's also given to the most extreme conclusion,
and the contrivance with which it arrives could alienate
some audiences. Then again, alienated audience members
would probably be upset with the film in general,
because it seldom tells them how to feel, and instead
asks for their patience and empathy. The Most Distant
Course is a fitting title for this movie; reaching
the film's goal takes a while, and getting there requires
the audience to give more than they may be used to.
However, the reward is there, and it's worth seeking
out. (Kozo, Reviewed at the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival, 2007) |
|
