re:mote voices

Title: Millennium Mambo [Qianxi Manbo]
Cast: Qi Shu, Jack Kao, Chun-hao Tuan, Yi-Hsuan Chen, Jun Takeuchi, Chen-er Niu
Director: Hsiao-hsien Hou

Millennium Mambo is a lot sparser than it really should be to succeed as a narrative. Too many lingering shots of nothing are given, no substitute for actually giving us an explanation for the behaviour of the characters past the leads narration. Contrasting that there are some nice visuals, and there is clearly some potential within the big picture, but for me, Millennium Mambo doesn’t quite pull it off.

The story is strangely a woman looking back ten years to how things were for her when she was younger. But that puts the time at the year 2001, when the new millennium was still just new. An idea which seems perhaps a little curious, while just saying this is what happened to her in 2001 might have made more sense. The narrative wanders about, rambling and sprawling, at times jumping wilfully and without reason. But essentially the linear form is that Vicky has been with boyfriend Hao-Hao for a number of years. She met him when she was in school, and he made her miss her last exam. Which is just the start of a list of why Hao-Hao is a complete shit. Trying to avoid national service he starves himself, but also uses speed to excess. The result is that he is incredibly paranoid and possessive of Vicky, with several scenes where she returns to the flat, only for him to sniff her all over, to go through her handbag, to check her phone for calls. On the whole Hao-Hao treats Vicky badly, and she knows it, so that she keeps walking out on him. But he will always track her down and for some reason they will get back together. The reasons for this are not very evident, which is one of the big failings in the plot – why does Vicky keep going back – the best she comes up with is that it is like she is hypnotised.

Continuing Hao-Hao’s list of inadequacies, he never does any work, so they never have any money. He likes to pretend he is a DJ, playing around with his decks in his room, and partying all the time. As a result Vicky ends up working in a hostess bar, there is some ambiguity as to what she actually does here, but certainly some of the girls give lap dances. It is here she meets Jack, which creates a second relationship for her, but again in this area lies too much ambiguity. She describes him as a good friend, a best buddy, and there is no real evidence of anything more between them, even when she finally leaves Hao-Hao and moves in with Jack. Of course Vicky isn’t perfect herself, and that is most evident when she is with Jack. Her time with Hao-Hao has driven her to drink, and while she appeared independent and unimpressed with him, she appears much more clingy and pathetic with Jack. There must also be something about her choices, as there is something clearly dodgy about Jack, as though the scene of him sitting in a sauna covered in tattoos, with other men with very similar tattoos isn’t enough, he eventually has to disappear. So while it is never clearly said, the idea that Jack is involved in crime, perhaps a member of the triads, is one of the few areas where the subtext actually comes across in an effective manner.

Which isn’t to say that Millennium Mambo is a total loss, there is potential for something really nice in here. There are some strong scenes – like the opening scene of Vicky walking along a tunnel, or early on in the club, or when she takes a trip to Hokkaido and plays in the snow with friends. Those kind of scenes demonstrate the director/cinematographers skill, if they concentrate on more of that kind of thing in future then their work should become a lot stronger – eliminating linger shots of buildings or objects, that while they are attempting to be artistic (one assumes), are instead just filler.