Millennium Mambo
A stylish and seductive submersion into the techno-scored neon nightlife of Taipei, Hou Hsiao-Hsien's much-misunderstood marvel stars Shu Qi (The Assassin) as an aimless bar hostess drifting away from her blowhard boyfriend and towards Jack Kao’s suave, sensitive gangster. Structured as a flashback to the then-present from the then-future of 2011, it’s a transfixing trance-out of a movie, drenched in club lights, ecstatic endorphin-rush exhilaration, and a nagging undercurrent of ennui.
“Sordid yet transcendent, bathed in neon haze and set to a relentless techno-beat, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s “Millennium Mambo” is not only the most pop movie the great Taiwanese filmmaker has ever made but among the most astonishingly beautiful.”
"A work of uncommon emotional density."
“A slow burn of profound sadness salved by some of Hou's most breath-catchingly beautiful passages to date.”
“Dreamy, hypnotic and ethereal… a lavish, gorgeous film”
Jack Kao
