Liàn liàn fengchén

Dust in the Wind is a remarkable film, and one which will, no doubt, reward multiple viewings. Like most of the films of Hou Hsiao Hsien, viewers will be divided into two, sharply opposed camps.

The main characters in the film are two high-school students. The first is Wan, who - seeing his village as a dead-end career-wise, decides to leave their home town to go to Taipei to find work, intending to complete his education via night-school. His girlfriend Huen also leaves for Taipei after graduation. The other personages are family members, employers, friends and co-workers.

The story presented consists of a number of vignettes in typical Hou fashion, with stationary camera and naturalistic performances. Glimpses are given of their occupations, their moments together and their times apart. Though varying from the very funny to the emotionally raw, they have a cumulative effect, resonating with a reality that is not idealised, and is yet still filled with moments of sublime grace, somehow existing with situations of despair, misery, boredom and loss. There is little music, only a solitary guitar used to punctuate scenes, almost like a musical interlude, often combined with stunning scenery.

Apart from the immediate plot, something can also be glimpsed of the attitudes of the rural, native Taiwanese towards the city and the higher classes, as well as to the vicissitudes of life in general. On a whole the film seems imbued with the melancholy, fatalistic philosophy indicated by its title.

A worthy member of Hou's inimitable body of films, 'Dust in the Wind' was touching and memorable, though with an absence of schmaltz. It is a film I hope to revisit soon. As for recommendations, I'm not sure that it will be everyone's 'cup of tea'. Some will find many of its aspects, in particular its detachedness, quite alienating. Certainly those already familiar with Hou, or fans of Taiwanese cinema in general, will want to see it. Those who like Ozu, Bresson or Tarkovsky may find it worthwhile also. There is the same naturalistic feel, understated acting and long takes. But it is also very much the work of an original auteur who is honing his craft and producing unique, personal films.

I love Asian movies quite a lot and for some reason "Dust in the Wind" (aka "Liàn liàn fengchén") from 1986 had managed to elude me all the way up to 2019. When I was given the chance to sit down and watch this movie, I of course jumped at the chance.

Turns out that this Taiwanese movie was a major slow paced and prolonged movie with zero appeal to me. Still, I managed to sit through almost 72 minutes of the entire 109 minutes the movie runs for. I kept watching with the hope that the movie would pick up pace and that the storyline and/or characters would eventually start to have any appeal.

It just never happened...

The storyline in "Dust in the Wind" was simplistic to the point where it lost all of its appeal. It is about young people leaving their provincial home villages behind and head to industrious Tai Pei to work. And then there was some adolescence elements thrown into the formula as well. But it just wasn't enough to make a watchable, enjoyable or entertaining movie. I must admit that I have no idea what writers T'ien-wen Chu and Nien-Jen Wu were trying to accomplish with "Dust in the Wind".

The characters in the movie were essentially as pointless as the storyline. They had no personalities and milled about like battery-operated drones with poor interactions and equally poor dialogue randomly thrown about.

If you have problems falling asleep one evening and have "Dust in the Wind" within arms reach, put it on, because you might overcome your sleep problem and be soundly asleep within a short while. This was a massive swing and a miss of a movie. And I have zero interest in returning to watch the rest of the movie, because I imagine it is going to be every bit as pointless and trivial as the 72 minutes of prolonged torture I already watched was.

Hsaio-hsien Hou based this quietly effective Taiwanese Bildungrsoman on co-scripter Nien-Jen Wu's own experiences. The film is heavily influenced on the one side from Japanese masters like Ozu (though Hou denies this) and from the Italian Neo-Realists whose films inspired Wu. It's the old story of the younger generation ('60s kids from a mining town) leaving the country to try their luck in the big city. A shy, but devoted couple seem to be making a go of it, but life, jobs, family and even military service take a toll on the relationship. It's well observed, especially in the rural sections, and charmingly acted, but the natural flow of events doesn't really stick with you. Hou has trouble balancing the plot strands and particularizing the relationships, asking for a response out of proportion to what we've seen. No doubt this is not a problem for Taiwanese audiences, but then Ozu & De Sica managed the trick, didn't they.

When it comes to writing about a specific film I stutter, I'm lost. But don't misunderstand me, I know enough of movies to say this is a work of art that will prevail thorough time as the greatest novels do. I believe Hou is up there with Tarkovsky, Bresson, Ozu, Pasolini, Dreyer, Sokurov, Fellini, Herzog, Paradjanov and others. I mention them so as to locate a few of you readers who may have heard little of Hou.

I think its better not to talk about the movie itself, one shall see it with new eyes. It is something new, this time cinema works for reality to transform it to beauty, that's the real meaning of art. It may seem simple at times, and yes it is, for time at present seems always simple, but it also accumulates the most complex structure of time. One can feel how the banality of everyday slowly fixates itself in eternity, one can see the inevitable, the beauty in the every small detail. Hou justifies life in a century that has lost itself and that sees only its own shadow. Humanity in its true form, going around like lost and innocent children, and there's no evil. And every second in Hou's work makes life more beautiful.

I've talked to a few people who have seen his movies, I can't guarantee the same experience, but what I've seen is there if you can see it in yourself.

"Another wow factor, for those we are interested in the checkered history of Taiwan, is that Hou and his scribes diligently interleave all the minutiae into its trickling plot, almost every seemingly commonplace conversation has a succinct exposition that appertains to the past or present matters: a valediction with Wan's boss reveals his horrific backstory during the wartime as a soldier; the father-son chitchat the night before Wan's draft underlines the divergence between a father's hope for his children and the unfortunate reality; during Wan's military service in Kinmen county, when a fisherman's family from mainland China is marooned on the island, the two parties respective attitudes strikingly intimate their different political slants."

read my full review on my blog: cinema omnivore, thanks