Fleurs à la dérive

I didn't know what I was getting into when I sat down here in 2020 to watch the 2008 movie "Drifting Flowers" (aka "Piao lang qing chun") from writer and director Zero Chou, aside from it being a Taiwanese drama.

Turns out that this was an anthology of three stories. Whether or not they were interwoven and connected, I honestly cannot tell you, because to me "Drifting Flowers" was a scrambled and confusing mess of a movie that made very little sense. There was no red line throughout the course of the stories, and it just seemed way too random and inconsequential.

While the storyline and plots for the three segments was utter rubbish in my opinion, then I will say that the acting put on by the various actresses and actors in the movie was quite good.

However, that did only so much to make up for what failed to be entertaining or enjoyable to me. But still, I managed to endure the ordeal that is "Drifting Flowers". But mind you, I wasn't one bit entertained. So why stick with it to the end? Well, I was hoping that the movie would start to make sense, or at least pick up its pacing and become interesting. That just didn't happen.

I am rating "Drifting Flowers" a generous three out of ten stars, mostly because of the acting performances and the production value to the movie. However, "Drifting Flowers" was definitely a swing and a miss from writer and director Zero Chou in terms of the movie proving to be watchable and entertaining to me.

While not perfect, seamless or easy to watch, Zero Chou's movie is definitely a gem. This movie features three stories (one character reappears to lead their own story on the 3rd) that revolve around queerness. The first featuring a blind woman who works at a karaoke and takes care of her sister alone. This new worker arrives and changes both their lives. Pedophilia is quite common in LGBT films and people excuse it too much, for lack of choice and just the very strong need for representation, I say this because there was a danger of it in this story. While I'm sure someone might disagree, I think this thankfully doesn't fall into that trap and handles it well. The second story starts on a really high note with a welcome injection of comedy. We jump ahead after the title card to a much later period of time however, and from there it is the opposite. It explores transitioning and involves a certain sickness. Very heavy and difficult to get through, but mostly worth it. The third story is the most conventional sort of coming-of-age kind of story about puberty and exploring your sexuality. It ends on a positive note and will also leave you wondering how this character went from that to how we meet them in the first part of the story. I hope we get more LGBT films from Zero Chou for it has been a pleasure.