If there is one thing that characterises 'global' cities across the world, it is the myth of 'availability'. The reality that feeds this myth is of course that of 'unavailability'. Life, real or virtual, itself become unavailable. The availability unavailability paradox appears to work at the core of randomness, absence and emptiness we experience in these new cities. lee Kang-sheng has in his film not only captured a tragic but an entirely random development in the life of a frail aging woman who is suddenly responsible for her missing grandson, but managed to spread the profound anguish upon the city of Taipei itself. Strange, Kang-sheng is even able to see hope in urban anonymity when the bereaved grandmother unites with an adolescent whose grandfather has gone missing.
