Zheng hun qi shi

When you compare the gulf that exists between the wretched quality of acting in the bulk of Taiwan's television dramas and that in the high proportion (but small number overall) of excellent films, you have to wonder whether there are two different worlds in this small country. "The Personals" is an example of the latter to treasure. Rene Liu is captivating in a quiet sort of way as a professional woman struggling with her well-concealed demons and subjecting herself to an endless round of meetings with various suitors. The acting is so natural and attractive that one almost feels like an eavesdropper at the table in the tea shop, but a welcome one.

The overall emphasis is wry comedy, but as with so many Taiwanese films that get foreign release, there is a drifting air of sadness and dislocation. This might be partly due to the fact that the bulk of Taiwan's foreign-screened films are obsessed with the fortunes and neuroses of the "mainlander" minority in Taipei (Eat Drink Man Woman is thus far the pinnacle of this syndrome). Many "mainlanders", even their Taiwan-born children, retain an equivocal attitude toward Taiwan as a home outside of the sphere of greater China and from this I suspect comes that sadness and dislocation. Yet pro-Taiwan independence zealots might even read into this film a more troubling interpretation: Rene Liu is smart, attractive, sassy, engaging - thoroughly modern - but is stung by prior romances, and unable to find a partner in anyone, yet is desperate for affirmation and companionship.

Ethnic interpretations aside, the film could have been an ugly disaster by mocking the men (and one woman) who would be her companion. Instead we get a lovely selection of real people, complex and banal, kooky and elegant. But never dull. If you walk down a Taipei street, these are the people you will meet.

The writer and director deserve the highest accolades for this effort. It's one of the best contemporary Taiwanese films out there.

I find it hard to describe why I liked this film so much. Suffice to say, it takes you to a unique and very real territory about the difficulty in being truthful. I did not realize the journey it had taken me on until its perfect ending, but my sister and I left the cinema in the firm glow of mutual joyous insight. See it, and throw all expectations where they belong: on the rubbish pile.

The premise may sound like a romantic comedy: an eye doctor quits her job to find a husband through personal ads, but it's not. Sure, the film has quite a few comic moments with the string of unsuitable suitors who responded to her ads. But the film has a melancholy current just below the surface. We, the audience, could feel it, but didn't know the source of the current until the end. It's a very intelligent film that comprises of almost nothing but dialogues and the dialogues are in Mandarin. So for anyone who doesn't like to read subtitles or dialogues, this is not for you. (Fortunate for me, Mandarin is my native tongue. :-) Not that I have any problems with subtitles since I grew up with subtitles.)

I don't want to spoil any details. The film was basically made of this eye doctor Du's meeting with various men in a teahouse in Tian Mu, a surburb of Taipei. Through various shots, we sensed the desperate loneliness and isolation in Du, a 30 something attractive but a bit naive woman. It's something most people who live in metropolies can relate to. Rene Liu's performance was simply excellent. The subtle reactions to the wild stories/pitches her suitors told. The vulnerability when she poured her heart out on the phone to the answer machine of her former lover. The wordless heartbreak at the end. Rene Liu's performance was so convicing that I felt I knew this woman personally and I cried with her at the end. The film also contains some of the most blunt discussions of homosexuality. But despite the poignant story at its core, the film never dips into melodramatics or histronics. It also avoids the pretentous artsy traps (which "In The Mood For Love" got into a few times). The only flaws I can say about this film are that a certain unsuitable suitors were a bit too stereotypical (for comic effect no doubt) and the meetings with various suitors went on a bit too long. But through the long process of meeting these men, we sensed there was a reason for Du's detachment and it was revealed at the end.

Since I grew up in Taipei, various references in the film were amuzing to me. One was a real life actor who showed up to meet Du told her she must be a graduate of Jing Shing when she said he looked familiar. Jing Shing is a private school I graduated from. The smog-shrouded citiscape of Taipei looked both familiar and unfamiliar (because it has changed so much since the last time I saw it). Those characters' mannerism was familiar, so familiar in fact that I suspected some of them might not be professional actors. I only recognized three professional actors in the bunch: Ching Shi Jieh (as a lonely and stingy grade-school teacher), Nu Cheng Zer (as himself) and Gu Bao Ming (as the security equipment salesman I think). Ching is a great stage actor in Taiwan. He made a wonderful guest appearance in the film. I'm sorry to say I can't place the actress Rene Liu. I haven't paid close attention to Taiwan's actors/actresses since I left.

An old couple sought me out after we walked out to ask me my interpretation of the ending. Both of them thought it a very emotional film. Yes, it's a very emotional film, and for a single woman, it hits a bit too close to home. :-)

Based around dating and personal ads, there is plenty of humor in the subject matter. Throughout I was kept absorbed and intrigued by how similar our cultures are with respect to dating. There is not a tremendous amount of plot, but some is revealed/tacked on the end.

When I saw the movie at the Ghent Film Festival, I didn't know what to expect. The only thing I knew was that it was going to be the story of a woman who wants to get married and hopes to find the ideal man through a personal ad. A lot of time is spent on her sitting in a bar and talking to the men who answered the ad. This way the film wants to give us an idea of what life is like in Taiwan. Though this promises to be either very interesting or very boring, the result is that you are watching a film which can somehow move you, but at the same time you regret that it isn't more than only slightly moving. As the story continues and we meet weirdo after weirdo (a lot of these men are fun to watch), we learn that she once had a lover who abandoned her to return to hi wife. There is a lot more to the story, but I wouldn't like to spoil the ending. She regularly phones her ex-lover to tell him how much she misses him and how none of the men can compare to him, but he is never home so she tells her story to his answering machine. This second story is more intriguing than the first and it's a pity that the story can't fully grip you. But still, the movie is interesting and well worth its 7/10.