Life Is Cheap... But Toilet Paper Is Expensive

Director Wayne Wang's return to modern Hong Kong (the Final Frontier at the edge of China) is a scattershot quest for cultural identity in the Wild Wild East, spiced with casual displays of scatology and copraphogy (illustrating the lengths to which traditional Chinese will go to maintain face). The ersatz plot line, in which a frustrated currier fails to deliver a briefcase to a mysterious crime lord, is little more than incohesive filler interrupting a series of mock-documentary encounters with various local characters, in episodes that might have been more effective if they were genuine. Scripted cinema verité is an oxymoron, and even with directorial assistance (from writer/star Nakasaka) Wang is too polite a filmmaker for this type of narrative deconstruction. Highlights include some striking photography and editing, and an exhilarating (if pointless) chase that finally captures that elusive spark of vitality missing from the rest of the film.