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TAIWANESE FILMMAKER HOU HSIAO-HSIEN'S DREAMY LOOK BACK IN LANGUOR
The opening shot of Hou Hsiao-hsien's latest film poetically encapsulates everything to come: The dangerously alluring Vicky (Shu Qi) walks down a long, enclosed pedestrian walkway in fluid slow motion. Fluorescent lights illuminate from above as a minimalist dream-pop soundtrack propels her along. As she flits through the tunnel like a fashion model (in real life she is one) the smitten camera trails obediently behind her. She turns her head to make come-hither eye contact with the lens, as her sober and emotionally detached voiceover sets the stage: she speaks of her loser boyfriend, her many attempts to be rid of him, and sees in the relationship's inevitable fall a metaphor for the end of the 20th century. Her melancholic but selfassured words, matched by the act of glancing backwards, establish the aura of retrospect that pervades Hou's film. In a sense, Millennium Mambo is one long look back at a not-so-sweet coming-of-age transition-a remembrance of time wasted. It's a loss no one really wants to recover, but for Vicky, telling...