Vive l'Amour

A lot of city life flows through Tsai's masterly follow-up to Rebels of the Neon God, but our attention is focused on just three people. Mei, a woman pushing middle age, lives alone, sells real estate and longs to be loved. Hsiao Kang has left home and sells burial lockers in a new designer cemetery; possibly gay, he longs to love someone. And the cocky Ah Jung sometimes sells clothes at the night market; he neither loves anyone, nor feels any need to be loved. Watching Tsai manoeuvre these people into proximity with each other so that their lives may be changed is a large part of the film's pleasure, but it doesn't eclipse the sheer joy of discovering gradually where the film's own heart lies. Funny and heartbreakingly sad.