Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien • Drama • 2001 • Taiwan • Mandarin with English subtitles
Starring Shu Qi, Jack Kao, Tuan Chun-hao

Hou Hsiao-hsien's stylish and seductive submersion into Taipei nightlife stars Shu Qi ("The Assassin") as an aimless bar hostess drifting away from her blowhard boyfriend and towards Jack Kao’s suave, sensitive gangster. Structured as a flashback from the then-future of 2011, it’s a transfixing trance-out of a movie, techno-scored and neon-lit with an undercurrent of turn-of-the-millennium ennui.