Unrequited love is at the center of three very different tales in the cinematic omnibus JULIETS
JULIETS (Hou Chi-Jan, Shen Ko-Shang & Hou Chi Jan, 2010)
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St.
Saturday, May 7, 1:30, and Wednesday, May 18, 4:00
Series runs May 6-19
212-875-5610
www.filmlinc.com
The opening-night selection of the Golden Horse Film Festival, Juliets is a three-part anthology that offers unique takes on Shakespeare’s classic story of unrequited love, Romeo & Juliet. In Chen Yu-Hsun’s Juliet’s Choice, Vivian Hsu stars as Ju, a mousy, handicapped young woman who walks with one crutch — not very well — and toils in her father’s printing shop. Ju is immediately struck by Ro (Wang Po-chieh), a university student who is trying to get someone to print a Marxist pamphlet, not exactly the safest idea in 1970s Taipei, which is under martial law. Although Ju’s father rejects Ro’s proposition, fearing the authorities, she goes ahead with the project in secret, leading to personal, professional, and political repercussions and a sly twist. In Shen Ko-Shang’s Two Juliets, One Million Star finalist Lee Chien-na was named Best New Performer at the 2010 Golden Horse Film Awards for her role as Julie, a sexy chanteuse in a traveling outdoor burlesque show who gets into trouble when her relationship with the puppeteer’s son (River Huang) suddenly goes public, causing fighting among the families. The story is actually told in flashback through the eyes of the man thirty years later and the woman taxi driver (Hsu) who wants to help him make amends. And in Hou Chi-Jan’s One More Juliet, Hong Kong television star Kang Kang plays Ju Li-ye, a despondent thirty-nine-year-old who has just had his heart broken for the twenty-eighth and, he’s decided, last time. But just as he’s about to hang himself from a tree using the chain from his broken bicycle, he is asked to appear in a commercial that his being shot nearby. As the goofy ad for sculpted superhero undies is delayed by the rain, Ju hears a stirring tale told by another actor, Ron (Liang He Chun), bringing the two men closer together. Juliets offers three very different tales of unrequited love, set in three different times and in three different genres, yet they work well as a whole, displaying the main characters’ desperation, disappointment, and determination as they try to deal with the rough hand love has dealt them.
Juliets is screening May 7 & 18 as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s “Taiwan Stories: Classic and Contemporary Film from Taiwan,” which runs May 6-20 and also includes such older works as Liang Zhefu’s Early Train from Taipei (1964), Li Hanxiang’s Beauty of Beauties (1965), and King Hu’s A Touch of Zen (1969) as well as such modern films as Wei Tei-Sheng’s Cape No. 7 (2008), Chen Wen-tang’s Tears (2009), and Chung Mong-Hong’s The Fourth Portrait (2010).