Dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien
2001, Taiwan, 119 min
Mandarin with English subtitles
A stylish and seductive submersion into the techno-scored neon nightlife of Taipei, Hou’s much-misunderstood marvel 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 to the then-present from the then-future of 2011, it’s a transfixing trance-out of a movie, drenched in club lights, ecstatic endorphin-rush exhilaration, and a nagging undercurrent of ennui.
Millennium Mambo blunts the many rhythms of urban life into an empty time less lived than passively endured.
– Phoebe Chen, Screen Slate
Recalls the unease that crept over the world’s youth back at the turn of the last century.
– Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
