I think this film is fantastic and I think it is an often made mistake to believe that all films should be judged by their accesibility to the everyman. Otherwise we would be writing similarly disconcerting reviews of Hegel: "I thought he didn't make any sense you know? No major publishing house would touch that garbage!"
Just as a person can't just pick up a copy of The Soft Machine or Molloy and expect to fully appreciate it without learning at least a little bit about how to read these texts, the same is true with film.
Without at least some working knowledge of avant-garde film and Chinese transnationalism (ahem, of which this director being Taiwanese is VERY concious of in most of his films... especially in the last scene... uh did you notice the staging and the vicious political content? I think it had just a little to do with the meaning of the film don't ya think?) you are bound to just get frustrated with the film and consider it stupid and a waste of time or else sense that there must be something here but clueless as to what it is. Not because you are a bad person but because you haven't learned how to read this text yet.
Dammnit they should be teaching this stuff in highschools.
Anyway, my favorite part is still the japanese "bottle-uh!" scene. That and the watermelon helmut. I couldn't stop laughing.
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