First Love: Litter on the Breeze

This film seems bound to inspire some confusion in the credits and with good reason. From the first screen the viewer is treated to a wild spiral of aborted story fragments and speed raps by the director on the process of filmmaking using the very film we are watching as his example. The story of his relationship with his producer is dissected and potentialities explored behind sunglasses and an out-of-control afro-wig. All the while Chris Doyle goes crazy, using his formidable skills to move through various layers of 'production value' to emphasize our directors critique. ( scenes shot on film transfered to video then shot on film in low resolution off television monitor, etc...).When we finally arrive at our story it is classic Wong Kar Wai- quirky and delightful love stories for our time, virtually indistinguishable from Wong Kar Wai at his best.With this film the ' new Hong Kong cinema' kids raise the ante on postmodern filmmaking. Smart, careless, and confident with thier inspirations (Godard, Woo, John Hughes perhaps) yet philosophical, romantic, and sincere with thier ideas, for the moment leaving everyone else in the dust. If you want to know where storytelling went after MTV wreaked its havoc on the attention spans of a generation, here you are. There is hope for the post-literate yet.

People who liked this film should see 'Jam' by Chen Yiwen.(Taiwan, 1998).