Heartbreak Island

Taiwanese director Hsu Hsiao-ming's second feature is set during a critical time of the nation's sociopolitical history and retrospectively refers to the nation's most significant political incident of the later part of twentieth century - the Kaohsiung dissent. A young anarchist activist, protesting against the government during Taiwan's martial law era, got arrested for making bombs in relation to the Kaohsiung incident and sentenced for nearly a decade. As she gets released from jail during the early nineties, she finds herself in a more democratic, but capitalist Taipei, with her former comrades all settled in comfortable bourgeois existence. Her ongoing disillusionment with the present, embodied in her former political mentor and ex-lover, is shown simultaneously with dramatic flashbacks of her past as a young idealistic university student leading up to the incident. The transitions between the two times are crafted well. There is an ever-present sense of gloom in the film's narrative. From the opening sequence of the film, it only well downhill. The director masterfully kept things depressing, without being overtly melancholic or emotionally manipulative, and arrived at a somewhat glum, predictable turn of events. This may appear rather flat, or anticlimactic. But that also correctly portrays the 'illusion of choice' that the modern-era capitalist democracy inevitably represents. Vicky Wei is terrific in the protagonist's role. The colourful night-time cinematography is very tuned in with the story's urban helplessness. Too bad this film is only available in the format of a poorly transferred and poorly subtitled VCD. I hope this sees a better release someday soon.