Even if an international audience is not aware enough about the history and the contemporary political details about the inter-relationship between mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, there is something universal about an artist's relationship with their country's laws of censorship. Having said that, audience from many perpetually liberal countries will have a difficult time appreciating a film like this - a film that has so many rough edges out of a humble production. If you have lived in a repressive state that treats its political dissenters with fierce spite, you can totally relate to the dilemma of a political artist - whether to conform and protect your family from state vendetta or to continue with your ideological battle even at the cost of putting your loved ones in trouble. The director of this film seems to tell their own deeply personal experiences, a rather absurd one at that, through a lens of fiction. Yet its connections to reality are deeply unnerving. There is little point in evaluating a film like this in terms of the quality of production, acting etc. Still the director has managed to unfold several subtle, poignant instances of human reaction. The characters appear all too real. Playing the protagonist must have been difficult for the actress - her character is an emotional mess, yet adopting a deadpan exterior to suppress all the anger inside. The occasionally brilliant screenplay doesn't say much, but suggests a lot- a trait I have often come to appreciate in cinema.
