Taipei Story

There is a compelling story behind Taiwan’s recent emergence as a food destination of international significance. A Culinary History of Taipei is the first comprehensive English-language examination of what Taiwan’s people eat and why they eat those foods, as well as the role and perception of particular foods.

A love story takes place over the course of one evening in Taipei.

A love story takes place over the course of one evening in Taipei.

Slow, elliptical, and for the most part understated, Yang's masterly account of growing up in Taiwan at the start of the '60s is as visually elegant as his own Taipei Story and The Terroriser, and as epic in scope as Hou Hsiao Hsien's City of Sadness (which Yang produced). On the surface, it's about one boy's involvement in gang rivalry and violence (on which level, it's often a little obscure, so numerous are the characters) and his experience of young love. On a deeper level, however, it's about a society in transition and in search of an identity, forever aware of its isolation from mainland China, and increasingly prey to Americanisation. The measured pace may be off-putting, but stay with it - the accumulated wealth of detail invests the unexpected final scenes with enormous, shocking power.

Terrorizer, released in 1986, continues along the path laid out by Taipei Story. Yang, never one to back away from a complex narrative, structures the plot around six primary characters, whose lives are gradually revealed as dramatically intertwined. An upper-class young photographer and his girlfriend, a female criminal known as the White Chick; Chou and Li, a married couple on the outs; and the woman's magazine editor boyfriend form the primary nodes of this unit. Again, however, Yang is most intrigued by the dynamics of the romantic relationship, and specifically the failing relationship…[…]