The Great Buddha+: Down and Out in Taiwan

The plus is a reference to the iPhone 6+, exactly the kind of coveted gadget that is beyond the reach of luckless losers like Belly Button and Pickle. They can only gawk at how the other half lives through the love hotels captured on the dash-cam of Pickle’s boss. However, the title maybe takes on additional meaning when the ne’er do wells see something they wish they hadn’t in screenwriter-director Huang Hsin-yao’s pitch black comedy The Great Buddha+ (trailer here), which opens today in San Francisco.

If you are going to use narration, you need to have a reason. Huang gets that, because he owns his frequent voiceovers. They are even more rewarding if you get the puns based on regional southern Taiwanese dialects, but the mordant humor still comes through the subtitles, crystal clear. As Huang himself explains, Belly Button always spends his idle evenings with Pickle, the night watchman, because he is only one in the provincial town more passive and put-upon than himself.

Pickle’s boss Kevin Huang owns a metal-works that specializes in large-scale Buddha statues. Of course, the meaning of the Buddha is lost on the two sad sacks, as well as most of the boss’s customers. When the TV goes on the fritz, Belly Button convinces Pickle to extract Huang’s dash-cam memory cards, which they quite enjoy in a voyeuristic way, until they happen to see the boss murder an inconvenient former mistress.

The vibe of GB+ is hard to describe, but it includes elements of Hitchcock, Beckett, Steinbeck, and the Frank and Ernest comic strip. In a sense, it evolves into a murder thriller, but just how much Kevin Huang knows about what our two idiots know is always kept decidedly ambiguous. In fact, the entire finale depends on the power of suggestion. Nevertheless, the scathing satirical dressing down of Kevin Huang’s local political cronies is boldly pointed and impossible to miss.

Taiwanese indie superstar Chung Mong-hong serves as cinematographer as well as producer, giving the film an arresting black-and-white look. In contrast to convention, he films the dash-cam sequences in warm neon color reminiscent of the films of Wong Kar-wai. Straight up, even though it is still January, this could very well be the most visually distinctive film of the year.

It also is features some wonderfully dry and understated comic performances that land quite lethally. “Bamboo” Chu-sheng Chen makes Belly Button one of the great anti-heroes of recent memory, while proving the adage every bully is really just a coward. However, the tragic dignity of Cres Chuang’s Pickle might be even more powerful. Chang Shao-Huai does not say much, but he still makes a strong impression as Belly Button’s silent drifter-squatter pal, Sugar Apple. Yet, nobody can top the charismatic villainy of Leon Dai’s Kevin Huang.

In general terms, GB+ shares a kinship with classic Coen Brothers films, but the specifics of Huang Hsin-yao’s execution are richly idiosyncratic and defiantly original. Twenty-six days in, it is definitely the best of the year so far (I wouldn’t want to have to go out there and top it). Very highly recommended, The Great Buddha+ opens today (1/26) in the Bay Area, at the Lee Neighborhood 4-Star Theatre.

DFF ’17: Godspeed

Cabbies and drug mules have one thing in common: the mileage. That is particularly true of Old Xu, an expat cab driver originally hailing from Hong Kong. In contrast, Taiwanese Na Dow is new to the drug delivery business and he might not last very long. Their comical road trip periodically takes dark detours in director-screenwriter Chung Mong-hong’s NYAFF-selected Godspeed (trailer here), which screens during this year’s Denver Film Festival.

It figures Na Dow might be in for some trouble, because his boss Da Bao barely survives the extended prologue. Someone is clearly looking to move in on his business, so Da Bao and his lieutenant Wu will discretely follow Na Dow on his latest run. It turns out to be quite ride when the mule reluctantly agrees to the persistent Xu’s terms. Their misadventures will really just confuse their secret shadows, rather than vindicating or condemning Na Dow.

Godspeed veers all over the road, but it still works nearly every step of the way. HK comedy veteran Michael Hui still goes for plenty of laughs, but Old Xu is definitely a sad clown. It is a complex, deeply humane performance that directly compares with Eric Tsang’s even more serious turn in Mad World. Na Dow (as his namesake) is an adequate straight man and he has some nicely turned moments down the stretch, but he is definitely the junior partner of their tandem.

Starting right from the start, Leon Dai nearly steals the picture several times over as the deceptively quiet and amusingly sly Da Bao. Ironically, a lot of viewers will be disappointed when they discover he really isn’t the focus of the film. As an extra added bonus, professional steely Thai authority figure Vithaya Pansringarm does his thing as the drug lord who nearly kills Da Bao, mostly just because he is psychotic.

Chung seems to be a bit like Tarantino in that he has a knack for casting nostalgically beloved actors in roles that help redefine them for younger generations. He did it with Jimmy Wang Yu in the wonderfully subtle and evocative supernatural film Soul and obviously, he did it again here with Hui. While Godspeed is bit plottier and talkier than his previous film, it still very much a work of mature restraint.

The guys who have been around the block a couple times really come through in Godspeed. It is a flattering showcase for Hui’s talents, but Dai, Pansringarm, and even Tou Chung-hua (as Da Bao’s dealer crony) score plenty of points. Despite some sudden tonal shifts, it still keeps purring along, because Chung trusts his characters and never overplays his hand. Recommended for fans of wry caper and road movies, Godspeed screens this Saturday (11/4) and Sunday (11/5) during the 2017 Denver Film Festival.