Vive l'amour

Vive L'Amour
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	愛情萬歲
Simplified Chinese	爱情万岁
Literal meaning	Long live love
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Àiqíng wànsuì
Directed by	Tsai Ming-liang
Written by	Tsai Ming-liang Tsai Yi-chun Yang Pi-ying
Produced by	Chung Hu-pin Hsu Li-kong
Starring	Yang Kuei-mei Lee Kang-sheng Chen Chao-jung
Cinematography	Liao Pen-jung Lin Ming-kuo
Edited by	Sung Shia-cheng
Distributed by	Strand Releasing (USA)
Release dates	2 September 1994 (premiere at Venice Film Festival) 22 July 1996 (USA)
Running time	118 minutes
Country	Taiwan
Language	Mandarin

Vive L'Amour is a 1994 Taiwanese New Wave film directed by Tsai Ming-liang. It is Tsai's second feature film. Continuing Tsai Ming-liang's attentive observation of urban life, Vive L'Amour unfolds the theme of urban alienation through three young urbanites’ search for romance and their disbelief in traditional family values in the 1990s Taipei. Tsai Ming-liang takes a bold move with plot lines that are stylistically designed to focus on only three central characters, who unknowingly share an apartment in Taipei. The cinematic language of Vive L'Amour is kept to an extreme minimum. Tsai Ming-liang’s austere composition of dialogues with a total of less than a hundred lines throughout the film, paired with a minimalist use of background music and soundtrack, reflects the emotional loneliness and spiritual emptiness experienced by the three urbanites of Taipei. Viva L’Amour was premiered at the 51st Venice International Film Festival, where it won the prestigious Golden Lion–the very first one for Tsai Ming-liang. With its daring long takes piercing through the deep heart of the characters, Vive L’Amour introduces the unique “Tsai Ming-liang style,” which is later embraced by international audiences and critics, and attracts European and American audiences to enter the lonely world Tsai Ming-liang cinematic language portrays on screen. While the film was celebrated by international cinephiles when it was first released, its vague storyline and cinematic techniques were too obscure for most movie goers, resulting in an average box office turnout.

Plot

Unknowingly sharing an apartment together in Taipei, three strangers–a real estate agent, a young ossuary salesman, and a street vendor–find themselves caught between the deteriorating family value, fast-food romance, and the suppression of homosexual desire.

Hsiao-kang (Lee Kang-sheng), a young salesman for commercial ossuary, discovers a key to an apartment in the locker and takes it. He soon moves into one of the bedrooms. One night he attempts to commit suicide by slitting his wrists while lying on the bed, but get distracted by a noise coming from another corner of the apartment.

Meanwhile, Ah-jung (Chen Chao-jung) is having coffee at a cafe when an attractive real estate agent, May Lin (Yang Kuei-mei), sits at the table next to his. Intrigued, he follows her as she walks down the street. Lin catches on and eventually joins him. She leads him to a vacant apartment that she is trying to sell–the same apartment that Hsiao-kang is secretly staying in–and they have sex in one of the bedrooms. Hsiao-kang, who is attempting suicide, hears them and tried to stop the bleeding from his wrists.

Ah-jung steals the key to the apartment from May Lin and later returns with his belongings. He moves into one of the adjoining bedrooms. On his first night in the apartment, he and Hsiao-kang encounter each other in the apartment and have a short argument.

May Lin spends her day trying to sell property. While taking a break, she returns to the apartment when Hsiao-kang and Ah-jung are both there. The two sneak out quietly together and soon form a friendship.

One night, Hsiao-kang goes out for a walk and meets Ah-jung selling dresses on the street. May Lin walks past but does not notice them. Soon, Ah-jung joins her at a food stand and the two return to the apartment and sleep together in the same room as they did the first time. Unbeknownst to them, Hsiao-kang is hiding under the bed the entire time, masturbating himself as the bed creaks above him.

The next morning, May Lin gets dressed and leaves. Hsiao-kang lies next to the sleeping Ah-jung and kisses him before slowly pulling away. Lin goes to her car but cannot start it, so instead she walks on a path in the unfinished Daan Forest Park. She then sits down on a bench and starts to cry uncontrollably.

Cast

• Yang Kuei-mei (楊貴媚) as May Lin, a real estate agent, who brings Ah-hung to one of the property she has been trying to sell and has sex with him.
• Lee Kang-sheng (李康生) as Hsiao-kang, a salesman for a commercial ossuaries (納骨塔), who discovers an apartment key and secrely moves into the apartment.
• Chen Chao-jung (陳昭榮) as Ah-jung, a street peddler, who steals the key of the apartment May Lin brings him to and later moves into the apartment. He forms a friendship with Hsiao-kang after having a quarrel with him at the apartment where they both secretly move in.
• Lu Yi-ching (陸弈靜) as a coffee shop owner

Reception

Vive L'Amour won three Golden Horse Awards, for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Sound Effects. It also won the Golden Lion award at the 51st Venice International Film Festival.

On AllMovie, reviewer Jonathan Crow praised the film, writing that "[director Tsai Ming-liang] presents Taipei as a soulless, ultra-modern labyrinth where individuals cannot communicate other than in one-night stands or business transactions. The film's style is masterful in both economy and emotional power. With very long takes, little narrative tension, and almost no dialogue, the style reinforces the cold, alienating world in which the characters live."

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 10 critics' reviews are positive.. In the 2012 Sight & Sound polls it received two critics' votes and three directors' votes.

External links

• Vive L'Amour at IMDb
• Vive L'Amour at AllMovie