Millennium Mambo (2001)

4K RESTORATION Original Title: 千禧曼波 Director: Hou Hsiao-Hsien Runtime: 119 minutes Country: Taiwan Language: Mandarin with English subtitles Rating: M18 Awards TECHNICAL GRAND PRIZE (Tu Duu-Chih for sound design) Cannes Film Festival 2001 SILVER HUGO Chicago International Film Festival 2001 BEST DIRECTOR Ghent International Film Festival 2001 BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY BEST ORIGINAL SCORE BEST SOUND EFFECTS 2001 Golden Horse Film Festival Synopsis Taipei. A voiceover looks back 10 years to 2001, where Vicky (Shu Qi) is in an on-again-off-again relationship with her slacker DJ boyfriend Hao Hao (Tuan-chun Hao). Drifting aimlessly through life, fuelled by cigarettes and alcohol, she becomes increasingly dissatisfied with her career as a nightclub hostess and her various dead-end romances. Between the haze of neon lights and the throbbing pulse of techno beats, she meets Jack (Jack Kao), a caring older gangster, and a pair of half-Japanese brothers who guide her to Hokkaido. Her future remains doubtful as she deals with her fleeting youth. Ephemeral and elliptical, Millennium Mambo is a transitional work within director Hou Hsiao- hsien’s illustrious career, planting his feet firmly within a contemporary Taiwan. This 4K restoration of the film offers his observations where we gain a glimpse of a city and a country in a state of flux at the turn of the century. A metropolis in constant negotiation with its changing identity and fading history all projected onto the transient uncertainties of a young woman.