Review: TAIPEI EXCHANGES

rating: 3

A curious, light exercise in minimalism.'Taipei Exchanges' is a pleasantly minimalistic effort from Hsiao Ya-Chuan, and though it hardly puts Taiwanese cinema on the map, it is a light, fleetingly entertaining drama that maintains the attention for all of its trim 82-minute runtime. Having recently inherited a building from her emigrating aunt, Doris (Lunmei Kwai) opts to follow her life-long dream of running a coffee shop. With the help of her quirky, more adventurous sister Josie (Zaizai Lin), she finds the perfect niche with which to draw in customers; any item in the shop can be taken away by a patron, as long as they provide something in return. Though most people are just looking for general household items like lamps and clocks, a few pang for something deeper, such as one man who puts up 35 scented soaps in exchange for thirty-five love letters. In the notion of the exchange, it seems, Doris and Josie may have latched onto something pressing about the human condition. Beginning in strict, rudimentary fashion, the first impression of Hsiao's film is that it is just like the vacuum-sealed, pristine, family-friendly dramas that we get in the West, and little more. While these claims are not without their elements of truth - for the plotting is incredibly light, and the pseudo-philosophical dialogue may be just too pompous for some - it is in examining our increasingly cold, insular world culture that Hsiao manages to derive meaning. Through the use of a peculiar fourth-wall-breaking technique, where apparent members of the general public are quizzed about various dilemmas Doris and Josie encounter, we are given adequate perspective, though ultimately it finds little wider context, and the proof of the pudding still lies in the playful manner in which the coffee shop's gimmick derails social etiquette. The inherent likeability of (and chemistry between) the characters - especially Josie, a rather shrewd worker who at one point amusingly adds food onto a customer's bill for profit's sake - counts for a lot, though this makes the obvious, expository narration seem all the more baffling. At a key moment, the voice-over asks, "Why is Doris upset?", yet any viewer selective enough to even catch the film in the first place will be already asking this themselves, without the need for their hand to be held so insistently. Thankfully, Hsiao never gets too concerned about downtrodden drama, and the tone is kept fairly fluffy throughout, aided by a curious spiritual bent, regarding the bond formed between people and their possessions, and how these can form the essence of interesting narratives. Josie, the more picky of the two sisters, often rejects items to be exchanged, for she desires something with a soul and a universality - not just someone's claim that they once had imbued meaning into the object. She yearns for something with staying power or, as the film puts it, "inner value" - i.e. the aforementioned soap fiend - and the film's regard to material possession, that it doesn't define people but connects them to various life events and creates indellible memories, is itself an interesting concept, mulled over with the casual intellect of a coffee shop conversation. It is not a new comment that it is the connection to others that makes us human - as the people in this film, rather casually, look for - but it is a message well-delivered amid some good low-budget visuals of the city. The idea of the exchange, however, is extended beyond all credibility once it goes outside the bounds of mere bartering in the shop; by the end it has taken unto itself a far different meaning and it comes across as quite clumsy, appearing self-conscious in its delivery, as though trying to be thematically symmetrical even if it invites logic gaps and needless melodrama. An attempt at forcing a potential love story sprawling past the film's end point also feels forced, given how underdeveloped the man in question is, given his limited screen time of barely a few minutes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juLHa2F4LDY 'Taipei Exchanges' is not especially original or inventive, but it is a well-photographed pic which offers a few pleasing observations on our disconnected culture. Ultimately, this is a watchable drama that doesn't reinvent the wheel, nor has any pretensions to do so either.