Ming-liang Tsai's - Vive LAmour - DVD Review Aiqing wansui Ming-liang Tsai Vive LAmour DVD Review Aiqing wansui Ming-liang Tsai Vive LAmour DVD Review Aiqing wansui Ming-liang Tsai Vive LAmour DVD Review Aiqing wansui Ming-lia

(aka 'Aiqing wansui')

Taiwan 1994

Solitude. Urban alienation.
Three searching characters lives coincide in the backdrop of a vacant apartment in the overcrowded city of Taipei.

Through deeply steeped cinéma vérité techniques we are introduced to, and bond with, each character while viewing them in some of their most private moments; bathing, working, weeping, attempting suicide, making love, masturbating, scarfing down food etc...

Vive L'Amour, winner of the 1994 Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, is a masterful modernistic approach to examining the hollowness of society through intimate portrayals of three emotionally waning characters.

May Lin, played by Kuei-Mei Yang, is an attractive realtor who uses a sparsely furnished listing for a sexual dalliance with a rootless street vendor named Ah-jung whose meager efforts to pursue her are detailed with no verbal communication. The physical confrontation they share is, like most of the film, speechless and hence devoid of any intimacy.

Hsiao-kang (played by Kang-sheng Lee) is a sexually confused crematorium urn salesman who has stolen the key to the apartment and performs bizarre and often comedic episodes there, including an attempted suicide. He does this not for the intention to fulfill the act, but rather to enhance his life with any form of intimate dramatic gestures, something each of the three characters crave in the vast metropolitan sprawl they are apart of.

The geometry of the half furnished apartment lends itself to sterile bleak isolation paralleling the lives of May, Lee and Ah-jung who each reside there but hardly co-exist with little to no interaction either on the multiple levels of the unit or within the same room together. The lack of communication is an ailment of the societal disease that is explored through the examination of their aimless activities whilst away from the apartment. They work, but seem to form no bond with other members of society. As each character bathes alone it gives them pause for reflection on the emptiness of their lives. They, in turn, immerse themselves in the water attempting to shut out the distancing that their cold-calling sales work has given them with outside world.

The film may have influences from Stanley Kubrick and Andrei Tarkovsky with its long continuous takes and precise framing and Michelangelo Antonioni with the prevalent theme of urban isolation clinging subtly to the sparse narrative. The literal translation of the title is "long live love" which appears to be more of a request than a statement in this case. I enjoyed this film immensely and give it a very strong recommendation but will preface that with the comment that its stringent styling is not to everyone's tastes, but it is a favorite film of mine. I think it is perfect. out of

Gary W. Tooze

A poster that has nothing to do with Tsai's films

Theatrical Release: September 14th, 1944 - Toronto Film Festival

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DVD Comparison:

Bitwin- Region 3 - NTSC vs. Fox / Lorber - Region 0 - NTSC

(Bitwin - Region 3 - NTSC LEFT vs. Fox / Lorber - Region 0 - NTSC RIGHT)

DVD Box Cover
Distribution	Bitwin - Region 3 - NTSC	Fox / Lorber - Region 0 - NTSC
Runtime	1:56:44	1:56:40
Video	1.64:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.4 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1.70:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.7 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: Bitwin
Bitrate: Fox / Lorber
Audio	Mandarin (Dolby Digital 2.0)	Mandarin (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Subtitles	English, Korean, Chinese Simplified, none	English, (burned-in)
Features	Release Information: Studio: Bitwin (Korea) Aspect Ratio: Aspect Ratio 1.64:1 Edition Details: • Production Credits (text screens) • Filmographies and Awards *text screens) DVD Release Date: September 10th, 2003 Book-style digi-Case Chapters: 5	Release Information: Studio: Fox / Lorber Home Video Aspect Ratio: Aspect Ratio 1.70:1 Edition Details: • Production Credits (text screens) • Filmographies and Awards *text screens) DVD Release Date: May 21st, 2002 Keep Case Chapters: 5

Comments:

I recently viewed your comparison of Tsai Ming Liang's Vive L'amour and was wondering if you noticed that Bitwin region 3 version is censored. The scene where Lee Kang-sheng enters the tub naked was edited so that we can't see his butt. Fox Lorber, even though it has inferior image quality, has a uncensored version of him entering the tub. (Thanks - Mitchell)

*****

Well, both DVDs leaves a bit to be desired. I didn't find excessive examples of 'combing' or 'ghosting' in the Fox but the Bitwin shows some pronounced 'combing' in horizontal pans telling us it is not progressively transferred. Both are non-anamorphic widescreen with the Fox being cropped in certain areas. The subtitles are ingrained on the Fox and removable on the Bitwin with the inclusion of English, Korean and Chinese.

In regards to the image the Bitwin is sharper with far better color separation. On the Fox the colors can tend to bleed a bit and overall appears to be a bad Video transfer (flatline bitrate dead giveaway). Neither should be considered the definitive edition at this stage and with the director gaining popularity (and this one of his strongest films) perhaps there is hope for a better 16X9 progressive transfer in the offing. This remains one of my most watched DVDs solely for the film itself and from that standpoint we recommend the Bitwin which is the superior of the two.

NOTE: The Bitwin comes in a very cool book-style case!

Gary W. Tooze

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(Bitwin - Region 3 - NTSC LEFT vs. Fox / Lorber - Region 0 - NTSC RIGHT)