At the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, this Taiwanese-French drama won a FIPRESCI Award, given by international critics. Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang previously won top awards for his 1994 Vive l'amour (at Venice) and 1996 The River (at Berlin). High strangeness is evident in the tale, originally initiated as part of the French TV series of one-hour end-of-millennium dramas. As an epidemic spreads through Taipei, virus victims display odd symptoms. A man (Lee Kang-sheng) who runs a food store with few customers lives in a shabby building in a quarantined section, and a woman (Yang Kuei-mei) in the same building has a withdrawn existence. A plumber, checking a leak, makes a hole in the man's floor and leaves; the man then observes his neighbors through the hole. The film features four musical fantasy sequences that recall Hong Kong musical films of the '50s.~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

GENRE: Fantasy, Drama
MPAA RATING: No Rating
RUN TIME: 1h 35m
RELEASE DATE: January 01, 1998
STARRING: Lee Kang-sheng, Kuei-Mei Yang, Miao Tien
DIRECTOR(S): Tsai Ming-liang
PRODUCER(S): Peggy Chiao
WRITER(S): Tsai Ming-liang, Yang Pi-ying
STUDIO: