1996 ‘南國再見，南國’ Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien
In this portrait of small-time hoods rendered in rhythm-of-life anecdotal detail, Gao is the leader of a circle of layabouts including his sidekick, Flathead, and their girlfriends, Pretzel and Ling. He is also the originator of petty crime schemes, which promise to get the gang nowhere fast.
Good bye South, Good bye, 남국재견, Nan guo zai jian, nan guo
A youthful gangster film about moving around while killing time until yet another transactional exchange. One of the most essential movies about living on capitalist so society, 25 years ago and now. And Hou gives it his total contral of light, movement, stillness, mood. Every image has such an inviting texture that just reinforces the desperation within.
Hou Hsiao-Hsien makes every other director look like parents filming their kids sixth-grade piano recital.
Rather than being dislocated by war or language or shifting social structures the characters here have been swept up in a slipstream of capital, bound to an unseen but inescapable current. Here the distance between spaces, like city and country, is sort of collapsed, and everything is unified by powerlessness and some ephemeral sense of loss.
Unfortunately still didn't fully work for me but this time things were lot better in the second hour, it almost clicked. Atmosphere and mood of course still remains wonderfully enchanting, Hou's relaxed rhythm is lovely and the music is banging. Hopefully this will fully click next time.
Another slow moving but electrically penetrating film by Hou Hsiao-hsien. This one hones in on the ugliness and despair of the human condition. His distinguishable long take shots are much in evidence, as the only thing that changes in this stylish film is the subject matter being about gangsters facing contemporary money problems instead of his usual historical take on things. The style of his noted framed shots are slightly altered in a grittier way to keep pace with this faster moving world.
Final Score : 80% 🍎
There is only a single, temporary escape to the dingy rooms in Goodbye South, Goodbye : driving. Even if the driving is done with purpose and not for pleasure, it acts as a cure to the suffocation caused by staying in those soulless and drab houses. The rooms remind me of Millennium Mambo; they are a part of what makes these two films fantastic mood pieces.
Gao and Flatty are stuck in mediocrity for eternity. They are constantly reminded of their ceiling of success in life, and it's just a tad bit above the floor. Gao has aspirations to lead a better life, while Flatty doesn't seem to care at all. What follows throughout the course of the film is…
I really wanted to rewatch Three Times or The Assassin but I wasn’t able to pick one so I ended up rewatching GBSGB instead. Probably the best decision I made in quite some time.
The first time I watched this, I called it one of Hou's lesser films and only rated it 3,5/5. Idk what I was thinking because while rewatching I felt like revisiting an all time favorite. It somehow has everything Hou's cinema has to offer in an incredibly stylish packaging: a beautiful depiction of Taiwan and its landscape, HHH's slow and distant but rewarding direction, the quite dark but realistic portrait of youth on the verge of delinquency, similar to Millennium Mambo etc.
It may lack in scope…
miami vice 10 years earlier, in the sense of momentum. goodbye metanarratives, goodbye; no great villains or love stories to be had. what's here instead is a beautiful, masterful painting of the form, always advancing the compositions of sequences. the pure ennui felt when they're stagnating complimented by the sudden catharsis of motion. those beautiful red and green hues tinting the frame, asking us to view this altered world, in the desired sense by those desensitized by normalcy to the point of apathy. wanderers who dwell in their lack when they're not moving towards something tangible. the soundtrack underscores all of this: tonally jarring to the frame, but that's the point. their blank faces in motion while atmospheric electronic house…
(...) O concreto e o material do cinema entram no domínio do metafísico, no mundo invisível que perfaz os sonhos e o conhecimento e nos ajuda a reagir ao mundo visível e material. - João Palhares, folha da sessão de Louis Lumière no Cineclube Lucky Star.
yeahhhh I can’t believe how much of an improvement this was on just one rewatch. idk how I only went 3.5 before but sometimes a movie hits different that second time. what atmosphere, this is now my new fav movie by HHH. he really made an existential crime film that touches on urban-rural dynamics, immaturity, and economic frustration. keep moving, or die trying. the motorcycle scene, through the jungle, is GOAT-level. and the tension in that final act...an excellent film.
I’m reminded of the passage from a personal favourite of mine, Days of Being Wild:
“I've heard that there's a kind of bird without legs that can only fly and fly, and sleep in the wind when it is tired. The bird only lands once in its life... that's when it dies.“
Luxuriously languid, meandering crime story, with a minimum of crime and a maximum of hanging out, driving around, and waiting for something to happen.
