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Taiwanese film at its best
In a recent film review (¡§Hidden in plain sight,¡¨ May 7, page 16), the Taipei
Times gave a thumbs-up to Pinoy Sunday, a GIO-backed movie by Chinese-Malaysian
director Ho Wi-Ding (¦ó½«®x), who has spent the past nine years working as a film
and video producer in Taipei.
In my opinion, the movie is so good and so universal that it deserves an Oscar
someday for Best Foreign Film ¡X it¡¦s that brilliant.
Although it¡¦s set in Taiwan, it¡¦s not only about Taiwan. It¡¦s about life all
around us, no matter what country we are from or live in.
The movie is a funny, yet tender, comedy about the trials and tribulations of a
pair of happy-go-lucky Filipino foreign laborers working in a factory in Taiwan.
These two men represent Third World workers who make iPads, iPods and iPhones in
factories scattered across this nation for the consumer-product hungry Western
world.
The film is both a comedy and a tragedy, with a storytelling touch that is as
sublime as it is divine.
And the star of the movie, the inanimate yet colorful star of this wonderful
cinematic masterpiece, is a red sofa.
Yes, a bright red leather sofa that¡¦s been thrown away by a Taiwanese family
¡Xdiscarded and left on a dirty city sidewalk in metropolitan Taipei ¡X is one of
the stars of this movie.
It¡¦s a symbol of many things in the film: the haves and the have-nots, the rich
and the poor, the factory bosses and the factory workers, the rich Taiwanese and
the dark-skinned migrant worker from the Philippines, dreams and reality,
justice and injustice, love and betrayal ¡X all wrapped up in one bright red
sofa!
It¡¦s red. It¡¦s a couch. It¡¦s been thrown away as garbage.
To the two Filipino factory workers from overseas, working in Taiwan to make
money for their families back home in Manila, the red sofa is a dreamed-of
ticket to comfort, and a kind of dream machine.
The two protagonists in the movie spend the entire film trying to get the
oversized, cranky, creaky, ungainly, and yes, heavy red sofa back to their
worker¡¦s dormitory on the outskirts of town.
You will never look at a sofa in quite the same way again, especially a red sofa
like this one.
The various attempts to push, pull, carry and even float the sofa to their
spartan dormitory room is at the heart of this laugh-out-loud tragicomedy that
would make even Shakespeare proud ¡X yes, the comedic Shakespeare.
Pinoy Sunday is not just a movie about Taiwan. It¡¦s a universal story about
love, life, dreams and the reality that sometimes interferes with good
intentions.
I think this movie has a chance at winning an Oscar. It¡¦s that good, and that
compelling. If Taiwan gave birth to the films of Tsai Ming-liang (½²©ú«G) and Ang
Lee (§õ¦w), let¡¦s raise a glass to toast the fortunes of Ho Wi-Ding, who just
might bring home some nice film awards for Taiwan, too.
DAN BLOOM
Chiayi City
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