Millennium Mambo (2001) User Reviews

Poetic film with uninteresting characters

[chih_wei · 7/10 · 1 October 2001]

I saw this movie at Vancouver International Film Festival. As typical of a HHH movie showing, some audiences walked out, which means it is slow-paced. Again with his customary long shots, all the acting and actions appear quite realistic. Jack Kao is convincing and cool as always. Shu Qi brings a credible portrayal to a not-so-interesting character. And the movie has a lyrical feel (especially the opening tracking shot and the snow scenes), accompanied nicely by the atmospheric theme music.

However, the two main characters just don't have appealing personalities. Like the characters in "South Goodbye South", both Vicky and Hao are restless, aimless & not very bright. (Lifeless) Rebels without a cause. I am wondering whether this is how Hou and Chu (the screenwriter) perceive the twentysomethings in Taiwan. Since Vicky is narrating from 10 years into the future, I do realize she will mature. Her transformation that starts here was not shown convincingly though. I also know that this is the first of a series of films on this decade, but it doesn't feel fully realized on its own.

I also have a slight problem with the narration preceding the real events. It makes the expected events boring, when the real events don't bring anything extra (e.g. contradiction, irony) to the narration.

Compared to "South Goodbye South", this one may not be as ambitious thematically. While "South Goodbye South" has a lot of boredom and dread (possibly intentionally so), I like the poetic, reflective and semi-nostalgic mood of "Mambo" much more.

Hollow but compelling

[galensaysyes · 8/10 · 11 June 2002]

A hollow life is observed clinically but sympathetically in this melancholy, graceful film, which is itself hollow but compelling, like the dance beat it is set to. The director uses a convention I hadn't seen since early silent films: a summary description of an action, followed by its acting out. Also, the story is narrated from a time yet to come. These devices create the sense that the events have happened before--as they have, in the cyclical, purposeless life we are witnessing--and also that they are inevitable. The story is narrated in the voice of the leading character, but in the third person: an older self from a real future? or an alternate reality? or only her imagination? The narration is necessary as a comment on the characters' behavior because in the numb and mindless hedonism that draws them in and keeps drawing them (she keeps leaving the boyfriend who embodies this life style but keeps returning to him) they are never shown as capable of thought. Whether the film means to say that, or is simply limiting its view and depth of field to exclude their thoughts as peripheral to their lives, this lack works to unconvince us. The characters are shown in attitudes of thought but never speak anything like a thought, even a stupid one; they are moved entirely by want and impulse. The hedonist boyfriend is shown as having friends; how? Nobody not brain-dead exists in a state of pure mindlessness. That is the view of parents whose adolescent refuses to talk to them: who can understand these kids? This film describes a life--and this is an interesting accomplishment, but a relatively narrow one. More difficult, in this milieu, and ultimately more interesting would have been to discover the person whose life it is (or will have been).

Such beautiful angst

[Chris Knipp · 7/10 · 26 February 2006]

In a revealing interview included on the DVD, Hou Hsiao Hsien says he wanted "Millennium Mambo" to be a picture of Taipei night life and also "much more," a "multifaceted" film with "multiple points of view" that he would have liked to make six hours long; something post-modern and deconstructed and free-form and improvised, but "modernist" too in some aspects.

The actual film isn't so much multifaceted or plot less as it is a portrait in the moment of a few people composed, with a voice-over from ten years later, from the point of view of a pretty middle-class girl called Vicky (The bee-sting-lipped, doe-eyed Qi Shu, who also stars in the present-day chapter of Hou's recent "Three Times") who's stuck in a dysfunctional relationship with a spoiled, also pretty, middle-class boy, the bleached-haired Hao Hao (Chun-hao Tuan), who does drugs and hits on Vicky when she least wants to be hit on and who won't work and, as Vicky's omnipresent voice-over tells us, at one point has stolen his dad's Rolex and pawned it for a lot of money. They live together and hang out at clubs and Vicky works at a bar as a "hostess," a euphemism for a lap dancer who does drugs and drinks with customers and probably has sex with them -- like Liang Ching (Annie Shizuka Inoh) the actress-narrator of Hou's 1995 "Good Men, Good Women." Vicky's bar job gets her involved with an older gangsterish man named Jack (Jack Kao, the actress Liang Ching's dead lover in "Good Men").

"Millennium "Mambo" doesn't show us Taipei nightlife in any collective or panoramic sense. It shows us -- a few times -- the hazy corners of a few bright clubs with little crowds of attractive young people playing games and doing drugs and alcohol, and it shows us -- many times -- corners of the apartment where Vicky and Hao Hao live, and bits of a mountain town in Hokkaido, Japan where Vicky goes, invited initially by a couple of boys she meets.

Atypically for Hou, the camera moves around quite a bit too in this film, following the people and hugging their faces and bodies -- but also lingering, in his old style, statically observing doorways, walls, light fixtures, or windows with a train going by outside. Many cigarettes are lit, many are smoked. Meth is puffed in a pipe. Hao Hao pouts. Vicky looks sad or angry. The couple break up, but Vicky comes back, or Hao Hao comes after her. It's approach/avoidance: he tells her she's from another planet, but he keeps getting her back. Jack is an oasis for Vicky; but at a crucial time in winter when she goes to Japan, he isn't available, leaving her a key and a cell phone, to wander the streets. She lies in bed. She stares out the window. In a long outtake on the DVD about her Japan sojourn, Jack actually calls her and she's got a cold. In the final cut, he never calls, and she remains healthy. What's left isn't much, though as always for Hou and for many Chinese directors, the visuals are lush and beautifully lit, even if the frames are empty and the plot line, though never absent as his interview promises, goes nowhere. "Millennium Mambo's" reference to the end of the millennium (and perhaps changes in China and Hongkong?) seems, like the six-hour movie and the portrait of Taipei nightlife Hou promises in his interview, to have come to us as little more than the pretty but empty fragments of a vague, lost intention. This is a remake of Antonioni's "L'Avventura," in winter, with young attractive Asians -- and Qi Shu as the new Monica Vitti -- but without the world-weariness or awareness of any sort of fading cultural heritage, and with, instead of Antonioni's haunting white noise, a nagging techno score.

Vicky describes this period of time as being hypnotized or under a spell...HHH is successful in casting that spell on his audience.

[mdlamf · 8 May 2004]

The mood in which I left after viewing Millennium Mambo was a heavy sort of depression. I felt as if I had experienced, or re-experienced through memory, events causing one to give in to hopelessness; to accept being dominated by another. In retrospect, Vicky describes this period of time as being hypnotized or under a spell. Hou Hsiao-hsien is successful in casting that spell on his audience. Three aspects of the film lend to this success: the non-sequential unfolding of events, the use of long-takes from a more or less distant perspective, and the sound track. One of the first glimpses into Vicky¡¯s life with Ah Hao is at a time in their relationship when she has already given up. From here we are taken further back to various points in their relationship. There is no story per se, she is simply caught in this cycle of him finding her and her leaving, yet we do learn how she ended up in this cycle. There was a time when she resisted his advances, when she scolded his dangerous drug use, a time before she felt trapped. Knowing the end result of their relationship maintains a sense of hopelessness throughout the film. It is this constant sense of hopelessness, with no comic relief or side story to lift the weight of the mood, that causes the audience to experience the spell she is remembering. ¡°Cold, and colder, that was what I demanded of my camera¡± When I read this quote I immediately recalled the scene I mentioned above, when Vicky endures Ah Hao¡¯s advances, sexual or otherwise, annoyed, but in complete submission and as a matter of routine. The camera follows him to the floor, straining to see through the table obstructing the view but not getting any closer. While this may have been a mixture of ¡°pathos and eros¡± as Ah Hao smelled her body for the scent of other men it was indeed a disturbing violation that the camera forced the audience to participate in by calmly looking on. Other long-takes, showing two or more simultaneous independent actions, helped to invoke her sense of loneliness and the monotony of her life as the minutes dragged. Thirdly, the soundtrack, with its hypnotic beat and mix of high-pitched, eerie sounds, matched the repetition of events played out on the screen. He was the DJ, controlling the sounds added over the same, never-ending rhythm. This is what she lived with, day in and day out. Even as she is walking alone over the bridge, the same music is playing in her head.

True cinema of time

[raul-4 · 10/10 · 31 December 2003]

To my surprise this movie hasn't been reviewed, and from what I gather from other external reviews either they think its empty and boring, or believe that Hou Hsiao-Hsien has gone wrong. Neither is true.

Hou has matured his style over the years, and instead of staying with the same historic movies he has moved to the present where he is needed the most. Finally we can see a depiction of the youth's life, which is common to the rest of the modern world, and we see the influence of the west, the decadence of a culture, the fast extinguishing life of a young woman. All seen through an objective heart, not judging or celebrating, but offering comprehension. Very often do we see movies made by the same young people or for commercial needs, when they are more interested in suprising you or make it a music video, and even when Hou uses music a lot he doesn't subordinate his camera or story to it.

Maybe it hasn't had a proper release, but anyone with a chance to see it shouldn't miss it. This is a serious and difficult film, and even if you enjoy it for the first time (which is not common), you'll have to repeat the viewings to understand that the most valuable thing in the movie is Time, and Hou is a filmmaker in the true sense, a sculptor in time as Tarkovsky would had called him.

interesting

[Zargo · 7/10 · 3 January 2004]

'Millennium Mambo' is a surreal, enigmatic film exploring the developments in the life of Vicky. Vicky is young woman who struggles to end her miserable relationship with her abusive boyfriend Hao-Hao, who she's lived with since her teenage years.

I'm left wondering whether there are hidden meanings to this film that are above my head, or whether there is actually all that much substance there in the beginning.

It all managed to be fairly entrancing however, thanks to the magnetic performance of Shu Qi, who proved she is much more then just an extraordinarily beautiful face and figure.

She effortlessly keeps the viewer's attention during endlessly long takes where not a lot appears to be happening.

Strangely Compelling

[asc85 · 8/10 · 12 March 2005]

I find that I can't get this film out of my mind. This is one of the saddest, most depressing films I've seen in a few years. I think one of the reasons why it is so sad is that the director juxtaposes scenes where Shu Qi is radiantly happy to those where she's stuck in her miserable life, and I think this contrast amplifies the depressing circumstances we see. As others have mentioned, this film doesn't have much of a plot, and I personally find these kinds of films difficult to appreciate. But for some reason, I find myself strangely compelled by this film. I agree with an earlier poster that the opening scene of Shu Qi running in slow motion with the techno music throbbing in the background (from a PHENOMENAL soundtrack as others have also noted) is extremely powerful and compelling. Early in the movie, I also liked the scene where Shu Qi is being "checked out" by her whacked out boyfriend, and she barely tolerates it in classic passive-aggressive style. I think the long takes with little action work because Shu Qi is so compelling (re: gorgeous), that she can just sit there smoking a cigarette and the audience (or at least me) is totally captivated.

Strange and unique

[Jeremy_Urquhart · 7/10 · 1 December 2023]

I didn't get as caught up in Millennium Mambo as I might've liked, but it feels like the kind of thing I'd have to be in a very specific mood to properly enjoy (maybe that's more of a criticism of me than the film).

Still, I found the film impressive and wonderfully atmospheric. It's a very evocative film with how it looks and sounds, and it certainly gives you a unique feeling - kind of a lonely and somewhat out-of-body one - as you watch it.

The effect is a bit eerie and not exactly pleasant, but I feel like the emotions Millennium Mambo wanted me to feel mostly landed, even if I was a little restless during some parts of it.

All that being said, I don't think I'll forget about it, and could very well revisit it one day.

The world's greatest director is a time-junkie...

[alsolikelife · 9/10 · 18 July 2002]

Hou's latest film, I saw as part of Village Voice's Best Undistributed Films of 2001 series, feels like a mixing and modulation of his last three: a young woman's abortive but contemplative contemporary existence (GOOD MEN, GOOD WOMEN), a moment-by-moment addiction to thrill-seeking (GOODBYE SOUTH GOODBYE) and a love affair entombed in drugs (FLOWERS OF SHANGHAI) all figure into Hou's attempt to lyricize the moment we are living in -- NOW. The result is a film that seems immensely fascinated in each moment it is capturing -- luminescent bodies dancing in an underground rave; a man inhaling and exhaling smoke from a makeshift bong; the absolute wonder of one's facial imprint in an immaculately white snowbank -- until those moments lead to other moments of inescapable banality or dread. Hou enhances this addiciton-to-the-moment with a voice-over that takes place in 2010, giving away plot points before they happen on-screen; since narrative convention no longer matters, the result is an even more intense experience of the moment tied in with an odd sensation of retrospection (no one messes around with the concept of history more than Hou). The give-and-take of this kind of project is that not everything will succeed on a dramatic level, but the experience of this film (and I do mean *experience*) is too exquisite to be denied. There are no less than half a dozen moments in this film, easily the most sumptuously photographed of the year, whose sheer beauty in harmonizing time and image are timeless treasures: objects and settings seem to take on a life of their own, before they are inevitably swept under the ever-moving carpet of time.

Toxic Passions

[ricardojorgeramalho · 6/10 · 19 February 2023]

The story of a toxic relationship between a couple of drug addicts in Taipei night. With an innovative aesthetic for the time, imported mainly from the universe of fashion and music videos, the film also features the beautiful and charismatic Shu Qi in the role of the protagonist, who oscillates between the passion for the jealous and destructive Hao-Hao and the mobster and enigmatic Jack.

The general tone is poetic, the aesthetics careful, although excessively centered on indoor nightlife in Taiwan and Japan. The film nevertheless fails to communicate with the viewer, who never truly gains empathy with the story or the characters.

Window to a life

[Enchorde · 5/10 · 23 September 2008]

Recap: This is the story about Vicky. Or not so much the story of, but the life of Vicky. We get to see a few episodes of her life, how she starts out with an abusive and jealous boyfriend and how she manages to leave him for Jack, a criminal that offers stability.

Comments: This, as stated, is not a story. This is more of a picture, or a few pictures from Vicky's life. There is no real beginning, no real end, and hence no real story in between. We just get to see moments from her life. Moments from home, moments from work, and moments from nightlife.

The pace is very slow, and it did not do very much to keep me interested. But something caught my eye. And that was that director Hou often chooses to place the camera in a way that I got the feeling it wasn't supposed to be there. It was not natural, it was almost like the camera was intruding. Many shots were from odd angles and shot through flowers, or through holes in the furniture. The actors were not naturally centered in the picture, and stuff happened both on and off camera. By doing so, to me, Hou really cemented that this was not a movie about a story, but more a look into Vicky's life.

Interesting and as well done as that was, I still didn't enjoy it very much. Yes, beautiful in its own way, but much to slow-paced for me. To little to really keep me interested through the entire 100 minutes. But still nice to have seen once, as this is a typical award-winning movie.

5/10

Are you willing to do the work?

[FilmSnobby · 9/10 · 26 August 2004]

Apparently, the major critics were not willing. Hou Hsiao-hsien is no longer the Flavor of the Month, if the reception given to *Millennium Mambo* is any guide. Hou may no longer be trendy, but his latest film remains a masterpiece -- just another notch on the Master's belt. The critics castigated Hou for wasting our collective time with a movie about a party girl; simultaneously, they praised the juvenile *Kill Bill* to the skies. The critic for the New York Times essentially declared that the artistry in the movie wasn't worth it. The critic was "bored" by the artistry.

Meanwhile, those of us who are NOT bored by Hou's artistry may enjoy a feast of it in this edgy, profoundly sad movie. It's set in Taipei in 2001, though the narrating heroine "Vicky" (a gorgeous Shu Qi) speaks to us from 10 years in the "future". The film was actually MADE in 2001, though it didn't reach American shores until earlier this year: hence, an unintended poignancy arises from the fact that we, too, are looking at the film's events from the future -- a jaded, rancorous, post-September 11 future. We feel as despairing as the narrating Vicky sounds, and observe the decadent nightlife depicted here with the same sense of disbelief: were we really that hopeful, were we really that careless, when the new millennium was ushered in? In the first scene, she's walking -- almost dancing, really -- down a long concrete promenade under pale florescent lights, while the wall-to-wall techno music starts thumping ever louder. It's a moment of incandescent happiness in a movie that has few such moments.

For the unpleasant details soon assert themselves: she's getting spacey on drugs in a nightclub, returning home to a live-in boyfriend who is abusive, on drugs himself, and erratically but dangerously jealous. One scene, at once nasty and blackly humorous, shows the boyfriend literally sniffing for evidence of adultery on Vicky. The girl occasionally rebels at these indignities and leaves the jerk, but, "as if hypnotized", she always returns whenever he finds her and begs her to come back to him (and he ALWAYS finds her). Hou instinctively understands the self-destructive persona, and he meticulously illustrates Vicky's addictions, whether to cigarettes, booze, "excitement", or degrading sexual relationships. The narration gives us a crucial clue, as well: we learn that this boyfriend of hers convinced her to blow off her final high school exam years back, which basically made her a drop-out and started her on a path toward a wasted life. Hou also understands WHY we're self-destructive; he understands that failure is so much easier.

Occasionally, we get a break from the woozy-headed, nauseous neon underworld of Taipei and find ourselves in a snow-covered fantasyland on the Hokkaido island of Japan. Here, while frolicking in a winter wonderland with a casual Japanese boyfriend and his brother, Vicky reverts, with much relief, to childhood. There's a poignant moment when she leaves an imprint of her face in a mound of snow. The camera lingers lovingly on the image of the barely visible imprint -- it's as convenient a symbol as any for the barely visible life of a pretty party girl without talents or prospects, the type of girl one usually sees only fleetingly in movies about more melodramatic subjects like gangsters (and, yes, this movie is about gangsters, too). She's the hanger-on, the pretty ornament on the arm of the criminal. Well, leave it to Hou Hsiao-hsien, the world's greatest working director, to dare to assert that the Vickys of the world not only have a story to tell, but that their stories can be as bleak and nihilistic -- and as artfully rendered -- as any of your King Lears.

It goes without saying that the Hou's camera placement is utterly and simply without peer. If anything, *Millennium Mambo* marks an advance in his technique: he takes a little more control, here, and is not quite so blandly omniscient as he can sometimes be. It's hard to write about technicalities, but Hou somehow has managed to find the perfect balance between a focused POV and his more usual reliance on oblique reference points. His cameraman, Mark Lee Ping-Bing (of *In the Mood for Love* fame), gloriously realizes Hou's vision with incredible color: smeary and throbbing neon in Taipei, ethereal and misty white in Japan. Finally, Hou has also convinced me that techno and "Deep House" music can actually approximate art . . . as long as this type of music is paired with, well, a movie by Hou Hsiao-hsien. (See his *Goodbye South, Goodbye* for more evidence.)

*Millennium Mambo* is a must-see for the cineaste. 9 stars out of 10.

A difficult choice to make

[Dhomochevsky · 7/10 · 1 January 2004]

Amongst the few people who saw it i'm surprised to be the one who liked "millennium mambo" the most. You will too if you keep to looking for beautiful music, sets and colors. Some will instantly fall in love with the main actress, too. Unfortunately, the story is a bit too plain too convince. And the lack from dialogues doesn't really help as well. It's true that "all the talk about girls and drugs in asian clubs" doesn't necessarily need some but... I've never been a real fan of highly "brained" movies, and that's why i liked it. Not everyone will. Now you're warned. The choice i was talking about in the summary is wether you want to get experienced in contemporary "fantasied" hong kong cinema, or not. My advice would be to watch it on a boring and/or quiet saturday night, with 2 or 3 friends, just to realize how it's cool to feel at home.

Yet again demonstrates that Hou is nothing special, although Flowers from Shanghai hinted otherwise...

[zetes · 5/10 · 8 April 2002]

It's half satisfying and half disappointing that Hou Hsiao-Hsien's Millennium Mambo is so bad. Since I was first introduced to his work nine or so months ago, I have been convinced that his style represents an interesting wrong turn in the evolution of cinema, once in a while producing empassioned but confusing (and dull) films like Dust in the Wind and City of Sadness, and once producing a film very nearly a masterpiece, Flowers of Shanghai, but usually producing flat, unemotional, and forgettable films like A Time to Live a Time to Die, The Puppetmaster, and Goodbye South Goodbye. Hou simply refuses to give the audience characters to whom they can react to emotionally, instead building these fascinating ultra-long takes where we watch the characters go about their usual business, all of which only serve, unfortunately, to bore me.

In Millennium Mambo, we track a year in the life of an independent teenage girl, Vicky, in the year 2001. The film is narrated from ten years in the future, a very curious decision. It could have worked well, but it feels like just a gimmick here. Hou desperately wants the situations to feel nostalghic, but that's not really possible in any way in this particular film.

The major problem in Millennium Mambo is that the characters and the situation are entirely cliche and, well, dull at that. Vicky is a club kid who is being pulled between two guys, the uber-jealous thug Hao-hao and the kind but vaguely threatening Jack, a Japanese gangster. Vicky goes in between the two of them; Hao-hao keeps coming back to get her and, whenever Vicky runs away from him, she ends up going back to Jack. None of the characters are well developed, and even if they were you really couldn't care much about them. In between there are a dozen stock Hou scenes like eating and other such things, a lot of long and dull scenes of drug use, etc. There is one major alteration in the style: the camera moves around almost violently all the time, in nearly every scene, if not every scene. In his early films, Hou barely ever moved the camera. In Goodbye South Goodbye, Hou started to move his camera a bit. I dismissed it as a fancy that would pass, since it was nothing major (see my review for it). I was wrong, and in Flowers of Shanghai the camera would rock beautifully back and forth across the scenes. The pattern didn't change much in that film, but it all worked so marvelously, just adding to the mood and not boring. Now, in Millennium Mambo, almost everything is filmed in close-up and the camera follows these close ups in sharp jerks. It doesn't do anything, unfortunately. Other than being an extremely noticeable alteration of style, Hou hasn't changed his content, editing, or narrative patterns at all from Goodbye South Goodbye (again, I pine for the stylistic leaps in Flowers of Shanghai). The characters and themes are similar to previous films, the editing is interesting but has long-since become cliche for Hou, and the scenes all develop exactly the same as they always have.

Millennium Mambo is actually more dull than any other Hou film, making it his worst that I've seen. I'd say avoid it at all costs, except for the fact that I want intelligent people on my side of this argument. Hou has received far too much critical praise, and I am convinced that if a majority of cineastes would see his work they'd agree with me. I say, then, see it just to see how bad this guy is. I say praise Tsai Ming-liang, dismiss Hou Hsiao-hsien. Tsai is the future of modern cinema, at least one important corner of it. If that opinion exists more consistently, Taiwanese cinema will improve and become more prominent. 5/10.

Visually stunning opening scene

[lucid-12 · 7 October 2004]

The opening scene in which Vicky runs in slow motion accompanied by some fine techno music is amazing. This scene haunts me to the present day (and I've seen the film in 2001) and is in my opinion just visually/technically stunning. Also the colours which Hou Hsiao-hsien captures are amazing, eye candy. I've seen the Film at a film festival and liked it a lot. It may seem boring to some people because there seems to be no real given story (with twists and turns to be expected). But the slow development of the story depicts real life and pulls one deeper into the movie.

Also I wanted to note that the film is also known as "chie shi manpo" - millennium mambo.

In the Mood for Hou?

[josh timmermann · 10/10 · 30 July 2002]

I'm sick and tired of reading complaints from people that this film (as well as most of Hou Hsiao-hsien's others) are too boring, impersonal, detached, plotless, etc. Generally speaking, people don't just casually walk into one of Hou's films; chances are, if you go and see one, you already know basically what to expect -- which is, more or less, the polar opposite of Hollywood-style filmmaking. That said, Hou's films are among the most artful, innovative, breathtaking, and purely cinematic (in the absolute best sense of the word) made today, and Millennium Mambo is certainly no exception. In fact, I would even rank it as one of Hou's five best films (along with Flowers of Shanghai, Goodbye South, Goodbye, The Puppetmaster, and A Time to Live and a Time to Die).

The film is exquisitely photographed by Mark Li Ping-bin, whose camera here is even more hypnotically mobile than usual, and -- perhaps to an even greater extent than in any of Hou's previous features -- takes on an ambiguously voyeuristic role. There are scenes in Millennium Mambo that are among the most haunting and beautiful in, not only Hou's cinema, but in all modern world cinema. The opening voice-over sequence (that calls to mind the best voice-over work from the films of Wong Kar-wai and Terrence Malick), the scene where Vicky lies in bed with the window reflection of the untuned television sumperimposing the passing trains behind her, and the scene set amidst the snowdrifts are probably the finest examples, but there are countless others, as well. Shu Qi is positively luminous in the film's central role. Her performance is, at times, even reminiscent of those by Anna Karina, Liv Ullman, and Monica Vitti for Godard, Bergman, and Antonioni, respectively. The supporting performers (especially Jack Kao) are also superb.

As you can probably guess, I love Hou Hsiao-hsien and Millennium Mambo. I will be the first to concede, however, that his films are decidedly not for all tastes. They are usually very deliberately-paced, sometimes require knowledge of Asian (almost always Taiwanese) history (which means - god forbid - research for most viewers), and never feel in the slightest like Hollywood product. Now you've been warned. If this doesn't sound appealing or entertaining to you, then go watch Pearl Harbor. But if it does, I highly recommend that you check out Millennium Mambo (as well, as Hou's other films - all of which are genuinely worthwhile).

My rating: 10/10

Vicky's retrospective

[MarcoParzivalRocha · 7/10 · 27 September 2020]

Vicky remembers her romantic encounters and mismatches in the capital of Taiwan, in her times of discovery and learning. Vicky's story is the story of many women around the world, who are trapped in a toxic and abusive relationship, but they can't get rid of it. The characters are basic (in terms of development), but thanks to the very natural interpretations they are credible. The film is narrated by the main character (Vicky), roughly 10 years after the events, but with a different tone than what we see in action, which shows her maturity, and an adult look at her old choices, of a lifetime of decay and vices, but that choice sometimes cuts the surprise of what we will see next, becoming predictable. I found the choice of plans, wide and full most of the time, interesting, given to the viewer the sensation that we are sneaking and watching their lives all the time, and that we are part of the story.

Great movie about emptiness (of story, of goal etc)

[jeremy-giroux · 8/10 · 20 June 2006]

I really loved this movie. Many people didn't and I really understand why : it's a very slow movie. Everything takes time, everything is long and you don't really see where the director really wants to go. He follows this girl. She appears to us at the beginning at the film, walking in a very long corridor, in a slow motion and on pop music. As this girl is impersonated by Shu Qi, she is absolutely beautiful. This girl smokes, she seems a little bit sad and you don't really know what is her story. The voice of a girl tells you about the relationships this girl had in the past and this voice says that, when she speaks, it's in 2010 (ten years later after when the action takes place). You never really understand why this voice says that. You never really understand what this girl wants and what is her past (although you have some informations during the film), you just see her live and it's absolutely fascinating and hypnotic. It's hard to say but you see how much Hou Hsia Hsien is fascinated by beauty, time and modern life. His fascination for time is also present in "Three Times". In this movie, everything is normal, nothing is spectacular and incredible (about the plot, the sets or whatever) but everything is poetic, mysterious and hypnotic. It's the kind of feeling you have when you see someone and you don't know why, but this person fascinates you. It's the same kind of feeling. It's fascinating as when you see someone's life and just let this person free to do what she wants, you just look at this person. It's a very good movie although fascination is something very personal.

Good artistic direction

[pablovete · 7/10 · 26 November 2023]

Yes In the beginnin it catches you inmediately

Excelent scenes . Rave taipei characters lifes Taipei trainspotting you might think ... but no

After the snow everyrhing started just too slow

A few minutes ago you discover that characters are so dull and numb as the script just saved because the way everything is filmed it's excepciinaly beautifull and changes from rave colours and blue into the white snow with the character might take Her off that life . After all that .... Warm colours in Jack's house But no solution there too Hao-Hao was selfdestruction Now is loneliness

By the end

Just snow Could be better . A 7.

An old man (Hou Hsiao Hsien) looks at youngsters in Taipei

[FilmCriticLalitRao · 10/10 · 25 September 2008]

Taiwanese auteur Hou Hsiao Hsien once remarked that he was amazed by the intellectual and social growth of contemporary youth in Taiwan.He was comparing modern day Taiwanese youngsters to the people of his time.He confessed that young people of his times were much more balanced,focused and reserved.Hou Hsiao Hsien made "Millennium Mambo" to understand the behavioral pattern of contemporary youth culture in Taiwan.After making this film he found that people of the old generation like him have absolutely no place in current day society of Taiwan which is mainly guided by youngsters and whatever that reflects moods and sentiments of young people.Millennium Mambo is a urban tale of a girl caught between two men.It is not a straight good versus bad theme as most of the protagonists have their own ways of dealing with their emotional turmoil.Hou has justly shown what is ailing Taiwanese youth.According to him an artificial hole has been created in Taiwanese society which needs to be filled.This is the gist of this rational film.

Pretty awful

[gattocinese · 3/10 · 29 November 2004]

I don't get Hou Hsiao-hsien. I saw Goodbye South and rated it a 1. Each film (this and Goodbye) features aimless idiots in a monotonous "slice of life." They're not just lowlifes. They're lowlifes that offer no insight. They are boring in their self-indulgent childishness.

The women seem to be these pretty (or breathlessly gorgeous in Qi Shu's case) innocents who stick by men who are bad for them.

It's really not entertaining to watch morons do nothing. Awful.

I gave this a 3 only because of Qi Shu and the background music.

I'm curious to watch Flowers of Shanghai. Or maybe I should only watch a film of Hou's from 1980-1989. The person who wrote his mini-bio on IMDb says he won seven awards out of his ten films during that period. Bribery?

A strangely captivating view of lost innocence!

[Weirdling_Wolf · 8/10 · 16 July 2023]

This compelling, almost ethereal existential drama is made ever more magical by the luminous presence of, Shi Qui as fragile hedonist Vicky. Her delirious, midnight world of seedy dives, rowdy nightclubs, boozy excess, drugs and her fractious relationship with controlling boyfriend, Hao-Hao (Chun-hao Tuan) provides a melancholic snapshot of Vicky's ethanol-hazed, metropolitan ennui. The distractingly angelic protagonist's disharmonious lifestyle frequently provides a stark, yet strangely captivating view of lost innocence. Vicky's dazed, increasingly isolated existence being intermittently illumined by lurid swathes of dazzling neon and mesmeric blasts of minimalist dance music. Visually striking locations, immaculate performances, and a driving techno soundtrack, the exquisite-looking 'Millennium Mambo' remains an intimately downbeat, dream-like descent into a party girl's emotional malaise.

Going nowhere slow

[stamper · 4/10 · 19 January 2003]

This is a film you really do not want to see, for the film hasn't got a story. You won't mind for an hour or 70 minutes, but then the film will start to drive you mad. You'll be asking yourself: 'What's the point?' 'When will it end?' and more questions like that. You see the problem with this film is not that it is bad, but the problem is that it could have been much shorter. Yet the director decided to make it drag on forever and ever and ever and ...! Every single scene seems to be not only a bit, but much too long. A great example of that is the ending scene (if you stay long enough to see it). I knew already that the film was over, but it took ages for the film to actually end.

4 out of 10

Very interesting

[wildstrawbe · 9/10 · 31 May 2003]

"Millenium Mambo" (Qianxi manbo) is a film about alienation, the pursuit of happiness and techno music. In a world that is too fast a young girl searches for an identity, in clubs, big cities and in the chaotic beats of techno music. The dialogue in the movie is there only where it's necessary which made it at least for me easier to identify with the main character. Vicky's relationships and her life seems to be shallow but it's not much different than anyone else's life and that's what makes this film so great. Qi Shu has done a remarkable job as Vicky and I'm really looking forward to see Hsiao-hsien Hou's next film.

A story told by light

[sprengerguido · 8 August 2003]

This wonderful film clings to my mind since I've seen it. This is not due to the story, but for the visual concept. At first, the story seems to be the usual fantasy insecure parents have about their teenage children getting lost in a world they don't know any more - in this case, a fragile young girl spending her time in the bars and clubs of nocturnal Taipei. But it is much more a coming-of-age story, told in a melancholy mood from a future perspective, mourning and accepting all the hardships it took. This is what the visuals of the film tell, more than the dialog or plot: Each scene is filmed in a single shot. Hou, or rather Mark Li, used available light most of the time, which actually produces meaning here: The scenes in bars and clubs are shot using very light-sensitive, so images are very grainy, dark, but warm and very color-intensive - one seems to be inside a protective womb, which becomes gradually oppressive. The forces that keep the girl inside are represented by her neurotic boy friend, who watches her constantly and keeps her from making exams.

After she becomes a stripper, she meets Jack, a gangster but very decent guy who gradually leads her out of this world - in one scene he actually drives her out of a dark tunnel into bright daylight in his car. The outside scenes, given less sensitive film stock, are much clearer, but it's winter most of the time - contrary to the bar scenes it's cold, gray and white, but clear. The ending promises a life in the outside world, with occasional relief provided by movies. Shouldn't we all appreciate this? (... and the soundtrack is wonderful...)