Twenty Something Taipei (2002) User Reviews

A story about searching for real love that has nothing to do with "Kids"

[dvigraphics01 · 7/10 · 26 September 2010]

I really cannot understand how can anybody compare this movie to "Kids": the setting is totally different (middle-upper class office workers in their 20s in Taipei in this movie, teens in a New York suburb in "Kids"), and the story is completely different too. When it was filmed in 2002, Warner Village and the whole area of East Taipei were seen as the symbols of the "new city to come", and while we all probably believed that in a few years the whole Taipei would have become the ultra-modern and lecherous place that we see on this movie, today we find that - luckily enough - reality has not changed so much: the characters of the movie and their lifestyle remain peculiar only to an extremely limited number of people, and I guess that most Taipei youngsters cannot connect with them today just as they could not eight years ago. While the main theme of the story - "sex and hedonism are different than real love" - is a universal message, all these well dressed guys living in fashionable apartments are simply too distant from the average viewer. However, looking at this movie today offers the viewer a taste of the optimism and the energy that pervaded Taipei during the early years of this century: that's probably the reason why I would say that it looks even better today than it did in 2002. I have also been surprised to find that the setting, the fashion, the photography and even the soundtrack, all look very new and contemporary after all these years, and, as a viewer who has a lot of good memories of those years, I found it very entertaining. The only thing that let me totally down is the stereotyped ending, in particular when it comes to Xiao Ma. Is this the only option that the director could come up with?

Intersting interaction and relationships with a small niche of friends in a contemporary setting mixed with some sex and drugs.

[panda-29 · 7/10 · 19 March 2003]

This is a story in a contemporary setting in Taipei involving a small group of young Chinese adult friends and their relationships forming and breaking up, mixed into the story with some drugs and sex. It's fairly well done for this class of film.

Everyone wants to love somebody and be loved by someone.

[Master_of_My_Domain · 30 July 2005]

Someone compared this film to "Kids". In my opinion, except for lots of sex scenes, there is nothing in common between them. Characters here are better drawn, better described and better acted out. But don't misunderstand me - I loved "Kids", and I still think it is best motion picture about teens, *by teens*. "20-somethin Taipei" is not about teenage kids, and its cast are not teens either. Apples and oranges. Except for plethora of sex there is nothing in common. Ditto.

The subject is so universal, that although it happens in 2002 Taipei - it could happened anywhere in the world (well, in the western world, to be exact). The premises are about average or slightly better off than average young urban adults seeking love, or Love actually. Unsurpsrisingly, as most of people nowadays, they mistake sex for love very often. I'm not going to analyze the story nor characters. I think my one-liner title-summary said it all. But it is well-told story, directed and acted in a very nice way, without any typical Hollywood style extremities usually thrown-in to 'spice up' the pace, and - whats more important - without typical (for modern Hollywood) politically-correct bulls*it point of views. Its a film that could have been shot only in a single-race country (like Taiwan still mostly is) without being called racist. Its a film that could have been shot only in a country where feminism is just a subject of some spicy jokes (like Taiwan still is) and where both men and women are compelled to look good daily, where ghetto-style clothes or way of talking still belong to ghettos, not to the general society.

7/10

Some of my American friends were surprised about i.e. the bright, clean look of the streets and basically cleanliness and beauty of everything shown in this movie. Well, perhaps thats what is missing in modern America - that old, 1960's American Lifestyle, when women were beautiful and men were Gentlemen?(or at least they all tried to). But thats totally different subject...

About Twenty Something Taipei

[jedi996 · 1/10 · 25 March 2003]

This movie was bad! BAD BAD BAD! Can I express that anymore? It was a complete rip-off of Kid's!! the director should be slapped for making such a rip-off! The characters were nothing but self-absorbed losers who spent there time cheating on there partners, or with each other, getting drunk, high&clubbing till the wee hours of the morning, I guess everyone in Taipei who is in there early to mid-Twenty's has high paying job's such as agents for up&coming Taiwanese rock stars, corporate desk positions, kindergarten teachers&hair stylists at glamours salons, this movie was a big disapointment! completely unoriginal!I thought there would be great things coming out of Taiwan for films! this one, was a big let down! if you come across it in a video store, don't even bother renting it, you'll be sorry for wasting your time!