Screening- Millennium Mambo

The Smithsonian's Museum of Asian Art presents "Millennium Mambo," a film about a Taiwanese youth and her story ten years back at the beginning of the new millennium.

A Taipei youth culture of raves, techno music, and Ecstasy pills is distilled into trancelike luminescence in Millennium Mambo, shot by In The Mood for Love’s acclaimed cameraman Mark Lee Ping-bin. The glamorous Shu Qi pouts her way through the city’s neon nightclubs and hostess bars, accompanied by either her jealous DJ boyfriend or a much older, somewhat wiser gangster (Jack Kao). Drugs, dancing, and lovemaking fuel the plot, as does the heroine’s search for a way out of her ever-shrinking circles of associates.

“Looking at the young friends around me, I find that their life cycle and rhythm move several times faster than in my generation,” notes Hou. “Like flowers, [they] fade almost immediately upon blooming.” With long takes that linger over colors, lights, and textures, Hou and Lee turn their look at youth into an abstract painting. Description by Jason Sanders. (2001, 119 min., 35mm, Mandarin and Japanese with English subtitles)

Watch the trailer.