The Wall-Passer (穿牆人) (Taiwan, 2007)
Rating: 8 out of 10 tomatoes

This is a local Taiwanese film. In the U.S., we would call it a foreign film, or an art film, maybe even an indie film. It's hard to rate local films like this because of the risks it takes. It's hard to tell if it's amateurish, totally artsy-fartsy or totally brilliant. It's a film that can be easily underestimated, misinterpreted or overly read-into. I've seen the film described as "fantasy" or "sci-fi", and I don't think it's either. Spanish-style "magical realism" may be more apt. Definitely surreal.

I don't think the film is about anything. There are the paths the characters take, but the elements aren't supposed to mean anything. A lot of Taiwanese film has a certain characteristic, and I think this film fits right in. It's about impression and senses, and not about what's going on; a lot of which is mysterious or doesn't make sense. What appears to be going on isn't that important than the visual experience.

If there is a plot, it's about a high school boy, some time in the near-future, whose family leaves their earthquake-flattened city to go to "Real City", which a thinly-disguised greater-Taipei area stands in for (several local landmarks and elements are in the film). His parents don't pay attention to him, but still try to push him along his young adult path. As a "newcomer", he doesn't fit into too well at school. None of this matters, by the way.

On a school field trip, he meets a hearing-impaired museum worker and falls in love, and they do a little waltz. They mysteriously talk about her "leaving", and then, in fact, she disappears halfway through the film, leaving him searching for her.

The title of the film refers to the boy's ability, with the help of a mysterious rock he finds that fell from the sky in a mysterious rock shower on said field trip, to pass through walls. The ability morphs in the second half of the film to be able to pass through dimensions to another "world", where he meets a visually-impaired girl with whom he does a little waltz.

There are a lot of experimental, interesting, intriguing elements in the film and the filmmaking (such as integrating a film projected backdrop with a "live-action" foreground), enough for me to really like it. A lot of it may come across as pretentious and leave viewers scratching their heads, so it's definitely a film that needs to be viewed with patience and an open mind, and I still couldn't guess who would like the film or not. The trailer in the link is an astounding 5 minutes long. There is a shorter version, but even the 5 minute version I don't think really gets to what's going on in the film.



Summer's Tail 夏天的尾巴 (Taiwan, 2007)
Rating: 4 out of 10 tomatoes.

OK, here's my proof for myself that I can spot a bad Taiwanese indie film when I see one.

"Summer's Tail", a weak play on words, as the main character's cat is named "Summer", and, you know, cats have tails, and this tale is supposed to be during the Summer, geddit?, is about a girl with some heart problem so she was taken out of school, but she's like this brilliant "indie" songwriter and the whole school supports her and cheers for her in a very Chinese mob-mentality way. She's also got this really good heart because she tries to help out some poor neighboring children who are abused by their father. Deep.

I dunno, it was tedious. The film came across to me as self-congratulatory and as trying too hard to be young and cool, but turns out amateurish.