Out of Step

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You come down from your world to mine," says a frustrated Hao-hao to his girlfriend Vicky. "That's why you don't understand my world." Don't blame the poor girl: nobody else gets it either, and that includes both Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien and, very likely, his audience. Hou has swapped his wonted rural palette for the urban hip of Taipei, but for all his efforts to capture the contemporary, Mambo feels mute.

The film opens with a sound-tracked, slo-mo Vicky (Shu Qi) striding across a flyover at night, with the camera at her back. Time enough for her to tell us in narration that she frequently breaks up with Hao-hao, but he always tracks her down. He begs her to come back and, as if hypnotized, she always returns. Turns out she does p.r. for a nightclub and is torn between Hao-hao and Jack, an older man who visits the club. Mad with jealousy, Hao-hao checks Vicky's telephone bills, receipts, even her smell, for signs of extracurricular activity.

It takes Hou two hours to show us the workings of this relationship, which extends little beyond breezy copulative invective. There are the makings of a fine film within this relationship, but the feckless script won't let it develop. We feel Vicky's intense claustrophobia, but no matter how many cigarettes Shu Qi lights (35 by this reviewer's count), the smoke rises and vanishes into thin nothing. The palpitant star gets more screen time here than in her past 20 films combined and you can't help but look at her, but she is given too little substance from the supporting elements of the film.