City of Last Things [幸福城市]

Released: 2018            Viewed: September 2019

City of Last Things involves a triptych of stories involving the same main character (Zhang Dong Ling) but moving backwards in time.

The first section (of almost 40 minutes) shows an ageing Dong Ling [Jack Kao] as he moves through a wintery near-future in Taipei leaving a trail of death and violence behind him. The film then moves back several decades to when Dong Ling [Lee Hong-chi of Thanatos, Drunk] was a young detective, trying to be straight in a sea of crooked cops. He comes home early one day to find his superior having sex with his wife which sets off more violence. Along the way he develops a relationship with an unexplained French shoplifter, Ara [Louise Grinberg].

Finally, and by far the most successful section, the film shows 17-year old Dong Ling [Xie Zhang-Yin] meeting his estranged mother [Ding Ning] in a police station where they are both under arrest. At first he does not realise who she is and only gradually and reluctantly comes to acknowledge her before (again) violence breaks out. Both Ding and Xie are excellent in this short segment.

It is an interesting conceit to try to show how a man’s future is shaped by his past but one may reasonably wonder if there was ever much alternative for Dong Ling given the film’s focus on anger and violence. In fact, and contrary to the usual function of the flashback, the earlier sections simply fill in some missing details but do not explain much about the later Dong Ling. In fact, the three Dong Lings could be different people.

The individual sections are often striking. Overall, however, the backwards-in-time, three section structure does not work. The frequent changes of personnel do not help us to engage with the characters and, although the younger Dong Lings are more sympathetic, this is too late for the older and violent protagonist of the first 40 minutes of the film.

Not does the unexplained appearance of various French-speaking characters help to engender any coherence in the film (presumably there due to French financing).

This is a dramatic change from (Malaysian-born, now Taiwan-based) Director Ho Wi Ding’s recent comedies, including Beautiful Accident, and presumably represents a more personal approach (Ho is also the writer). Although it does not work for me, the film does show promise and hopefully Ho gets further opportunities to step outside the box.

If the English title has a meaning, it is not obvious. Happy City (the Chinese title) is presumably ironic! Face à la nuit in French.