by Brian Hioe
語言:
English
Photo Courtesy of Kaohsiung Film Festival
This is a No Man is an Island film review written in collaboration with Cinema Escapist. Keep an eye out for more!
AFTERWORD PROVES a remarkable debut for first-time director Lin Yi-chiang. Despite its low budget, the movie stands out with its strong storytelling. Specifically, Afterword tells the story of a Taiwanese novelist named Chou Yuan. Despite winning many accolades upon his debut ten years ago, Chou Yuan now lives a lonely, detached life in Taipei, with a job assessing the value of products that are left in apartments abandoned by their owners.
A chance encounter takes Chou Yuan back to his former apartment, where he finds an undeveloped roll of film and an unfinished novel written by himself. Inspired by an ex who moved to New York, whose blurry images appear in the filmroll, Chou abruptly decides to travel to New York to find her. Leaving flyers strewn about the city, he is contacted by Jane, a documentary filmmaker in search of a subject, who decides to make a movie out of his search.
Photo courtesy of Kaohsiung Film Festival
Chou’s journey takes him to many corners of New York, particularly its ethnic Chinese communities. He mostly stays in Chinatown where he develops a friendship with an elderly doorman of a sex worker establishment where Chou pursues a woman with the same name as his ex.. Chou later starts to work at a photography shop run by a Cantonese-speaking woman, who initially contacts him because she recognizes his ex as her former employee.
Afterword is hardly the only movie that focuses on the pursuit of a lost love, and references other films in the same vein like Paris, Texas. However, Afterword distinguishes itself through its melancholic, philosophical—even metatextual—take on the subject. The movie ends up examining the nature of fiction itself, whether through novels, fiction films, documentary films, or photography.
LIkewise, Director Lin’s decision to center Afterword on the relationship between Taipei and New York proves fruitful. The film uses the juxtaposition of these two cities to not only comment on the drivers of immigration, but also the opportunities for self-invention that come with transplanting oneself to a new location. This evokes other recent Sinophone films like No New Wave, which depicts a group of young Chinese filmmakers living in New York City.
Though Afterword maintains a strong focus for most of its runtime, it slightly falters by having a rather indecisive ending. Additionally, Lin provides an unusually positive depiction of New York City—where Chou never seems to meet anyone who is less than welcoming and graciously compassionate—that feels at odds with how many actual New York residents may picture their city. Still, these are minor oversights for what is otherwise a capable and gripping watch. Lin Yi-chiang shows that he is an up-and-coming talent to keep an eye on.