Cast
Jack Kao, Lee Hong Chi, Louise Grinberg, Ding Ning
Synopsis
Shot on expired 35mm film stock, this devastating portrait of a man unfolds—in reverse—via three women who each play a pivotal role in his identity.
In 2049, advancements in technology have left human interactions as cold as Taipei’s bitter winter weather. Retired security guard Zhang Dong-ling, angered by the continual indiscretions of his wife, decides to enact a form of revenge: on a high-ranking official who destroyed his life 30 years before.
2018: Upright young police officer Zhang accidentally witnesses his wife having an affair with his superior. Roaming the streets that night, he bumps into a foreign teenager named Ara, whom he’d arrested earlier in the day. The two spend the night in each other’s company, an unspoken desire blooming between them as they put off going home.
The tale concludes—or begins—with Big Sister Wang, a criminal ambushed by the police at a night market in an elaborately orchestrated raid. At the police station, she is handcuffed to a bench next to an 18-year-old Zhang, himself arrested for a petty crime. As they await sentencing, Wang and Zhang realise the surprising things they have in common.