Packed with shots from the perspectives of moving vehicles, Goodbye South, Goodbye is one of Hou’s most mobile films, but as its nose-diving final image would imply, it’s about a world that goes nowhere fast. Hijacking the classically pulpy narrative template of a group of criminals trying to go straight if only to leech it of sensational drama, the film offers the mundane goings-on and aimless busywork of Hsi and his close-knit gang of money hustlers. Counterintuitive as this narrative emphasis may seem, Hou’s approach is germane to the larger sense of inertia in his native Taiwan, a nation groping for an autonomous identity while trying desperately to keep up with a technologically advancing world. In spite of its lack of incident, Goodbye South, Goodbye is a dynamic piece of filmmaking that takes Hou’s durational exercises to new heights of expressiveness, each lengthy sequence shot seemingly more dimensionally complex than the last.