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Mahjong

Screening on Film
Directed by Edward Yang.
With Virginie Ledoyen, Tang Congsheng, Ke Yuluen.
Taiwan, 1996, 35mm, color, 121 min.
English and Mandarin with English subtitles.

Mahjong fuses Yang’s patented ensemble pieces about urban discontentment to a dizzying, farcical plot driven by the witty verbosity of screwball comedy. The film depicts the comical union of a goofy gang of criminal misfits and a group of European expatriates adrift in Taipei—both determined to track down the waylaid teenaged son of a millionaire businessman and collect the reward. Despite its comedy, Mahjong mines similar territory as the earlier Taipei Story and The Terrorizer, observing the ultimately irreconcilable misunderstandings that arise from conflicting generations, social classes and communities.

Part of film series

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The Taiwan Stories of Edward Yang and Wu Nien-jen

Other film series with this film

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Chronicles of Changing Times. The Cinema of Edward Yang