The Cinematheque

New Restoration

“[A] brilliant dark comedy … The various strands of plot are interwoven with phenomenal mastery, and Yang’s images are as effortlessly precise as ever. It’s his sharpest funny/​sad vision of city life yet.”

Tony Rayns, Time Out

Edward Yang’s penultimate film is an acerbic, sprawling tragicomedy, a poison love letter to Taipei as a rising cosmopolis of big money, big dreams, and big cons. Once more focusing on directionless youth, Yang depicts four immature toughs who share the same apartment and, frequently, the same women. Led by the amoral Red Fish (Tang Tsung-sheng), the crew implements a slate of swindles and illicit business deals aimed at superstitious gold diggers and naive foreigners—including French teenager Marthe (Virginie Ledoyen), who is looking to reconnect with her older English lover. But when mobsters seek to collect on a debt owed by Red Fish’s ex-criminal father, they accidentally abduct translator Luen-Luen (Lawrence Ko), the only crew member with scruples and, seemingly, an ounce of compassion. In several intertwined tales of greed, violence, and shattered principles, Mahjong examines how a city can grow in power and wealth while abandoning its heart and soul. —Janus Films

In Mandarin and English with English subtitles

“Misunderstood and underrated … The most devastating portrait of the ravages of capitalism on contemporary Taiwan.”

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader