We open with a shot of an condominium door, its key hanging expectantly in profile, forgotten by an inattentive actual property agent. An unintended invitation, a false provide of cohabitation – however in such a world as this, we take no matter intimacy we will get. A person briefly cradles, inspects the keychain, earlier than loping down the corridor on the name of one other speaker. Neither are in focus; solely the secret is really current. The person returns, his eye wandering again to the important thing, tempted repeatedly. He claims it, and the title drops: Vive L’Amour. Is the implication that this act, this thievery in service of curiosity or hoped-for connection, is the essence of affection itself? The place does love reside?
So begins Tsai Ming-liang’s second characteristic, following the brilliantly isolating Rebels of the Neon God. Ming-liang’s works are sometimes described as “Gradual Cinema,” which in follow means he presents lives as they’re skilled – aimless and abstracted, full of craving and disappointment, missing the propulsive narrative thrusts and clear, dramatic conclusions of correct tales. Our lives should not correct tales. We stay in moments and recollections, in emotions guarded till they fade away, in bus cease waits and bolts of distress. We’re the rain reflecting town by the glass, not the glass nor town itself.
As with Rebels, Vive L’Amour is a narrative of three such lonely people, every of them craving for connection in a world that appears incapable of providing it. The younger man who steals the secret is Hsiao-kang (Lee Kang-sheng), an ossuary salesman who begins dwelling in a vacant room of the empty condominium. His sense of dissatisfaction at his empty life leads him to finally try suicide, an effort solely halted when he hears others by the wall – the preoccupied actual property agent Could Lin (Yang Kue-mei) and road vendor Ah-jung (Chen Chao-chung), mirthlessly mating on an unsheeted mattress. As time passes, the three proceed to flitter out and in of their unknowingly shared condominium, stalking one another’s shadows with out ever really coexisting.
The condominium itself is probably Vive L’Amour’s central character. Ming-liang exploits its angles to create each boundaries and intimacy, presenting his characters as bodily proximate however by no means fairly touching. Just like the yellowing halls outdoors, there aren’t any marks of particular person humanity inside it; the partitions are barren and white, the beds are barren mattresses. It’s a area to inhabit, however not “their” area – Could Lin’s purse brims with condominium keys, however none of them can deliver her residence. Maybe there isn’t any significant distinction between Could Lin’s flats and Hsiao-kang’s ossuaries; every are simply packing containers for bones, nameless resting locations in a world with too many nameless individuals.
If there may be like to be discovered on this condominium, it’s only by the charged vacancy of a emptiness demanding achievement. Our strangers lie and sulk on their mattresses, ready for one thing to occur. Caught between tedious apartment-showing duties, Could Lin gently strokes the material beside her – a gesture repeated by the others, every in search of a spot for his or her tenderness to relaxation. Is that this the essence of affection’s persistence – this sense of quiet longing, regardless of all of it? For even on this loneliness there may be love – and certainly, the lover she took earlier than is nearer than she’d anticipate, hiding beneath that very same very mattress. As they steal habitation, they circle intimacy, however by no means shut the hole.
Symbols of painful self-awareness and missed connections permeate the characteristic. Our leads are often caught in reflection. Hsiao-kang gazing himself in a comfort retailer mirror, as if struggling to recall somebody he used to know; Could Lin making use of and reapplying her lipstick, hoping another software may spark the union she seeks. Telephones are false idols – Hsiao-kang seeks however can not discover a ringing telephone at his workplace, Could Lin makes fruitless name after name to rearrange condominium visits, and Ah-jung truly embraces the empty static of a disconnected pay telephone, pantomiming a connection as he stares at Could Lin by the glass.
The telephone’s damaged promise serves as a microcosm of a higher reality: the singular loneliness of isolation inside a clamorous, sprawling metropolis. Bereft of even the comforting chorus of Rebels’ repeating soundtrack, the lives of our stars appear sapped of quantity altogether, whereas the contrasting bustle of town emphasizes that they don’t seem to be simply alone, however uniquely alone inside a world that makes connection look simple. Lingering in cafes or arcades, they’re surrounded by the proud proof of others’ profitable cohabitation, their simple jokes and bickering and carefree collaboration in social amusements. Are we uniquely damaged, or is there a loneliness inside them as effectively? Their areas are both too massive and empty or too cramped and crowded; whereas others open doorways with confidence, our leads can solely stare by them. Little marvel they covet their condominium keys, a form of stolen intimacy, a false invitation into the lives of others.
They circle and weave, connecting briefly, dispersing into area. All all through, that title hangs overhead, like a query each actors and viewers are determined to reply. Why “Vive L’Amour?” The place is love discovered inside this characteristic, or inside our personal lives? That look of trustworthy craving in the direction of a sleeping companion, a delicate kiss supplied in silence – is that this the essence of affection? The lengthy stroll previous a barren subject, carved clean for a future mission, a subject laid fallow – is it love that brings these future seeds to the floor? The mere undeniable fact that we nonetheless cry so unabashedly, that we nonetheless attain out, that we nonetheless really feel ache in gentle of the world’s disappointments – is that love persevering? As long as this world can nonetheless damage us, may we nonetheless discover love inside its bounds?
The movie gives no solutions; solely that closing stamp of intent, Ming-liang’s signature scrawled throughout this tapestry of longing. However the mattresses stay, and the empty halls, and the uproar of town within the distance. Maybe the following condominium may have a key in its door. Maybe somebody waits on the opposite aspect.
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