Hou Hsiao-hsien turns his attention to Taiwan in the mid-1990s and doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. As often before, his protagonists are small-time gangsters and bar girls, always looking for ways out but forever embroiled in petty, internecine squabbles. This lot spend much of their time traversing southern Taiwan, dashing from one get-rich-quick project to the next. The plot follows the Mean Streets template (but) background elements include the diminishing lure of mainland China, the dream of emigrating to start over, and the quagmire of local government corruption. Hou takes these characters and issues seriously, but he knows that a tiny shift in perspective would reveal their absurdity. The film is as much on a knife-edge as its subjects.-Tony Rayns