Goodbye South Goodbye

Goodby South Goodbye (1996) directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien draws to mind the petty gangsters of Mean Streets and prefigures Hou's own 2001 film Millenium Mamabo, which depicts equally restless and aimless club kids in modern Taipei. It is the story of small-time gangsters Gao (Jack Kao) and his stooge Flatty (Hsu Kuei-ying). They struggle to make good in every scam and scheme they take — from a Shanghai arcade to a plan to cash in on the sale of pigs in their ancestral village. The Taiwan Hou depicts is one of dilapidated houses, decay and urban sprawl. Hou delivers a formal cinematographic triumph with slow, insinuating dollies and pans. Several set pieces stand out: cars with tinted windows driving through the city, a scene where the characters ride a scooter and motorcycle through the roads of the jungle land in the south, and the finale is shot with detachment using a long lens. Not to mention bold uses of color filters. This film is essentially a lament for "money-crazy" Taiwan. The character's cell phones ring constantly, but nobody manages to communicate with another. They are constantly on the move but are going nowhere as the last scene so succinctly demonstrates.