Again, am writing a review a few years after viewing, so don't remember all the details. But what was most striking about the movie was the period details which were very understated.
In this movie, a mother and daughter (she is an adult, starting her own career as a teacher) live in a very emotionally confined situation. The daughter is engaged, but it's unclear whether the mother is actually accepting of this situation, or wants to hang onto her daughter.
The complexities of this situation were often revealed in little offhand scenes which give the feeling of the constrained lives of the two women. I also remember that a lot hinges on the fact that the father in the family had been arrested for some political "crime" and that this hampered the women's social and economic mobility. So the marriage of the daughter becomes the avenue for escape from this social/economic confinement, but the eventual outcome leaves both women in a situation which is even worse.
I remember this as a very subtle movie, and i think Lin Cheng-sheng's movies should have found a greater reception in the West. The subtlety of his films, as well as their quiet beauty, should please discriminating audiences who are attuned to his quiet mastery. I also note that, to date, this has been his last film, as the Taiwanese cinema has lost a lot of its momentum and funding.
