A man finally gets his dream car and immediately ruins his own life. Relatable king.
Zang Guang-xing is a veteran soldier from Mainland China who married a young Taiwanese woman. He has been working as a supervisor in a construction company for seven years. Everyday he rides the same motorbike to work. He suffers enough misery from riding that motorbike, and dreams of buying a car. So he asks around for decent second-hand cars. His son doesn't like any car he chooses. His wife, a typical Taiwanese woman who lives frugally, shaves any penny she can. She is the one who pays for the family's new car. They go out on trips happily, and become the envy of the neighborhood. Zhang thus gets the new car he's always dreamed of, but he starts to worry about it getting dirty, because it's simply too new, too nice for him. The car thus becomes his son's vehicle. He rides the old bike to work again, just like he has during all these years.
Acting
Wen Ying's devastating slow collapse from pride to paralysis.
Direction
Wang Tung's patient observation of mundane humiliation.
Production
The motorbike as character—rusty, faithful, ultimately victorious.
Director
Wang Tung
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during Taiwan's explosive economic boom, the film interrogates the 'Mainland husband/Taiwanese wife' dynamic common in post-1949 migration.
Wang Tung reportedly based the motorbike on his own father's vehicle, which he rode for 20 years. The car in the film was brand new—a production luxury that ironically made the actors uncomfortable.
TW
