Reviews | 影評

James Marsh, BC Magazine (www.bcmagazine.net) wrote:

Navigating any major city during a public holiday can be a tiresome experience. Shops and restaurants close, public transport grinds to a standstill and even taxi drivers seem reluctant to ply their trade. For poor Chen Mo, these are the least of his problems.

It is Mother’s Day in Taipei, and Chen Mo (Chang Chen, looking uncannily like Daniel Wu with his scruffy hair cut and leather jacket) is on his way home for a potentially reconciliatory dinner with his estranged wife (Kwai Lunmei, who can currently be seen in Tsui Hark’s All About Women). He stops off at a bakery to buy her a cake, only to find somebody has double-parked in front of him, blocking his car in. There is what appears to be a bullet hole in the car’s windscreen and the owner is nowhere in site. Chen Mo is forced to track down the driver if he is ever to get home, and what should have been a two minute detour unravels into an all-night chain of seemingly unconnected, increasingly bizarre events that threaten to ruin not only his dinner plans, but his marriage and possibly even his life.

Parking owes more than a passing acknowledgement to the likes of Martin Scorsese’s After Hours and Mike Leigh’s Naked as Chen Mo encounters a string of increasingly quirky characters – some friendly, others possibly lethal. There is an over-protective baker, a rather hopeless Hong Kong tailor (played by Chapman To), a one-armed barber frequently called upon to aid Chen Mo in his plight and an elderly couple who insist Chen Mo stays for dinner after the blind wife mistakes him for her estranged son. The story is also peppered with a healthy assortment of pimps, hookers and gangsters that seem to emerge from the cracks and corners of any city after dark, and Chen Mo inevitably gets entangled in their disreputable goings-on.

As with most Taiwanese productions, Parking is never in any great hurry to tell its story, and lets events unfurl at a leisurely pace, however first-time writer-director-cinematographer Chung Mong-Hong remains in careful control throughout. The script is darkly comic, with the audience guiltily sucked in by the escalating schadenfreude that drives the narrative forward. Those familiar with this type of narrative, essentially Orpheus with bubble tea, will realize that only the dawn can hope to bring salvation for Chen Mo, and until then he may very well be taken to hell and back and forced to face demons long buried beneath a routine of mundane complacency. Chung’s cinematography effectively simulates Chen Mo’s mounting sleep deprivation, slowly creating a soft-focused, dream-like atmosphere as events become increasingly other-worldly.

The result is a film with a lot to offer. Chang Chen, rarely seen outside of period dramas, is a charismatic and engaging lead, slowly earning the audience’s sympathy whilst remaining the butt of most of the jokes. One particular sequence, involving a soiled pair of jeans, a fish head and a wash basin, marks Chen out as an accomplished physical comedian. The bulk of the praise, however, must go to Chung Mong-Hong. His sharp writing and imaginative characterization give his cast plenty to work with, coupled with a restrained directorial style, refreshingly free of unnecessary visual flourishes. His beautiful cinematography evokes the work of Cesar Charlone (City of God, The Constant Gardener) and provides further proof Chung is an emerging talent of note in an already blossoming Taiwanese film industry.

James Marsh
source: http://www.bcmagazine.net/hk.bcmagazine.issues/bcmagazine_webissue271/20-parking.html

More Reviews

Maggie Lee, THR.com wrote:

"CANNES -- Double parking evolves into a pert metaphor for Taipei's urban chaos and the obstacle-strewn nature of life in "Parking," a neat concept film by Chung Mong-Hong. Using a man's Kafkaesque attempts to get his car out as the narrative link, Chung devises a chain of bizarre encounters and confrontations that are by turns amusing and disquieting." ... more

Kozo, LOVE HK FILM.com wrote:

"Director Chung Mong-Hong delivers an attention-getting debut with Parking, an urban black comedy boasting an impressive cast and an entertaining, subversive edge. Chang Chen stars as Chen Mo, an average Joe who parks his car in a Taipei neighborhood on Mother's Day to buy some cakes for the evening's dinner. Afterwards, he finds his car double-parked in, beginning a strange, funny, and sometimes surprising journey into the Taipei evening, which isn't as extreme or over-the-top as one might expect from the After Hours-ish premise. Interesting characters, off-color situations, and fine performances follow, as well some content that doesn't seem to cohere. At a certain point, the story loses focus, and Parking ends up doing less than it attempts. However, that may be nitpicking; Parking isn't totally complete, but the ride is entertaining, involving, and very much worth the time." ... more

Derek Elley, VarietyAsiaOnline.com wrote:

"A precision-crafted, "After Hours"-like black comedy in which a double-parked car causes an average Taipei guy all kinds of grief, "Parking" reps a strong feature debut by commercials/docu helmer Chung Mong-hong that's far from the usual scriptless, navel-gazing fare served up by many Taiwanese helmers for the festival circuit. Western theatrical chances still remain very limited, though lead thesp Chang Chen's name could give it a nudge in some Asian markets. Further fest stops should help to establish Chung's name as one to watch. " ... more

Parking Article and Blog Links | 停車文章 及 博客

"昨晚得到轉介邀請，獲得電影《停車》的傳媒優先場戲票。依我理解，傳媒優先場的意思就是給一些傳媒在看電影後寫影評，這就是一套八號才上畫的電影在五號就有場次的原因 - 不少觀眾還是喜歡看過影評之後才進場吧。 " ... more

For immediate release:

Parking Movie Launches Official Website: www.ParkingMovie.Asia

Taiwan Movie Craze Continues in 2009 with Brilliant Cool Comedy

Hong Kong, 30-Dec-2008 – Promotion activities for the movie “Parking” continues from Taiwan to Hong Kong with launching of the Hong Kong official website: http://www.ParkingMovie.asia.  Other than movie trailers, the website also features Chang Chen (張震) and Kwai Lun-Mei (桂綸鎂) wallpapers and photos for download.  Furthermore, you will find 2 different versions of collectible postcards of the movie at different Starbucks Coffee stores around Hong Kong.  The movie trailer will also be featured on the large outdoor TV screen at Times Square.  “Parking” will be officially released in theatres on January 8, 2009 at Broadway Cinematheque (Yau Ma Tei), AMC Festival Walk (Kowloon Tong), The Grand Cinema, and Palace IFC.

After premiering in the prestigious “Un Certain Regard” at the 2008 Cannes International Film Festival , “Parking” was invited to numerous film festivals around the world.  Director Chung Mong-Hong also went on to win the “Best New Talent” award at the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival (http://www.hkaff.asia) held in October, while the film itself was voted as the “Audience Favourite Film” at the festival.  Thereupon, “Parking” was selected to be the opening film for the “Golden Horse International Film Festival” in Taiwan, and collected 2 awards at the “Golden Horse Awards”, including Best Art Direction and the FIPRESCI Critics Award.  Director Wei Te-Sheng of “Cape No. 7” also gave his recommendation for the film in an earlier interview for a newspaper in Taiwan. Moreover, renowned director Wim Wenders highly praised the film's cinematography & the detailed precision imagery.

 “Parking” brought together solid talents from around Asia including Chang Chen, Kwai Lun-Mei, as well as Jack Kao of “A City of Sadness”, Leon Dai of “The Hospital”, Chapman To of “Isabella”, Too Zong-Hua of “Lust, Caution” and renowned Taiwan model Peggy Tseng.  With rich flavors of suspense,, comedy, and melodrama, this movie interweaves themes of family, sex, and money to create a moving story.

The story is set in Taipei on Mother's Day.  Chen-Mo (Chang Chen) makes a date for dinner with his wife (Kwai Lun-Mei), hoping to mend their estranged relationship. On his way home, he decided to stop by his wife's favourite bakery to get a cake. With luck he finds a parking space. While buying the cake, however, another car double-parks next to his, blocking his way out. For the entire night, Chen-Mo searches different floors of a nearby apartment building for the owner of the illegally parked car, encountering a series of strange events and eccentric characters: an old couple who have lost their only son living with their precocious granddaughter, a one-armed barbershop owner cooking fish head soup (Jack Kao), a young China girl (Peggy Tseng) trying to escape her pimp's (Leon Dai) cruel clutches, and a tailor from Hong Kong (Chapman To) who is embroiled in debt and captured by underground loan sharks. How would Chen-Mo finally come out of this adventurous journey?

For more information please visit: http://www.ParkingMovie.asia