Honey PuPu
(Xiao Shi Da Kan)

At first sight, Honey Pupu does not seem to make any sense, like its title. It is a collection of characters hiding behind nicknames (Dog, Assassin, Cola, Money, a.k.a. Cheesebaby, Vicky) who communicate through a strange social network on the subject of disappearance (that of a boyfriend or the imminent extinction of bees), involving a collage of contemporary imagery (music videos, commercials, mobile phones, etc.), in a hi-tech future which is less and less virtual, with a series of outdated brands bound to disappear… As a counterpoint to this “all-in-one”, the amazing soundtrack, with extracts taken from LP records of Grieg, Bach, Saint-Saens, Mozart and Beethoven, enters a conversation with a well chosen beat. The most unexpected Taiwanese film in years, Honey Pupu does away with everything we know in order to better grasp the essence of our time, setting a sense of wandering and linguistic and cultural dislocation against the possibilities of a stylised and lucid urban poem. This is the song of a generation which, not so long ago, was dancing a millennium mambo in front of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s camera. Jérôme Baron