Mirror Image
(Ming Dai Zhui Zhu)

Three months previously, Tung-Ching’s life took a sharp turn. Victim of a traffic accident, he discovers that the life line on his right hand has disappeared. A nurse tells him that he is now free from a written destiny and that, from now on, his future will be decided only by the choices he himself makes. Three months later, his father also falls victim to a cardiovascular accident, and Tung-Ching finds himself running the family’s small pawnbroking business. Worried about his future, he flirts with one of his customers, whom he nicknames “Know-all”. As a fine example of the changes in Taiwan cinema at the turn of the last millennium, Mirror image plays on the expectations of a generation that is searching existence itself for the basis of a novel that would enhance the substance of life. JB