Ming-liang Tsai's Vive L'amour (1994) is clearly the first notable film the director made. While Rebels of the Neon God was a good effort, it was far below his usual level of quality. Vive L'amour is probably even more ambitious - or at least more challenging - than his later films because it doesn't dive into its thematics/subject the same way. While his later films always have a comical aspect (slapstick) along with the serious side, Vive L'amour is ONLY serious. Or the humor isn't as pointed out, at the very least.
Primarily the film is about alienation and sexual frustration, just like The Wayward Cloud, but this time he approaches the themes without porn or musical scenes. The focus of the film is not only on Kang-sheng Lee's character, there are also two other characters who are connected to Lee because they use the same apartment even though they are not aware of each other at first. The screenplay is fascinating even if it's a bit tough even by Tsai's standards because there is no "comic relief".
As for the form, it's magnificent yet again. Tsai's long takes, calm pace and gorgeous photography are still there. This time he doesn't use music at all, which fits the screenplay.
Tsai's film making has become quite refined already by this point, but the film is a bit too monotonous for its own sake so I can't honestly give it a 10.
Score: 9 out of 10
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