http://www.filmbiz.asia/reviews/zoom-hunting
Taipei, the present day. Fashion photographer Yang Ru-yi (Ning Chang), 32, shares an upstairs flat with her sister, crime novelist Yang Ru-xing (Chu Chih-ying), 33, in a quiet neighbourhood. By chance, Ru-yi snaps an apartement window opposite, where a man (James Wen) and a woman (Chou Heng-yin) are making love. Intrigued, Ru-yi does some detective work and discovers they're both married and having an affaire. Ru-xing, who has writer's block and is behind deadline on her latest book, uses Ru-yi's pictures for inspiration, incorporating the story into her novel, Zoom Hunting. But when Ru-yi later thinks the man has been murdered after a lovers' quarrel, she suspects her sister may be involved in the drama.
Genre:
Mystery | DramaSynopsis:
The first 20 minutes of Zoom Hunting (獵豔) raise hopes that producer-turned-director Cho Li's (卓立) first feature is going to deliver as a classy mystery-drama, a genre long gone missing in Taiwanese cinema. Hong Kong d.p. Kwan Pun-leung's (關本良) graceful, mobile camerawork, Jeffrey Cheng's (鄭偉杰) misteriosoRear Window-like setup with its theme of voyeurism as a spur to creativity (one sister is a photographer, the other a crime novelist) - all announce that Cho is in Brian De Palma territory. Early scenes of the quiet backstreet neighbourhood and shots of Taipei (cloudscapes, cityscapes) establish a strong sense of place and shifting time, as the lines between fact and fiction are blurred. And the performance of Ning Chang (張鈞甯, Holiday Dreaming 夢遊夏威夷, Silk 詭絲) as the capricious photographer fits the mood. major-minor score, and the
But then Zoom Hunting starts to slip out of focus, with small defects turning into major craters. Rather than sweeping the viewer along on its own terms, every now and then Kelly Yang (楊元鈴) and Cho's script stops to explain what's going on in awkwardly written scenes between the sisters; the plot contrivances are piled on with a heavy hand in the latter half; and the cross-cutting between the various strands becomes needlessly confusing, a stylistic device more for its own sake than for that of the film. Laudably, Cho wants to make a slick genre movie; but she doesn't seem to realise that genre movies have rules too. Small niggles - like the script taking 25 minutes even to identify one of the sisters by name, or mismatching background shots between the two opposite buildings - undercut the all-important suspension of disbelief. Most disappointingly, the movie has no sense of escalating tension, and no action pay-off at its climax.
Chang is fine as the spontaneous younger sister. But for a film that's essentially a two-hander, Chu Chih-ying's (朱芷瑩) performance as the novelist is too blank and lacking nuance, especially as her role assumes growing importance. The audience is told the women are sisters, but they seem more like two women who happen to be sharing a flat: there's no sense of any deep sororial bond, which robs the film of emotional underpinning. For non-Chinese viewers, the English subtitles, though okay, could be improved.
Screen Shot:But then Zoom Hunting starts to slip out of focus, with small defects turning into major craters. Rather than sweeping the viewer along on its own terms, every now and then Kelly Yang (楊元鈴) and Cho's script stops to explain what's going on in awkwardly written scenes between the sisters; the plot contrivances are piled on with a heavy hand in the latter half; and the cross-cutting between the various strands becomes needlessly confusing, a stylistic device more for its own sake than for that of the film. Laudably, Cho wants to make a slick genre movie; but she doesn't seem to realise that genre movies have rules too. Small niggles - like the script taking 25 minutes even to identify one of the sisters by name, or mismatching background shots between the two opposite buildings - undercut the all-important suspension of disbelief. Most disappointingly, the movie has no sense of escalating tension, and no action pay-off at its climax.
Chang is fine as the spontaneous younger sister. But for a film that's essentially a two-hander, Chu Chih-ying's (朱芷瑩) performance as the novelist is too blank and lacking nuance, especially as her role assumes growing importance. The audience is told the women are sisters, but they seem more like two women who happen to be sharing a flat: there's no sense of any deep sororial bond, which robs the film of emotional underpinning. For non-Chinese viewers, the English subtitles, though okay, could be improved.
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Part 01
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