DivX Clásico

"Nobody in this world knows what they want" is the recurring mantra uttered throughout MAHJONG, an eccentric Taiwanese gangster film about a young hood aspiring to live up to his father's reputation as "the most shameless crook in this shameless country."

Nimbly weaving a multitude of plots--involving feng shui scams, bungling kidnappers, unwitting potential prostitutes, and a gentleman of the night named Hong Kong--into MAHJONG's intricate narrative structure, director Edward Yang conjures a pungent atmosphere of stagnant desperation, stale neon and festering age to coincide with the new millenium.

Hyper-aware of Taiwan's rapidly rising prominence in the global economy, Yang reenvisions his homeland as one of the 21st century's key centers of power--a beacon destined to welcome larger influxes of entrepreneurial expatriates and foreign capital and home to a new generation doomed to squander their youth as they jockey for the inside lane in the rat race of city life.

-- Kevin Sun