Three Makes a Whole

Three Makes a Whole  (Taiwan, 2019)

North American premiere!

Three female legends of Taiwanese cinema make whole the latest work by director Zero Chou. In the 1970s and ‘80s, filmmaker Liu Li-li famously adapted numerous works by romance novelist Chiung Yao. Rather than simply following the biopic format, Chiung Yao, credited with the story of Three Makes a Whole, returns the favor, paying tribute to Liu with a love triangle melodrama befitting the romances of youthful idealism that made them both famous. We meet Liu as a young woman finding her narrative voice in the stage, and later film, while juggling romance with a married director. Zero Chou (Spider Lillies, Drifting Flowers) preserves the soap opera theatrics of 1970s romantic sentimentalism, but infuses them with a queer sensibility that defiantly proclaims that three is sometimes better than two.

DCP, color, 96 min. Director/screenwriter: Zero Chou. Cast: Rainie Yang, Jay Shih, Huang Peijia.