Taiwanese actor Lee Kang-Sheng was the centerpoint of the films of Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-Liang; working with the celebrated director must have taught Lee something about filmmaking, as he’s reinvented himself as a director of his own accord.
“Help Me Eros” is his second feature, and it screened at the Sydney Film Festival, on a quiet Sunday night. The audience may have been caught by surprise, as the film probed interesting new grounds for Asian cinema, unflinchingly depicting casual sex and drug use with an eye that could only be described as gleefully voyeuristic.
Lee wrote the screenplay and stars in this film as Ah Jie, a depressed stockbroker that once made millions and is now only interested in smoking marijuana. He grows it, he talks to his plants, he lights joint after joint after joint, and the film takes enthusiastic time at filming Ah Jie smoking.
It’s a Chinese stoner film, a genre that seemed confined to Western film. Whereas we’re content with our Cheech and Chongs, our Jay and Silent Bobs and our Harold and Kumars, “Help Me Eros” give beautiful light to the art of smoking in the nighttime neon playground of Taipei.
Lee’s eye is definitely obsessed with aesthetics. Ah Jie lives in a grand apartment, emptied of pawned-off possessions, above a row of betel-nut beauty shops.
Ivy Yi Yin Shin Taiwanese actress
The betel-nut beauty is a strictly Taiwanese phenomenon, involving scantily clad women sliding down stripper poles to sell their customers betel-nuts. Ah Jie falls in with the girls, and here we see Lee’s eye at work; the girls are all fantastically sexy, with incredible figures and flawless skin. He starts a relationship with a stunning girl, played by Ivy Yi (Yin Shin), who could only be described as a prettier, lustier version of Zhang Zi Yi. I direct you to this forum thread with its collection of Ivy Yi photos that’ll make you break a sweat.
“Help Me Eros” was criticized for its disaffected screenplay, which seems to wander aimlessly, then go nowhere, much like Ah Jie, pacing in his apartment, high on dope, trying to make a bowl of instant noodles. The film certainly does wander, but at its heart, its character are all trying to find love, and through it, sex, in a world that seems eager to forget about the dirty word.
Another character is an unhappily married woman that has grown fat on her celebrity husband’s cooking. She wants nothing more than to be touched by another person, but her husband has turned a blind eye to her, ignoring her as a sexual person. Cruelly, her job is to be a telephone councilor, and she talks often to Ah Jie, convincing him not to kill himself.
They all find a moment of feeling human: Ah Jie and the beautiful betel-nut girls share moments of sweaty passion, filmed with a projection of shapes and stars on their naked, writhing bodies. The councilor, with no one to desire her, find solace in placing her feet in a bathtub of live eels.
“Help Me Eros” is gently comic, with standard stoner-comedy situations, and Lee is a seasoned actor, comfortable to appear nude and sprawled out on the roof of his apartment. The film elevates itself above ribaldry by taking a calm, appreciative eye at the lives of these lonely people, casting them in beautiful lights. Much like other films at the Festival, Lee refuses to hide behind editing, allowing his shots to go on at length, giving us an extended, uncomfortable view of these lost lives. Ah Jie and his fellow characters are unable to find solace in the cuttings of the editing room, and “Help Me Eros” prevents us from finding the same relief.
I say:
An excellent film, comedic and contemplative. Not recommended for viewers that need their films to have direction, or to avoid uncomfortable subjects.
Paradoxically, behind us in the theatre, a middle-aged couple was watching the movie with some discomfort. At least, during one of the sex scenes, where Ah Jie and a betel-nut girl make passionate love, the woman exclaimed ‘Disgusting!’. At the end of the screening, it was clear that she did not like the film, or its depictions of sex.
See it for:
It’s a pleasant, enjoyable film, but it’s hard for me to think about anything but the beautiful actresses that fill the screen. There’s one dreamlike sequence that stands out as ludicrous, but is so achingly desirable.
For more movies like Help Me Eros (2007) visit Hurawatch.
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