Goodbye South, Goodbye

Goodbye south goodbye is a strange Taiwanese movie. Film is about the family relations within a low life gang group.
It is called as the re make of "mean streets" but it is much more different than that movie. It is not a strict made in Taiwan copy. Story is not very central and director focuses more on the personalities of the characters. Kao is the big brother who means business in his gang circle. He tries to make investments like opening up a restaurant in shanghai with the money he earns in corrupt ways. His brother flatty and the girl pretzel causes non stop trouble which ends up with kao alone trying to clean up the mess. Kao is low on moral, unable to propose her long time lover ying. He even finds running a small restaurant too difficult to cope. Ying is also dissapointed and waiting for a signal to get out of this.
Film shows low life gang business as a tricky but not an action packed life. Dealing with issues like local politicians, lawnowners as well as pigs, it is by no means an action movie. Apart from couple of shoutings and punches, do not expect a john woo showdown here. Instead issues go rather realistic, kao's failure in life, flatty and pretzel's dependence on him makes most of the film. Even when flatty is beaten up by a police causin, his dreams of taking a revenge with a gun fails miserably before we see the gun and kao and flatty ends up in jail and only saved by the head of the gang who begs for help from a local politician.
Acting is good, especially kao character and flatty are well drawn. Movie sometimes is closer to a documentary style of a work. Music is extremely good. Blasting modern mandarin pop and rock with electronica really puts some heat to this slow moving film.
It is not a very easy film and many will label it as a terribly boring movie. But I personally enjoyed it and reccomend you If you wish to see something different. Patience always pays off in new Taiwanese films.

This is one of the few Taiwanese flicks with good English subtitles. More of an art than a plot film even though it gives a very convincing portrayal of the nasty netherworld behind Taiwanese thug life. The film progresses VERY slowly because the camera focuses extensively on not just the physical environment inhabited by thugs, but the style, look, behavior and demeanors of the gangsters themselves. Basically, the camera focuses on each individual scene until you have absorbed every little detail there is to it. If this film is intended for a foreign audience, the director certainly has made an attempt bring the viewer into the foreign world of Taiwanese organized crime, though the cinematography is not well done. There are some interesting shots of Taiwanese countryside along with footage of thug territory; such as dark dirty, ghetto studio sized rooms accommodating five, six individuals, which usually includes their drug addict women, a punching bag suspended from the ceiling, stray cats, etc. Art imitating life, these characters are always out to play their game for conquest and victory, except it's to - con big money, maintain symbiotic relations with politicians, and wage covert operations. If you're already taiwanese, there's nothing new in this film. If not, there's little you can get out of it since much of the film seems to be shot in the dark so it's hard to tell what's going on.

Goodbye South, Goodbye is not for everyone, but if you give it try, you may see how incredible this film is. The dolly shots from the trains and on the motorcycles are beautiful and really give you a taste of the atmosphere. During the film the camera is like an object in the setting that gives you an inner look into the world of Gao and flatty (the two brothers). As a filmmaker this film has inspired me immensly and I highly recommend it.