Ashes of Love

Wang confronts his youth. Life is boring and seems to be endless. The only thing he can do is survive each day. On New Year's Eve, he briefly returns to his senses while watching fireworks burst. During these vanishing moments he most strongly feels his own existence.

Cows enter a milking parlour in the early morning. As their milk is sucked away, a cataclysmic storm builds on the horizon. Under the onslaught of wind and rain, summer disappears. A meteorologist investigates the bizarre shift in the weather. He follows his equipment through the dark and wintry landscape and arrives at the farm where the cows were milked, but nothing remains of the animals. He begins a more precise investigation, but the results are inconclusive. In such miserable and remorseless weather, how can he measure reality?

A young photographer wanders through the city as Taiwan is preparing for the presidential election. Constantly questioning his talent as an artist, he suffers from the uncertainty facing his future as he is about to turn 30 - a watershed age in one's life according to traditional Taiwanese culture. His accidental encounter with an ex-girlfriend propels him to reconsider his past, present and future in the river of time.