Flowers of Taipei: Taiwan New Cinema

A street vendor with a grim home-life forges a connection with a young woman on her way to Paris.

Robinson, appropriately named as we will soon discover, is on vacation in Biarritz with his wife. What follows is the story behind the loss of his arm, a story that becomes increasingly bizarre and eventually apocalyptic, leading us down a narrative path of labyrinthine complexity. The resulting film is an extraordinary feat of imagination and daring, set against the backdrop of a world on the verge of destruction.

Starting as a story of a bullied young female factory worker, the film amps up its frightening tropes as it gradually escalates into a feverish nightmare. An evil boss, an abusive father, a sibling’s mysterious death, creepy dolls, ghost children, and blood-chillingly violent setpieces all come together both viscerally and metaphorically for this brooding tale of repression and the dark side of human nature.