All the Corners of the World
dir. Tsai Ming-liang · 1989
Life often presents difficult choices that can lead to both personal sacrifice and unfulfilled potential.
Plot
Mr and Mrs Chang live in Taipei's Hsi-Men-Ding (the city's entertainment/red light/nightlife district) with their teenaged kids. The parents work as cleaners in a "love hotel" and send the kids out to work as ticket scalpers, block-buying seats for hit movies like A City of Sadness and reselling them at a profit. Tragedy strikes when the daughter Mei-Hsueh flirts with the idea of prostituting herself and changes her mind at the last moment, leaving her first client with injuries that put him on the critical list. The focus throughout is on the son Ah Tong, who has a latent talent as a writer that is never going to flower.
Why watch
"All the Corners of the World" explores the haunting interplay of familial loyalty and the harsh realities of life in Taipei's nightlife underbelly. With its poignant storytelling and gritty aesthetic, this film invites viewers to witness the fragility of dreams against the backdrop of urban survival.