New York Asian Film Festival 2024 (July 12-22 FLC) REVIEWS

[Chris Knipp]

NIKKI HSIEH, AUSTIN LIN IN SUFFOCATING LOVE

LIAO MING-YI: SUFFOCATING LOVE (2023)

A rom-com-style movie that drifts into the surreal

The director's NYAFF 2020 I WeirdDo presented Chen Po-Ching (Austin Lin) and Chen Ching (Nikki Hsieh), a cute couple in the making except they both suffer from OCD, which includes mysophobia, fear of contamination and dirt: it was a defense of oddity. Quirks abound here too, but this film seems to have been less well-received (to go by Letterboxd). Everyone is still cute. As Maggie Lee wrote in Variety apropos of I WeirDo, Lin "who sports a Spock haircut, exudes boyish charm in spades." He still does, and makes a great alter ego or muse.

He, the Austin Lin character, that is, sets up to live with a girlish young woman called Pai Chia-chi, who turns out to be a control freak whose "few principles" will limit his every movement, and he will have to let her read his phone every day and constantly report where he is. She is a vegetarian, expects him to be likewise, and provides odd-sized meals which he must consume all of. She is a total tyrant. He reports on this to his best bud, who provides an additional male point of reference.

Before long he runs into former girlfriend Ai-hsien, who is in a seven-year relationship that is running dry: they're supposed to be getting married. He and Ai-hsien start meeting on the sly, and she gives him an extra phone so they can communicate with out Pai knowing. But then he decides to leave that phone on the table so Pai can see it.

Then, whether it's a dream or a reality, he starts seeing a third woman, whom he knows as Kurosawa. They get close, but he begins spying on her, and also sneaks into her apartment when she's not there. She starts providing him with food and drink, but that begins to seem nefarious, and after she gets pregnant - well, let's not go there. It's at this point that things become quite surreal. There is a dream-devil, a good looking but bald young man dressed in red, with red-painted fingernails and a large silver revolver.

He sees Pai again and she has become repentant, realizing that she was being cruel. She also is ill, as well as sad. And now she starts serving him meals with lots of meat in them.

A late scene shows the protagonist visiting an automobile showroom where Kurosawa has him look at a luxurious car. Isn't it expensive? he asks (the price is a million Taiwan dollars). But we will need a good car now that we are going to have a child, she says, and then leaves to go to the bathroom, suggesting he sit at the driver's seat. At this point she has become so suspect you may fear the seat will be poisoned. Then he looks out and sees Pai with another fellow. He smiles his charming smile; she smiles more wanly back.

One looks forward to further viewings and reviews of Suffocating Love to see what interpretations people come up with. I also await more complete cast information since the final credits are only in Chinese and IMDb doesn't have characters' names linked with actors'. Lin Dayuan and Chloe Xiang reportedly play the other women. It is clear that director LIao remains skillful at filming with an iPhone and likes melding rom-com with thriller and horror elements, also enjoying abrupt plot shifts.

SuffocatingLove 愛的噩夢 ("Loves Nightmare"), 102 mins., debuted at Taipei Jun. 26, 2024. It was screened for this review as part of the 2024 NYAFF (Jul. 12-28).

SCHEDULE:
Saturday July 27, 6:30pm (Silas Theatre, SVA Theatre)
Intro and Q&A with director Liao Ming-yi and cast members Austin Lin and Nikki Hsieh