THANATOS, DRUNK

Taiwan, 2015, 107 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Zui Sheng Meng Si.

This drama is a slice of contemporary Taiwanese life, set in rather sleazy parts of the city of Taipei.

It opens with a young man, sitting with his alcoholic mother, long abandoned by her husband, favouring her older son who has migrated to the United States. She makes bad comparisons with the older brother for her younger son. His name is Rat.

Rat has been a good student but has fallen on bad times, becoming involved in petty crime, linked with some of the gangsters of the city. He also has a propensity for contemplating ants, and later, maggots.

His brother returns the United States, unhappy with the breakup of a partnership, becomes a dancer in a gay club, becomes infatuated with his younger brother’s good friend who, himself, is a gigolo (or, as contemptuously described by the chief gangster who has lent him money, a sperm-seller). The gigolo, despite his work, is in a relationship with a young woman who, as it emerges, is a strong controller, especially when he becomes infatuated with the gay brother. Rat is also concerned about a cousin and goes to rescue her from a situation where a client has been castrated.

The film is episodic, not always providing the links with what is happening on and off screen.

The film becomes rather bloodthirsty at the end. The gay brother and the gigolo do have an evening together, the brother decides to go back to the United States and the gigolo is angrily killed by his girlfriend. But not before he confronts the gangster chief whose thugs have bashed him and he violently kills the gangster. The mother is confronted by both her sons, talks about changing her way of life, but when reaching for a bottle of alcohol on a high shelf, she topples and is killed (Rat later finding her after some days, with many, many maggots).

She does appear momentarily in a hallucination for Rat. He seems to have turned a corner and is finally seen trying to sell vegetables market, though not reliably – and then he also has a kind of vision of the gigolo.

The film may be of interest in Taiwan but is limited in interest and in style of filmmaking for wider audiences. But, it is certainly a grim picture.