Wo jiao A-Ming la

Singing Chen directs this lyrical work about longing and belonging among the down and out of Taipei. The film opens with the mysterious old woman junk collector calling out “Is anyone selling dreams? Is anyone buying?” Chen Yao-chih (Chen Li-te) is a narcoleptic writer who has been tortured by voices since he bought a book from the junk woman. Only his sudden fits of sleep and compulsive writing provide relief. The abandoned car he lives in is strewn full of the pages of a novel he seems impelled to write. A young TV reporter from the Great Big News channel tries to befriend Chen, believing that he is a genius, but her efforts prove to be mixed at best. Other characters include Chun, who tries to care for Chen during his narcoleptic spells, and Yong, a guitar-playing folk singer who makes his living playing in the subway and who is slowly dying of a lung ailment. Then there is A-Ming (Yen Mu-tsuen), the elder of this disparate non-community of drifters, who constantly intones “I’ve bundled it up, it’s time to leave, but I don’t know where to go.”