Yang’s penultimate film could be his bleakest and most pointed attack on the corrupted soul of Taiwanese society—an angry, rough-hewn and surly escapade featuring lowly gangsters, prostitutes, scammers and rich exploiters of the common man. 

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The penultimate film by Edward Yang, Mahjong could be the bleakest of all of the Taiwanese maestro’s works, though it is imbued with generous servings of crude, often sexual, humour that makes it oddly compelling. 

When the narrative feels burdened by the intricacies of plotting, explosions of verbal tirades keep us invested.  This is that kind of film—an angry, rough-hewn and surly escapade, featuring lowly gangsters, prostitutes, scammers, and rich folks who exploit everybody. 

It’s a nasty place as Yang seems to suggest of Taiwan at the crossroads between unchecked neocolonial capitalism and unequivocally losing her soul.  It’s surely a case of getting caught between a rock and a hard place, and in fact, most if not all of the characters will at one point or another feel the same helplessness. 

“The future of Western civilisation lies right here.”

When a rich businessman goes into hiding after owing tonnes of money to his debtors, his son becomes a kidnapping target. While Mahjong largely operates at the level of farce as characters make one bad decision after another, Yang does hit you in the gut with some shocking developments. 

Together with  A Confucian Confusion (1994), which I enjoyed much more, Mahjong continues Yang’s pointed questions about the state and direction of Taiwanese society, particularly its lowly youth that are corrupted by the chronic necessity of exploiting others—and even each other. 

Bodies become transactional items—sexualised, brutalised, or simply rejected, no different from the Mercedes Benzes (a signifier of individual wealth and liability) that get banged up on purpose in the film. 

Yang remains hopeful, however, of genuine love and empathy to emerge in this shady, vulgar and presumptuous world of ‘coincidences’ and ‘mistaken identities’.  

Grade: B+

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