Boxed in

Parking is a strange and terrific Taiwanese film about a man stranded in Taipei after dark

ALL-NIGHT ADVENTURE: Parking

One of my favourite film genres is the “up all night” movie. I love films that follow a character, or group of characters, in something approximating real time, on misadventures, real or romantic, through some sort of usually urban setting. I’m talking about movies like Dazed and Confused, or Before Sunrise, or Martin Scorsese’s After Hours. Parking, a terrific new film by Taiwanese first-time director Chung Mong-Hong (who’s also credited as writer and cinematographer), belongs on that distinguished list.

A mix of comedy, family drama, gangster movie and adventure, Parking would have a hard time fitting comfortably in any genre but the up-all-night movie. One night in Taipei, Chen Mo (Chang Chen, who was in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Wong Kar-Wai’s Happy Together) is trying to get home to dinner with his wife. After stopping to pick up a cake for her (in a scene that’s weirdly reminiscent of the exchanges in Curb Your Enthusiasm), he finds he’s boxed in; a car has double-parked in front of his, leaving him stuck on a largely empty street.

With the help of a local barber (Jack Kao), Chen visits a family who he thinks might own the car, but finds himself drawn into a heartbreaking little drama where the blind mother mistakes him for her long-lost son. It’s the first of several such episodes, as our increasingly desperate protagonist tries to free his car and make it home in time for dinner.

Slowly, the film becomes populated with a variety of interesting characters, each with their own backstory, revealed in a series of flashbacks that reminded me of how Lost structures its episodes—just replace the island with the city block where Chen is stranded. There’s a miserable prostitute (Peggy Tseng) and her asshole pimp (Leon Dai), a tailor in trouble with the mob (Chapman To), a fatherless little girl (Lin Kai-Jung)—even the barber has a surprising tale of his own. They’re all like little short stories that complement the main narrative arc.

There are very few movies reminiscent of After Hours, Lost and Curb Your Enthusiasm; that Parking attracts such diverse comparisons is a huge compliment. This is a special movie with a strong, strange personality of its own. It’s great.

PARKING OPENS
THIS FRIDAY, NOV. 6