Help Me Eros

Lee Kang-sheng became a familiar face as a result of the many leading roles he played in the films of Tsai Ming-liang. A striking film maker, he won a Tiger Award in Rotterdam in 2004 with his first film The Missing. And in Help me Eros, he is both the familiar face as he plays the lead himself and the striking film maker, because let there be no misunderstanding: this is a striking film.
Lee plays the tragic figure of Ah Jie, a successful and wealthy businessman who loses all his money on the stock exchange. Now he is confronted with poverty and loneliness in surroundings which still bear all the marks of luxury. He seeks enlightenment in smoking his own marry one of plants and he phones a helpline. The title refers to the phone calls. He fantasises about the woman on the other end of the line and has brief encounters with a betelnut seller in his street. The volunteer on the helpline, Chyi (Jane Liao), looks very different in reality from the one he sees in his imagination. He becomes increasingly entwined in a hopeless depression and seems less and less able to cope with the harsher sides of the consumer society.
The downfall of Ah Jie is designed with great exuberance and fantasy. The film has many very specific Taiwanese elements, but also a universal eloquence. As said: a striking film by a striking director. (GjZ)