Best known as a regular performer in the films of Tsai Ming-Liang, actor Lee Kang-Sheng took a first step behind the camera with 2003's The Missing - a film that won him a number of awards - and he has returned to the director's chair for Help Me Eros, a film just announced as part of the Vanguard lineup at the Toronto International Film Festival and also in competition in Venice. We've just been passed a quartet of stills from the film and it certainly appears as though Lee is taking a page from Tsai's The Wayward Cloud and laying on some technicolor skin though I'm told it's quite difference in terms of pacing and the way Lee tells his story. Here's the synopsis:
Ah Jie lost everything in the stock market due to a severe economic crisis. He now spends his days in his sealed apartment, smoking joints and looking after the marijuana plants that he secretly grows in his wardrobe. In desperation, he calls a suicide helpline and gets to know Chyi, whose sweet and gentle voice causes him to fall in love with his fantasized image of her. He tries to ask her out but is repeatedly rejected. He begins projecting his fantasy of Chyi on Shin, the new girl working at the betel nut stall downstairs. Shin is always sexily dressed in order to lure male customers. He becomes closer to her and soon the two of them sink into a world of erotic and psychedelic pleasures. At the same time, Ah Jie begins to stalk Chyi.
Looks like he's learned much from Tsai.
How could he not? Tsai allowed him to watch not only his body but the body of his work develop over the years. I'm looking forward to this.