Inequality is a facet of life, and it comes in many forms. Laio Jie (played by Run-yin Bai) is 11 years old, and he lives alone with his father, Liao Tai-Lai (played by Kuan-Ting Liu), because his mother has recently died. We meet them as they pay rent to their landlord’s rent collector, who Jie calls Miss Pretty (played by Eugenie Liu), the sequence establishes them in the pecking order and hints at the changes in the city. One of the neighbours below is planning on leaving their shop in the new year to buy their own (we find out later they are playing the stock market), and Tai-Lai tells Jie that in three years, he will have enough money to buy a shop to open a hair salon like Jie’s mom always dreamed of doing. Jie starts counting down the days until they can buy the shop, their little secret. When Tai-Lai gets money from his brother for a deposit, he plans to buy a shop right away. Unfortunately, rising stocks also mean rising property values, so Tai-Lai’s timeline shifts back. But Jie is a kid, and once his timeline gets shifted forward, it’s impossible to shift back. Imagine telling a kid you’ve arrived at your destination on an 8-hour road trip; then you have to tell them you still have 30 minutes to go. They’ve already waited longer than 30 minutes, but now that 30 minutes will seem impossible because they thought it was over. Essentially, that’s what happens to Jie, and that’s when he crosses paths with Boss Xie, AKA the Old Fox (played by Akio Chen), who sees himself in Jie and wants to mold Jie into his image and teach him how he views inequality from where he sits as the landlord. Their landlord.
Films that center the world through a child’s eye provide interesting perspectives because they have a level of innocence or naivete to them; that’s what makes Life is Beautiful and The Florida Project have warmth to them despite telling stories that explore serious themes. And that is the same for Old Fox, from screenwriter/director Ya-chuan Hsiao and co-screenwriter I-wen Chan. Even after Xie explains his philosophy on inequality, using Jie’s bullies as examples and how Jie can turn the tables by using information provided to him on one of their mothers, Jie’s initial pursuit and use of Xie’s teachings are very innocent. In every interaction with Xie, Jie goes in asking him to sell a shop to his Dad, and we are treated to why this is so important to him with a fantasy sequence. It was important to his mom, and opening it would in some way keep her alive for him, he can imagine coming home to her in the salon. This is how he justifies his pursuit while ignoring other people in their time of grief and avoiding the results of his actions in seeking Xie’s favour. But even still, he does eventually have to confront his actions and decide what kind of man he wants to be, does he want to be like his father, a kind man who works hard and doesn’t play the stock market, or does he want to be like Xie who seeks out methods to make inequalities favour him.
The world laid out in Old Fox is so small with the characters having overlapping ties in many aspects of their lives, creating an intimate community feel, something super insular. Some people might find that all the interconnections might be too convenient but I think it just adds to the small lens of a child’s eye.
The film is set in Taipei in 1989 during a specific period of time of rapid growth and economic change. However, the concept is both universal and still timely as the cost to rent and buy property is something that is constantly talked about with younger generations priced out, especially in more urban environments. And it’s fitting that Boss Xie, the mobster-like character that runs the part of town we see and who most of the characters have a healthy fear of, is a landlord.
Old Fox is Taiwan’s entry for the Best International Film at the 97th Academy Awards.
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