Starring: Chen Bo-lin, Tong Yao, Tony Yang You-ning, Morning Mo Tsz-yi
Director: Huo Jianqi
Category: I (Mandarin)
Snowfall in Taipei projects a fish-out-of-water scenario. However, this has nothing to do with the film's urbanite-in-the-sticks plot. Rather, it's about how a mainland filmmaker once famed for atmospheric, humanist dramas tries, and fails, to give weight to what is essentially a fluffy Taiwanese romance aimed at teens.
Huo Jianqi is best known for Postmen in the Mountains, his simple and subtle 1999 film that sees a young postman gaining a deeper understanding of his retiree father - whose job he has taken - as the pair trek around a steep landscape in Hunan province.
Admittedly, Huo has dabbled in more conventional and lighter fare since. He helmed A Time to Love that was released around Valentine's Day in 2005 - but has steadfastly stuck to nuanced narratives with solid characters.
This isn't the case with his first venture outside the mainland though, perhaps because of the limitations of having to work with lightweight source material from others.
Snowfall in Taipei is an adaptation of a Japanese novel but is bereft of protagonists that can elicit empathy from viewers. Mirroring the premise of the Taiwanese hit movie Cape No 7, Snowfall begins with a young female sophisticate arriving at a rural outpost outside Taipei to nurse her broken heart; but May (Tong Yao), a Qingdao-born and now Taipei-based pop singer, is never really that psychologically conflicted a character.