Among the films screened at this year's IndPanda short film festival, Taipei 24H is a standout: more than just an omnibus film, the 1?-hour piece is positioned as Taiwan's answer to Paris, Je T'Aime, with each of its eight short stories taking place during different times of the day and so depicting a different slice of daily life in Taipei's urban sprawl.
Morning Mo Tzu-yi is the star of Debbie Hsu's Summer Heat, an episode set between noon and 3pm which sees two frivolous yuppie types trying - and failing - to have quick sex in a love motel. It's a significant departure for 27-year-old Mo: playboy types are hardly his forte, as he's more well-known playing emotionally repressed or rebellious characters, as he did in recent years for Lin Jing-jie's The Most Distant Course (2007) and Lou Yi-an's A Place of One's Own (2008).
'Lin wanted me to play a more light-hearted role, a character who skips and bounces through life,' says Mo, during a visit to Hong Kong last week. His character is as different from him as his name, he says sheepishly. 'It's the name of the character I played in my first stage play. It radiates a very sunny feeling. But I'm quite a subdued person - for someone like me to be called Morning, it's quite bizarre.'
How do you see the significance of your role in Summer Heat?
It's a microcosm of what Taiwanese white-collared workers feel, I guess - just like their counterparts in Hong Kong, they are always seeking speed and efficiency; they would ... eat, watch movies, go on dates and have sex in the quickest way possible. Here, it's about two people trying to satisfy their sexual needs in three hours - it's the dominant sentiment in big cities like Taipei, I believe.
What do you think of this way of living one's life, given your career has never been about nine-to-five routines?