Midnight Screenings 2016 / Qing Tian Jie Yi Hao / Taiwan 2015
The problem with working at a dry cleaners that fronts for a thriving hitman business is the fact that, sooner or later, your own dirty laundry needs attending to. So when the ghosts of his victims start pursuing the firm’s hottest hired gun night and day, it’s one hell of a problem. That is, unless you can find a medium who is able to communicate with them…
The advantage of having your own laundry firm is that, now and again, between ironing shirts and sudsing rumpled outfits, you can even clandestinely disappear a corpse or two. Hip to this salient fact, the comely owner launches a hitman service with a crew of contract killers: She guarantees both sparkling white shirts, but also that her customers’ more troublesome wrinkles will be ironed out. But when you work in the laundry business there may come a day when your own dirty laundry needs attending to. And that’s where the company’s top killer comes in: Recently, he’s been pursued day and night by the ghosts of his victims. And maybe the only way out of the situation is to hire a psychic (in the person of an attractive young woman) who can help him communicate with the dead. But the process is far from easy and many surprises await... Indifferent to genre classifications, this Taiwanese action comedy shifts the power balance between the macho killer and his female counterparts, playfully undermining all the usual stereotypes.
Hubert Poul
112 min / Color, DCP
Director Chung Lee
/ Screenplay Chung Lee, Chen Yu-Hsun
/ Dir. of Photography Yao Hung-I
/ Music Wen Tzu-Chieh
/ Editor Yao Hung-I, Yang Wei-Hsin, Chiang Yi-Ning, Shieh Meng-Ju
/ Art Director Wang Chih-Chen
/ Producer Lee Lieh, Roger Huang
/ Production 1 Production Film Co.
/ Cast Chang Hsiao-Chuan, Sui Tang, Wan Qian, Yeo Yann Yann
/ Sales Ablaze Image Limited
Chung Lee studied film at Columbia University in New York. He is currently one of the most gifted filmmakers and novelists of the young Taiwanese generation. His short graduation picture Mochi (2010) screened at a number of international festivals, including Slamdance and the Taipei IFF, and was nominated for a Student Academy Award. His next short appeared a year later: 5F-2 (2011). The Laundryman (2015) is his feature directorial debut. Nominated for a number of awards at home and abroad, it confirms his status as a director of exceptional talent.
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