Presumed dead, master con artist and recovering amnesiac Dorothy is discovered by Shanghai Longu-bang, a mob who wants payback for her conning them. With no memories and nowhere to go, she must rely on a local crime underboss to elude Taipei's criminal underworld all while tracking down leads to her mysterious past.
Each member of a family in Taipei asks hard questions about life's meaning as they live through everyday quandaries. NJ is morose: his brother owes him money, his mother is in a coma, his wife suffers a spiritual crisis when she finds her life a blank and his business partners make bad decisions.
Der Meisterkoch Chu hat mit seiner Lebensfreude auch seinen Geschmackssinn verloren. Jeden Sonntag bittet er seine drei erwachsenen Töchter zum Festschmaus. Doch die Tage dieses Rituals scheinen gezählt, denn die jungen Damen streben nach Selbstständigkeit. Die jüngste Tochter jobt in einem Fast-Food-Restaurant und wird vom Freund einer Arbeitskollegin schwanger. Die mittlere Tochter hat eine steile berufliche Karriere geschafft und wird von ihrem Freund verlassen. Die älteste Tochter ist Lehrerin und findet bei einem Kollegen die große Liebe. Angesichts der dramatischen Veränderungen serviert der Herr der Kochtöpfe eines Tages eine große Überraschung. Gourmetkoch Chu will die Tochter seiner Nachbarin, eine Geschiedene mit Kind, heiraten.
Taipei im Jahr 1960. Der 14-jährige Schüler Chang Chen, von allen Xiao Si'r („kleine Vier“, da er das vierte von fünf Kindern ist) genannt, hatte im letzten Jahr in einem Fach eine mangelhafte Note erhalten. Obwohl alle anderen Fächer erfolgreich liefen und er eigentlich ein guter Schüler ist, musste er von der „Tagesschule“ auf die „Abendschule“ wechseln. Sein Vater, ein Regierungsbeamter aus dem Mittelstand, ist darüber unglücklich, denn die abendlich stattfindenden Schulen besitzen einen schlechten Ruf. Auf der von militärischer Strenge geprägten Schule werden die Schüler von den Lehrern oft nur mit den ihnen zugeteilten Nummern angesprochen. Die Bedenken des Vaters sind nicht grundlos: Zwischen den Little Park Boys und den 217s, zwei Jugendbanden, kommt es immer wieder zu brutalen Auseinandersetzungen.
An uncompromising look into urban life from the eyes of a voyeuristic photographer, a rebellious teenager, and a married couple teetering on the edge of adultery.
Defying his parents, disaffected youth Hsiao Kang drops out of the local cram school to head for the bright lights of downtown Taipei. He falls in wit Ah Tze, a young hoodlum, and their relationship is a confused mixture of hero-worship and rivalry that soon leads to trouble.
In this portrait of small-time hoods rendered in rhythm-of-life anecdotal detail, Gao is the leader of a circle of layabouts including his sidekick, Flathead, and their girlfriends, Pretzel and Ling. He is also the originator of petty crime schemes, which promise to get the gang nowhere fast.
A young woman urgently seeks to navigate the maze of contemporary Taipei and find a future. She hopes that her boyfriend Lung is the key to the future, but Lung is stuck in a past that combines baseball and traditional loyalty that leads him to squander his nest egg bailing her father out of financial trouble.
Fei works illegally as a hustler in order to support his family, yet when he realizes they are willing to accept his money but not his way of life, there is a major breakdown in their relations. Through his relationship to the headstrong Long, Fei seems able to find a new lease on life, but then he encounters Xiaolai, the love of his youth, who confronts him with the guilt of his repressed past.
On a dark and rainy night, a historic and regal Taipei cinema sees its final film: 1967 martial arts feature "Dragon Inn". As the film plays, the lives of the theater's various employees and patrons intersect, and two ghostly actors arrive to mourn the passing of an era.
Doris simply wanted to open a refined, stylish coffee shop in a bohemian Taipei neighborhood, but when she's stuck with a load of useless gifts from the opening celebration, her younger sister Josie turns the café into a burgeoning bartering business. There, even a soulful song (by Japanese singer Atari Kosuke in a cameo) is a tradable commodity. One day, a traveler brings in 35 soaps from around the world with a story for each of them, awakening Doris' imagination about the outside world that she has never seen.
Winston Chen, a prominent businessman, goes missing after racking up $100 million in debts to the Taipei underworld. Two enforcers sent to find him, and they track down his son, Red Fish, the leader of a street gang.
A bachelor who decides to propose to his girlfriend with his mother's ring only to have the ring accidentally knocked into the gutter by a boy. He experiences the crazy nightlife in Taipei and meets many interesting individuals throughout his mission to get the ring back.
Even in modern-day Taipei, women feel the societal pressure to get married and have children before the clock runs out. Thankfully, there is a solution: freeze your eggs and prolong your fertility until the right one comes along! Starring Ariel Lin, the film is a glimpse of what millions of working women struggle with: finding the balance between pursuing a career and marriage.
A young woman wandering around meets a young man going to a casting call for a pornographic film.
May, a woman singer from the mainland of China, suddenly loses her voice and has conflicts with Ah Lei, her producer and secret lover. In anger she goes to Old Town of Jingtong where she meets Xiao Mo, a warmhearted man. Xia Mo helps May find a place to stay, and finds her work at local restaurant. May finds happiness and consolation in the old streets of the small town, and her voice gets better and better.
Three young souls, with different purposes, comes to the coast and search for the meaning of their life, a journey considerably longer than any of them has taken before.
Liang Ruoqing is a girl who, after being lied to and dumped by her ideal high-school boyfriend Ai Ren, develops love phobia and vows to never fall in love again. However, she meets a handsome doctor Lu Zhehan at her grandfather's hospital. Lu Zhehan seems to be the perfect guy but since she doesn't believe in "perfect" anymore, she thinks that he is too good to be true. Her new journey begins when she tries to show to all of the women that this doctor is not as good as everyone thinks he is, but fate is playing a trick on her. The more she tries to uncover his hidden evil nature, the more she discovers that he may be the right guy to cure her love phobia.
Hao, a chubby gay man, works as a janitor at a gay spa. For him, romantic relationships are an unreachable dream. One day, an attractive customer, Kai, walks into the place, and Hao has the opportunity to massage him.
Mr. Lin is a happily retired man who spends his time keeping company with his toddling grandson, walking his dog, and playing golf with his in-laws. Recently, he has been obsessed with houses with river views. In Lin's city of demolitions and reconstructions, money-making investors buy and sell houses at unaffordable prices. Above the skyline of Taipei, will the boundaries between daydreams and reality ever blur?