Love flourishes no matter what in William Shakespeare´s As You Like It, a pastoral comedy from the early XVI Century. The play has been updated in a whimsical film with an entirely female cast and a kitsch touch.
The directors dedicate their film to Shakespeare and to the patriarchy who would not allow female actors on stage, as Elizabethan laws on decency established.
The Forest of Arden in which the original play takes place becomes contemporary Taipei in an area where cellphones do not work since there is no wifi signal.
Brilliant colors mix with animation, daring performances, carefully selected wardrobe, intriguing vistas from outdoors as well as overstuffed private spaces, and tarot reading. The film presents a tale of love shown in various ways, particularly in the deep bond between Rosalind and Celia, friends and accomplices, and notably between Orlando and Rose – Rosalind – Roosevelt – instantly attracted to each other “at first sight”. Gender is a theme in the original, and the directors handled it cleverly creating a contemporary queer tale where romantic love blossoms at its fullest; ending into marriages with oriental and western paraphernalia.
Shakespeare wrote All the world is a stage and all men and women are merely players … through their characters, the directors remark that each has his or her own time to act, have fun, and love, without being subject to labels. Distinctions between one sex or the other simply do not matter, since love is an accident waiting to happen, it may come and go any time… as wifi does.
If you enjoy watching a kind of contemporary fairy tale with an enchanting Asian atmosphere, well-chosen cast, and a Shakespearean twist, this film is for you.
Directed by Hung-i Chen and Muni Wei,the film is being screened at Queer Screen’s 29th Mardi Gras Film Festival in Sydney
Review by José Mayorga
Guatemala, Central America
Lawyer and notary public, visual artist and editor of El Azar Cultural. Lives and works in Guatemala City. Cinema lover,
curious about the possibilities life brings and eager to live the experience.
