“On Earth, a lot of bees have disappeared. The strange thing is we can’t find the bodies of the dead bees, not even one.”
Recently, Taiwanese director Chen Hung-I’s film Honey Pupu made its New York premiere at the New York Asian Film Festival. Set in the real world but based in the virtual, Honey Pupu seeks to explore what happens when the online community crawls out of its shell to come to each other’s aid in the real world. When Vicky (Tseng Peiyu), a late night DJ fixated on things that have disappeared, makes an analogy about missing bees (located at the top), she enters a chat room where her boyfriend, nicknamed Dog, frequented in order to get help and track him down. The people in this chat room try to provide evidence about conspiracies regarding missing people, objects, etc. and so they agree to meet in an attempt to locate dog. In bringing the hermits out, Vicky causes problems as Cola, an innocent guy, starts to fall for Money, a girl who is dating a guy named Assassin who eventually starts being seduced by another chick named Player. As the virtual world and real world start to collide, so do the real and virtual personalities, causing problems for everyone.
According to the festival website, the film “feels like no one over 30 could have made it, let alone understand it,” which is true to a certain extent. I grew up in the digital age, I remember when AOL was in its prime and people started creating profiles and online IDs for themselves. So yes, I don’t think anyone over 30 could make it, understanding is a different story. The movie comes in at around 103 minutes and it took me at least 60 of those minutes to figure out what the hell was going on. By the end I still wasn’t convinced that I understood what I just saw. Part of it has to do with some bad subtitling but for the most part it was a lack of clarity and my eventual disinterest that resulted from said lack of clarity.
My issue with the film, besides not making much sense, is that the scenarios and dialogue seemed to keep repeating itself, the characters rarely seemed to grow and you were unable to connect with them emotionally. The only characters we learn a little bit about are Vicky and Assassin, everyone else is simply arou
nd and usually nagging about something. Their attempts to be philosophical are futile especially when they start to get actual answers to parts of their questions. But what truly bothers me is the whole disappearance aspect and the group’s inability to recognize that some people want to disappear which, for me at least, isn’t that shocking of a revelation.
If there was one reason to see this film it’s for its visual style. The movie looks absolutely stunning. All the shots are beautifully framed and there are scenes throughout where the real world and virtual world collide. Numbers and digital images appear on screen and seamlessly blend in with the surrounding landscape making for some impressive transitions and adding character to the film. For a city based film it’s actually breathtaking.
Overall, Honey Pupu isn’t a film I can recommend for its story. If you want a lesson in how to make a beautiful looking indie film then I suggest hunting it down immediately, but don’t expect the complete film package. Instead you’ll find an attempt at an existential piece of cinema that has almost no depth and no reason to actually care for it.
Rating: Though stunning to take in, there isn’t much there to keep you engaged (3.8/10)
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