| Now here's a story you don't see everyday, portrayed like this. A Taiwanese fishing village is struck with a disease that makes the men's testicles grow bigger and bigger and bigger (women and their breasts are inflicted too to some degree). Theories are thrown out, such as that it's the anger of the gods due to all the sex going on or that the village has a sanitation problem of sorts. While the medical community continues to ponder, the village quickly loses its fishing status as the men can't physically go out and do the work. Solutions may be on the horizon but since the disease has progressed this far, castration is the only option for those who wishes for the village to prosper again...
A crazy setup with many wacky interludes as well as dark and highly melodramatic ones, director Hsu Chin-Liang indeed juggles many balls in the air but keeps splendid track of each mood the movie employs. Possessing no fear in letting this story go into serious territory, when eventually there, it's not a mockery of drama. Instead it's a full on sincerity attack that talks of how the medical community ultimately uses the little people in this case and the villagers are also drawn apart when faced with the decision of castration. The movie is barely done at this point as it goes deeper and deeper into its examination of the effect this disease will have on life in a larger perspective while also having no problem bouncing into comedic elements on occasion. It's all perfectly pitched humour, used suitably, with subtlety and one shouldn't resist saying that Boss Noballs has balls because such an unexpected, unpredictable gem deserves the pun. With Ma Yue-Fung, Luk Siu-Fan and Chan Chung-Yung. |
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