Betelnut Beauty

Xiao-feng completes his military service and settles in Taipei (Taiwan) with the objective of starting life anew, without having to return to his former job as a baker. Fei-fei is also in search of a new opportunity, this time with a will to succeed. Together with her friend Yili, Fei-fei works as a “betelnut beauty”. Wearing very short, provocative dresses, swaying their hips voluptuously, they sell a pepper seed that is very popular in all of Asia – “betelnut”, a nut similar to jaborandi that is chewed to produce an effect of euphoria similar to that of marijuana, much appreciated by taxi and truck drivers. Yili and Fei-fei are protected by a gangster, Ah-guang, that controls the trade in betelnuts in the region. Xiao-Feng lives in lodgings in “Betelnut Street”. He meets Fei-fei during a violent storm and falls in love with her. At the same time, in alliance with Ah-guang, he begins to steal. Xiao-feng and Fei-fei are going to cling to each other more and more, to face the hectic turmoil of the metropolis. Betelnut Beauty belongs to a series of six films (Tales of Changing China) that describe the recent social transformations that have occurred in Peking, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Taipei.

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA