Classmates Minus

For four friends, age doesn’t necessarily equate wisdom.

“You might say this film is absurd. But for many people, life itself is a bunch of bullshit. “

I had forgotten all about Great Buddha +, a charmingly strange comedy from Taiwan. It was great, but had a pretty limited release and was by a guy so low-key that I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d retired from filmmaking and settled down somewhere. I didn’t know anything about this movie, Classmates Minus, until the familiar narration started, and director Huang Hsin-yao mentions the success of Great Buddha. It was a surprising start to the movie, the sort of pleasant surprise he’s good at, but its release had the quiet quality I’d have expected from him – and from the film that followed.

Classmates Minus tells of four childhood friends, now in their 40s. Tom (Shih Ming-shuai) is an aspiring director who’s currently stuck filming commercials and political ads, Fan Man (Cheng Jen-shuo) is an insurance salesman stuck in a job that won’t acknowledge him, Tin Can (Nadow Lin) is a temp worker with no prospects for the future, and Blockage (Liu Kuan-ting) makes paper houses and has a terrible stutter, whenever he isn’t speaking to spirits. They’re all disillusioned with various parts of life, most notably their careers and love lives. Tom is convinced to run for political office, encouraged by a congressman who wants to use him as a puppet, and the four friends’ lives are thrown into chaos.

Huang’s film has a layer of detachment, from the director’s occasional narration to the time he jumps into frame to kick the shit out of someone. At no point is there the illusion of reality, but there is the feeling of autobiography. I don’t know anything about the director, but there’s a verisimilitude to the story that other, far more immersive, movies struggle with. That is its biggest strength: giving us four entirely believable (if all a bit weird) friends, none of whom are that great as people, and telling us how they live and what they do to make ends meet.

It’s a largely disconnected movie, featuring effectively four (arguably even more) separate stories as the main characters go about their lives, typically only interacting whenever they meet up for drinks or games. It’s very true to life in that regard, but also kind of a missed opportunity. They’re all very charismatic performances and (mostly) decent characters and it’s nice to see them all interact. That said, the biggest fault with Classmates Minus is that it’s largely about nothing really. Huang’s flair for satire is in full effect here, and he uses themes of political power, class and money to tell his story. His ambitions are far loftier than they were with his low-key debut feature, and here he tackles those subjects much more head-on.

It’s hard to predict what a director’s future work will be like. Some of the stylistic stuff could either be a holdover from his time directing Great Buddha and Great Buddha + or they could be the start of trademarks. It’s impossible to tell right now, but I definitely appreciated that he was trying newer, bigger things. Hell, as he says in the opening narration, his aspect ratio is wider and he even has colour. I’d like to see more interwoven storytelling in the future. In Classmates Minus we don’t even get the story of Fan Man until halfway through. We get glimpses of a marriage and a pregnancy, as well as his taste for parking his car in motorcycle spaces, but there’s almost no context. In fact, you could argue that the main character is Tom whose story is by far the most expanded upon. It’s a shame because I’d have loved to learn more about Blockage’s stutter, his ability to speak to spirits, and how he gets by making paper houses for the dead.

As it is, Classmates Minus is enjoyable enough to watch. The cast is charming, and Huang’s unique sensibilities are showcased front and centre. It would have been nice to get a clearer impression of just what he’s trying to say about class and politics in Taiwan, but perhaps that’s a cultural thing, something that just doesn’t translate well unless you know what’s happening over there. It’s all just a bit unpolished, for better or worse, but it’s nice to see Huang consider both the future of his career but the future of Taiwan as a whole. After all, why else would he suddenly jump in the frame to kick the shit out of a filmmaker turned politician.

Verdict: All over the place thematically and structurally, Classmates Minus is nonetheless charming, quirky and only just a touch depressing.

Overall entertainment: 6/10
Violence: 2/10
Sex: 4/10
Actors: Just like 3-in-1 coffee. Whatever that means.
Sweetest lad: Blockage. You deserve better
Random cameos: Adult video star Tako Kato appears in a dream to finger fuck Tin Can’s fist. So there’s that.

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Classmates Minus (2020)
Also known as: 同學麥娜絲
Mandarin , Taiwanese Hokkien

Director: Huang Hsin-yao
Writer: Huang Hsin-yao

CAST

Shih Ming-shuai – Tom
Cheng Jen-shuo – Fan Man
Nadow Lin – Tin Can
Liu Kuan-ting – Blockage
Chen Yi-wen – Congressman Gao
Lotus Wang – A-Yue
Ada Pan – Minus
Jennifer Hung Shiao-ling – A-Zen
Jacqueline Zhu – A-Zhi
Evelyn Zheng Yu-tong – Valérie