Review by Beatrice On 16-Apr-2024
Fon Shu has been released from prison.
He survives by providing services on a beach.
He often loses control.
His alcoholic mother calls him because she needs money; his friend Maozi would like him to return to crime work with the boss, but he tries to resist.
The search for a stable job is hampered by the requirement for a certificate of good conduct.
His ex-girlfriend, who has an indecipherable job, determinedly pushes him away; only his friend Seven, who lost her parents in a traffic accident, listens to him and spends time with him.
Fon-Shu also known as Sweet Potato got three years for shooting.
A news story inspired the first-time director, nevertheless a famous actor in Taiwan: an 18-year-old Taipei teenager pulled out a gun in public and went on a shooting spree. He had no prior record and his family was in good standing.
The event prompted him to question what can go on in people's heads.
Sweet Potato was also happy when he was studying in his hometown however something happened in his life that must have led him to shoot.
For the director, frustration is definitely a trigger and so many teenagers experience this condition caused by family, society from school, friends, and feelings.
However, Sweet Potato has a strong determination, he wants to redeem himself but his destiny seems overpowering and his temperament mixed with a sense of freedom will lead him to commit something irreversible.
The final scene is open, poetic, desperate and liberating.
Love is a gun is also the soundtrack of an implausible path of redemption, of a cryptic, enigmatic, fragmented, disjointed film.
Fate shuffles the cards and we play.
16-Apr-2024 by Beatrice