Lian Song (Wang Leehom) is a Taiwanese contract killer, & one of
the bet in the business, but between hits, he spends months on end in his
hide-out in Okinawa - his mother was Japanese -, where he spends his time
pretty much doing nothing ... since as a contract killer, he can afford
it.
Eventually he falls in love with Yukiko (Kyoka Suzuki), a girl he meets
in the launderette once every week, but at first he doesn't even know her
name nor her phone numbe, & she even fails to notice him ... yet he's
happy about the way things are going.
(At the same time, a girl at the local swimming pool where he goes to
once a week, has fallen in love with him, much to the dismay of her
girlfriend. However, Lian Song fails to notice her.)
Eventually, & rather accidently, Lian Song finds out that she works
in a kitchen of a fast-food restaurant - totally not his kind of food
since he is a gifted cook -, & he finally musters up the courage to
ask her for an Obento (which is what she cooks), which she gives to him
for free since he has made her a compliment ...
The next time at the launderette, Lian Song adresses Yukiko again,
thanking her for the Obento, but at first she can't even remember who he
is, then hse feels rather annoyed by him & leaves the launderette in a
hurry. However, when they meet in the launderette again one week later, he
manages to invite her for a self-cooked dinner & confesses his love
for her ... but she turns him down, since hse had her heart broken once
too often. As soon as she has left though & has made him promise to
never try to see her again, she regrets her decision ...
Meanwhile, Lian Song is called back to Taiwan, where a gangwar has
broken out after his last hit ... but somehow he can evade all the
excitement & go mountain climbing, to fulfill himself his greatest
wich - to see the stars during the day - which it is said you ara able to
see only from very high mountains -, but somehow that doesn't work out,
& eventually, he & Yukiko meet again in the launderette, both
heartbroken enough to not even notice each other.
Despite this being essentially a film about a contract killer, there
isn't much action involved, instead it's a deliberately slowpaced,
melancholic yet sometimes amusing lovestory disregarding genre conventions
& refusing the audience a happy end, but without being too downbeat.
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