Double Joy: Weddings, Family, and Tensions in Taipei

"Double Joy" explores family tensions through a couple holding two weddings simultaneously in Taipei. Chef Tim Kao juggles parental relationships amidst chaotic wedding preparations. A comedy-drama with mixed outcomes.

In Chinese society, “double joy” refers to a decorative layout generally discovered festooned throughout wedding ceremonies, created by positioning 2 duplicates of the Chinese personality for joy beside each other. In doing so, it forms a kind of hybrid character, one that literally does not imply anything, but is accorded a certain relevance for exactly how it conveniently represents the desired complete satisfaction of both bride and groom, and by expansion their households. Such a problem is clearly on the mind of Taiwanese director Joseph Chen-Chieh Hsu, whose movie “Double Joy” uses a ridiculous property– a couple holds 2 weddings at the exact same time in order to calm the groom’s parents– as a means of bringing out all manner of domestic stress, with distinctly combined outcomes.

Double Joy: Thematic Origins

The staircase used so plainly in that latter film– which additionally featured a pregnant new bride, superstitions bordering the day of the wedding celebration, and a title created by combining two Chinese characters– is seen time after time here, and the conjuration of such a daringly modern-day film, one in which nostalgia is stabilized by a roughness of kind and lived-in portraiture of each generation’s hopes and failings, makes the story machinations and attempted pathos of “Dual Joy” really feel even more limited by comparison.

Tim Kao (Kuang-Ting Liu) is the high-strung head chef at the Grand Resort in Taipei, that will be wed to Sissy Wu (Jennifer Yu). Having actually experienced his parents’ divorce at a young age, he has actually frequently tried to cater and quell to both sides of his household for years, which has actually caused his most reckless and enthusiastic plan to day.

Tim’s Dilemma: Two Weddings, One Day

Hsu, that made his directorial debut with the well-received dramatization “Little Big Women” in 2020, manages the comparative frothiness of these scenes capably, though the continuous introduction of new characters into the bedlam often tends to flatten them out right into types instead of dropping additional light onto the supposed loved ones of the bride and groom.

Hsu’s Direction and Character Depth

Liu– who formerly won a Golden Steed award for Chung Mong-hong’s melodrama “A Sunlight” (2019)– acquits himself in some of the comic setpieces, his screen visibility is generally recessive in a method that favors dramatization, and the effort just offers to highlight how much Sissy’s role is eventually downplayed in favor of Tim’s absent-mindednesses and attempts to come to terms with his parental partnerships.

In Chinese culture, “double joy” refers to an ornamental style frequently discovered adorned across wedding celebration events, created by positioning 2 duplicates of the Chinese personality for joy next to each other. Such a dilemma is plainly on the mind of Taiwanese director Joseph Chen-Chieh Hsu, whose film “Double Joy” uses a ridiculous facility– a couple holds 2 wedding celebrations at the same time in order to appease the groom’s moms and dads– as a method of bringing out all fashion of domestic tensions, with extremely mixed outcomes.

In addition to a quick prologue developing Tim’s initial literal hints of his love of food in the middle of his despair over his parents’ splitting up, this remarkably lengthy film happens throughout this single chaotic day. It initially runs in a pseudo-” Birdman” blood vessel, utilizing a percussive score and long tracking shots complying with individuals via hallways as they try to fix the current crisis: the final enhancement of a champagne tower, a tropical cyclone delaying a key member of the wedding, and the difficulties of getting fresh cuttlefish ink, the pasta dish that at first brought Tim and Daisy with each other at his restaurant.

After Tim’s dentist daddy Frank (Chung Hua Tou) declines to enable his ex-wife, effective CEO Carina Bai (Kuei-Mei Yang), to attend the wedding ceremony and reception, the groom deals with– with the extensive coordination of Sissy, her family members, his colleagues and wedding organizer Regina (singer-turned-actor 9m88)– to hold two wedding events on the exact same day at the hotel, with father-in-law, bridegroom and bride (Tenky Tin) shuttling to and fro between the two while the guests remain none the wiser.

The most significant of all comes in the form of the Grand Hotel itself which, in addition to its real-life allure, is the workplace of the master chef dad in the Yang-starring “Consume Consume Male Lady” and the website of the wedding reception in Edward Yang’s work of art “Yi Yi.”

The Grand Hotel as a Symbol

“Dual Joy” certainly has its share of more overtly produced acts of stupidness, though some of it can be chalked up to the movie’s relatively comic aims. The memories stirred up by the memorable occasions of the day start to manifest for Tim as recalls where he sees and communicates with his younger self (Robinson Yang), experiencing a specifically distressing day when he went to the resort and tried to tear his mother away from an essential conference.

Among the most intriguing aspects of “Double Happiness” comes thanks to its sometimes disadvantageous yet cinephile-minded casting. Kuei-Mei Yang, one of Tsai Ming-liang’s greatest actresses, brings a natural, pained heat to process that counteracts a few of Liu’s even more forced minutes. Tenky Tin, so remarkable in Stephen Chow’s “Shaolin Soccer” and “Kung Fu Hustle,” appears right here as Daisy’s well-meaning, astrology-obsessed dad. However the most considerable of all can be found in the form of the Grand Hotel itself which, along with its real-life beauty, is the work environment of the master cook father in the Yang-starring “Consume Drink Guy Female” and the website of the wedding party in Edward Yang’s masterpiece “Yi Yi.”