Hsu Hui-Ni

In 2011, Vicky looks back on her life a decade earlier, recalling her turbulent relationship with her controlling boyfriend Hao Hao and her growing connection to a compassionate gangster amid the neon haze of Taipei's nightlife.

At the end of the 19th century, Shanghai is divided into several foreign concessions. In the British concession, a number of luxurious “flower houses” are reserved for the male elite of the city. Since Chinese dignitaries are not allowed to frequent brothels, these establishments are the only ones that these men can visit. They form a self-contained world, with its own rites, traditions and even its own language. The men don’t only visit the houses to frequent the courtesans but also to dine, smoke opium, play mahjong and relax. The women working there are known as the “flowers of Shanghai”.

Ah-Zhou, who is about to be honorably discharged from the military service, has a surreal dream. In the dream he sees the dead body of Shing-Shing Chen, a classmate in elementary school from years back. Is this dream implying that Shing-Shing Chen might have died? Soon afterwards, Ah-Zhou gets an unexpected five-day vacation and decides to look for Shing-Shing Chen. Nevertheless, he quickly learns that the special vacation is for him and another soon-to-be-discharged solider, Xiao-Gui, to go after a deserter, Kuen-He, who ran away with weapons two days ago. Both of them are worried about this assignment because they, the old birds, used to pick on Kuen-He, a spring chicken. And Kuen-He is now a deserter, armed and dangerous.

A professional hit-man is hired to take out a target -- however, his girlfriend’s pregnancy gives him second thoughts. He decides that after this job, he will renounce his profession and turn himself in. This is the first feature film from Taiwanese director Alex Yang, who participated in script-writing and production on Edward Yang's early films. "The Trigger" has echoes of Yang's "Mahjong." The actors in the film, except for veteran Ngai Man-Yin, are all new faces -- unfortunately, Ngai's death in 2005 also made "The Trigger" his last appearance on screen.

A twentysomething couple struggle with their relationship in modern Taiwan.