My New Friends

Tsai interrupted his preproduction for The River to make this pioneering documentary for Taiwans nascent AIDSawareness campaign Ignoring instructions to play down the gay angle he centres the film on his own very candid conversations with two HIV young men Sadly the identities of the interviewees have to be concealed and so the freewheeling camerawork focuses most often on Tsai himself but the sense of rapport between the director and his new friends is palpable and very moving even to Western viewers already only too familiar with these issues