A Confucian Confusion / Mahjong (Criterion region-B 2 Blu-ray)

In this pair of sharp, sprawling satires, one of Taiwan's most celebrated filmmakers, Edward Yang, captures the anything-can-happen mood of Taipei at the end of the twentieth century. Made in between his epic dramas A Brighter Summer Day and Yi Yi, A Confucian Confusion and Mahjong find Yang applying a lighter but no less masterly touch to his explorations of human relationships in an increasingly globalized, hypercapitalistic world. These intricately constructed ensemble comedies-one set in a cutthroat corporate milieu, the other in a shady criminal underworld-reveal the absurdity and cynicism at the heart of modern urban life.