Dai was born into a poor family with a mentally-challenged mother and an abusive veteran father. To find a better future, he goes to northern Taiwan to work for a crime boss, Mr. LIN. When the police begin cracking down on crime gangs after the murder of a police officer, Mr. LIN flees abroad with his mistress, forcing Dai to look after his family. Dai falls in love with Mrs. LIN and bonds with her daughter. However, he’s diagnosed with a brain tumor that begins to make him volatile. While visiting Dai in the ward, Mrs. LIN asks for a final favor and convinces him to take on a violent path that will lead to a tragic confrontation.

Throughout the 90s, director TSAI focused on gangster-themed subjects and true crimes, gradually replacing melodrama with more realistic portrayals. Here, working with Taiwanese New Wave veterans, cinematographer Mark LEE Ping-Bing and editor CHEN Po-Wen, the film’s black and white flashbacks, stylized cinematography and nuanced portrayal of human relations gave Joe-Goody (1992) a uniquely Taiwanese sensibility at a time when a large number of commercial gangster films were being imported from Hong Kong.


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