Inspired by the Unabomber — an ominous phrase, to be sure — and Taiwanese bombers manqué Hu Tsung-hsien (胡宗賢) and Chu Ya-tong (朱亞東), who in 2013 placed bombs on a High Speed Rail train and near a lawmaker’s office, writer-directors Hou Zong Hua (侯宗華) and Hong Yu Yuan’s (洪裕淵) The Bomber (炸彈客) is a Taiwanese no-budget indie with mostly first-time actors shot (by Hong) in the style of Darren Aronofsky’s 𝜋 (1998), but colorized in desaturated tones unless deliberately stylized with amber (Hou was also the colorist, it feels important to note) and severely lacking establishing shots and a carpenter’s level. It’s so incompetent that it has to be intentional, and too earnest to be camp. So what exactly is this 78-minute film, so short that I didn’t finish my popcorn?
Hou plays Tak, a former top-flight lawyer who now works as a welder at a small machine shop. He became disillusioned with the law when his client, a key witness in a wide-ranging government graft case (played by Peoplefish Poetry Society 人間魚詩社 vice-chair Chen Jian Yu 陳建宇), was assassinated by car, and his friend, national legislator Ah Qi (Wang Xiao Cheng 王孝程), pled with him to drop it. But blue collar life just reveals a society riddled with corruption, abuse, and injustice.
