School Daze
Talk about needing the right outfit for school.
The Uniform
Director: Chuang Ching-shen • Writers: Hsu Hui-fang, Wang Li-wen
Starring: Buffy Chen, Chloe Xiang, Bruce Chiu
Taiwan • 1hr 49mins
Opens Hong Kong April 24 • I
Grade: B-
Everyone has night schools. In the part of the West where I grew up night school was for chronic fuck-ups or pregnant teens. But because the barometer for getting into high school was never based on a test, night school was never the last resort for doing just that, as is the case in Chuang Ching-shen’s symbolic, if conventional school drama The Uniform | 夜校女生. Set in 1990s Taiwan, the uniform of the title is the class garb of the prestigous First Girl’s High School, two versions of which separate the elite day students from the so-called losers at night. Chuang filters an exploration of class through a quasi-coming-of-age story that pivots almost entirely on the colour of the patch stitched on the breast pocket of besties Ai (Buffy Chen Yan-fei, 18×2 Beyond Youthful Days) and Min’s (Chloe Xiang Jie-ru, Eye of the Storm) school uniform. Co-writers Hsu Hui-fang and Wang Li-wen, however, can’t resist the lure of a dumb-ass love triangle and Taiwan’s devastating 1999 Jiji earthquake to juice the melodrama and bury the far more engaging story about identity, belonging and the class-stratified nature of Taiwan’s education machine so deep it almost vanishes. Admittedly mileage may vary depending on how well the horrors of entrance exams linger in the mind, but Chuang isn’t doing much to help anyone exisiting beyond those boundaries really “get” it.
Same same, but different
The action begins with Ai struggling to pass an exam and get herself into a halfway decent high school. She’s struggling so hard, in fact, that her mother (low-key standout Chin Chi) has insisted she go to night classes at First Girl’s and try again. First Girl’s is a good school, and even though the lesser evening students are, well, lesser, it’s still a bonus to graduate from its late session. The day girls are of course elitist snobs from wealthy families, and the night girls (wow that sounds bad) all worry their desk mates are going to be awful. Ai’s mate is Min, who is most definitley – or is that mos def ’cause it’s the ’90s? – not awful and they become instant BFFs. Ai is working class, so she has a part-time job at a ping pong … studio? dojo? gym?… centre, which is where she meets the dreamy Luke (Bruce Chiu Yi-tai, The Chronicles of Libidoists), and they hit it off. But wait, it’s a teen drama so Ai has competition for Luke’s affections and it’s from – three guesses – yup. Min. Much convoluted plotting leads Luke to believe Ai and Min are his social equals, and it’s not long before Ai’s little charade starts to collapse. It was nice being rich for a few weeks.
The Uniform is by no means cutting edge filmmaking (this is Netflix levels of visual creativity), nor is it particularly challenging in its messaging, not that the notion of discrimination based on class is garbage is wrong. It’s just a bit too “very special episode” feeing, and rooting so much of plot in a romance is just tired. It’s also bogged down by gratuitous sub-plots about Ai’s rote rocky relationship with her younger sister (Lin Yu-wen), Ai becoming pen pals with Nicole Kidman (!) and corruption at her aunty’s video store (!!) – all topped off by an earthquake timed just right to help everyone understand themselves better; understand what made them so insecure they’d risk huge lies and actively seek to humiiate each other (an art gallery scene is a highlight). The time is ideal to get granular in exploring privilege, entitlement, how they make us who we are and if we have any control over it, but Chen’s aggressively chirpy performance blows whatever bite Hsu and Wang may have mustered right out of the water. Chen doesn’t quite have the range to signal Ai’s stress over backing herself into an inevitably awkward corner – her dimple shrinks and her giant grin fades – however she’s a balm to Xiang and Chiu’s alarming blandness. There’s no reason to hang with these two.