Dr. Du Jiazhen (Rene Liu) is a successful eye doctor in Taiwan who decides to leave her job and search for a husband. She places an ad in a newspaper and begins to meet some of the more than 100 respondents at her favorite teahouse in a Taipei suburb.
It soon becomes evident that her uncertain blend of loneliness and yearning for connection is shared by most of her suitors. They come from all levels of society and include a well-traveled fellow who can't stop talking about his accomplishments, a restaurant manager who's a shoe fetishist, a 17-year-old boy, a lonely father who wants a companion since his wife has gone overseas, a neurotic and reclusive young boy whose mother is trying to get him married off, an actor in disguise who is out for some fun, a lesbian dressed as a man, and a very nervous factory worker whose bad habits include smoking and eating betel nuts.
Most of these men are quite impressed with the pretty but shy woman who sits in front of them listening to their stories. Miss Wu (she's changed her true name for privacy) periodically meets with a favorite professor of hers who recommends patience in her search. Wu also leaves a series of phone messages for her ex-lover who never calls back.
Two of the most interesting respondents to the ad are a good-hearted, middle-aged primary schoolteacher and a shy young man who admits to having served a brief prison term. The latter takes Wu's quest one step further than all the rest of those she meets.
Director Chen Kuo-fu has made an affecting film about the aching loneliness of city dwellers. Near the end of the film, we learn the painful secret that lies behind the eye doctor's precipitous search for a good husband. Rene Liu gives a nuanced performance in the lead role.
Carl Jung once wrote: "The whole of life lies in the verb seeing." Chen Kuo-fu understands this truth and gives us creative images of light, darkness, and shadow. A blind musician eventually opens up Wu's eyes to the meaning of her quest, and another person who is never seen on the screen has her eyes opened to the truth.
