Old Fox

Hsiao Ya-chuan's 2023 Taiwanese film is set in the late eighties and follows Liao Jie, eleven, saving with his father to buy a home, and the relationship he forms with the hard businessman who is their landlord. The man teaches the boy the rules of survival: do not mistake another person's trouble for your own. At the centre are two moral worlds: the father's gentle, losing one and the landlord's ruthless, winning one. The story leaves the boy between them and offers no easy conclusion. Taiwan's property bubble is felt constantly in the background. The direction is restrained; the pace is slow and the silences long. Who it's for: viewers who like Taiwanese cinema and dramas built on a moral dilemma. Who it's not for: anyone wanting pace, or a clear moral conclusion.