Kai and his one-night-stand Jiajia are both unemployed. When they need money, they steal a car. Novice film-maker Shaoqun has a relationship with his producer Snow, who is however also having an affair with her boss Liu. She does that mainly to persuade him to invest money in the film. And then there’s Hua Ge, the best hitman in Taipei – cool, philosophical and unimpeachable – but also unpleasant and annoying to women. Chen lovingly weaves a plot around characters that is not easy to describe. To start with, the car that Kai and Jiajia steal belongs to Snow. But earlier that day the same one was used as a getaway car by Hua Ge. And it was also a present from Liu, while Snow was about to end their relationship.This doesn’t mean Jam is a kind of puzzle. In his feature début, Chen Yiwen has a command of the art of story-telling, brimming with unexpected turns and surprising details. Chen was previously involved as actor, co-writer and/or assistant director with three films by Edward Yang, including A Confucian Confusion. That was an excellent training ground, as Chen had already demonstrated with two award-winning shorts. Jam is funny and sad, sexy and moving, in other words entertaining.
