Taiwan+Movies

I haven't watched very many Taiwanese movies (lets see, Eat, Drink, Man, Woman is the only one coming to mind, only one! my god!). So yeah, maybe I should be correcting this. I watched Monga recently, a gangster movie, that was a big hit in Taiwan.
The story is set in Monga, a neighborhood in Taipei, which being an old major business center, is a gold mine for gangsters. It is controlled by 2 gangs, the Temple Front gang and the Back Alley gang. The story is about a young fellow, bullied relentlessly since his childhood, who befriends the son of the boss of the Temple Front gang and his 3 acolytes. The become sworn brothers, etc etc, the movie being mostly about friendship, betrayal, coming of age, the normal stuff.
Story-wise Monga doesn't offer anything new. Its still fun to watch though, the direction and cinematography being nice, with shades of city of gods in it. Starts off with a bang, that was a nice touch. The director also stars in the movie as the boss of a gang from the Mainland, who wants a piece of the action in Monga.
Here I must mention 2 movies which feature Taiwan quite majorly, Takeshi Miike's Shinjuku Triad Society (1995) and Rainy Dog (1997). They are the first 2 movies of his black society trilogy. The third movie is Ley Lines (1999). The stories are not related and only one actor appears in all three movies, Tomorowo Taguchi, a spectacular actor if there ever was one. The story matter of the 3 movies are similar though, as is the styling. They are not an easy watch though especially the first one. The reason I mention them is that they feature some totally awesome shots of Taipei and Taiwanese countryside. That scene with Taguchi pissing on Taipei and shouting "Taipeiiiiiiii" is hair raising. Those shots of Taiwan, brought to mind Wong kar Wai's Days of being Wild, which had some exquisite shots of Philippines.
The photos are from top to bottom, shot of Taiwanese countryside from Shinjuku Triad Society, Taguchi in Rainy Dog, right after the pissing scene, posters of Shinjuku Triad Society and Rainy Dog, Miike regular Sho Aikawa (famous for Gozu and Dead or Alive) in Rainy Dog, a poster of Monga.