Overweight shoeshiner Brother Wang (Wang Ge) and skinny rickshaw driver Brother Liu (Liu Ge) are best friends and roommates. One day, they come across a fortune teller who offers a peculiar forecast: that Wang will become very wealthy in three days but that Liu will die in 44 days.
When Wang strikes gold by winning the lottery, just as predicted, the celebratory mood is soon eclipsed by the reminder that Liu’s death also has been forecast. With his newfound wealth, Wang decides to reward his dying buddy with the trip of a lifetime. Carrying around a suitcase full of cash, the working-class twosome embark on a road trip around the beautiful island of Taiwan. Enjoying a lavish lifestyle as inexperienced big spenders, they find themselves in unexpected situations and amusing predicaments, one after another.
As the 44-day “deadline” approaches, Liu begins to feel ill and homesick. The two return to Taipei so that Liu can spend his last moments with his girlfriend A-hua. On the day of his anticipated death, a seemingly unwell Liu rests in his coffin at home, fully dressed and somberly waiting for his life to end. Many hours pass by, Liu becomes impatient and gets up to use the restroom, after which he feels much better. As midnight falls, it is obvious that Liu has been spared from death. The next day, Wong happily accompanies a lively and cheerful Liu on his way to get married with A-hua.
Overlooking the unhurried pace and primitive quality typical of many Taiwanese dialect films from this era, Brother Wang and Brother Liu on the Roads in Taiwan is significant for providing valuable visual documentation of pre-industrialized Taiwan with its nostalgic scenes from Taipei to Beitou, Kaohsiung, Pingtung, Tainan, Taichung, Chiayi and Sun Moon Lake. It also provides a window into Taiwanese social and political views at the time with its demeaning portrayals of women and indigenous tribes.
A black-and-white feature originally released in two parts because of its length, Brother Wang and Brother Liu on The Roads in Taiwan is celebrated as the island state’s first blockbuster comedy. Inspired by Hollywood’s Laurel and Hardy, the film gave birth to Taiwan’s iconic comedy duo of Wang Ge and Liu Ge, who became household names and went on to headline seven more sequels in this popular silver screen franchise.
George Chun Han Wang