CELL PHONE

Ah, the cell phone, that technological tether to your life not right in front of you, that little squawking thing whose ring can bring joy or irritation. For the savvy TV talk show host of ?Tell It Like It Is,? Yan Shou Yi, his cell phone helps him organize (read: compartmentalize) his life. There?s his career, of course, his wife, his mistress, and a new lover to keep track of and to keep from ever crossing paths. While urging people to tell the truth on TV by telling the truth himself, Yan?s private life is a net of lies constructed through his cell phone, especially text-messaging. A telling scene involves a work meeting at which everyone receives and sends calls and messages during the meeting; the techno wonder not only holds up production, but alters communication and the use of language. One by one, the people in Yan?s life, including his aging grandmother in the countryside, are betrayed by the phone. A dark comedy, CELL PHONE may have you rethinking that time bomb vibrating in your pocket.