Orz Boyz

The “Orz” in ORZ BOYZ is based on an Asian emoticon for bowing in deference. It's pretty obvious that the two mischievous schoolboys in director Gillies Ya-che Yang's film bow in deference to no one. On the surface, they're your average energetic troublemakers, causing mayhem at school, admiring pretty girls from afar, and obsessing over robotic fantasy figures. Their crazed school administrators dub them Liar No. 1 and Liar No. 2, banishing them to the library to repair books. It soon becomes clear, though, that these free spirits each have their share of grown-up size troubles. Their family lives are chaotic at best — No. 1's father is mentally incompetent and No. 2's superstitious grandma's a lousy caretaker. The boys bond in their belief in an imaginary world called Orz, where achieving passage to Hyper-Space is the ticket to solving all their worldly woes. The film alternates between fantasy sequences featuring eye-popping animation and the boys' bittersweet reality. Affectionate and heartbreaking, ORZ BOYZ is a critique of issues plaguing contemporary Taiwan. Yang dedicates his film “to children who want to rush into adulthood, as well as grownups who wish to be kids again.” (In Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles) – B.B.