The Great Buddha+

The Great Buddha+ (2017) is a black-and-white Taiwanese tragicomedy from director Hsin-yao Huang, available to watch online on iFILM. Pickle works night shifts guarding a factory that casts bronze Buddha statues; his buddy Belly Button scavenges scrap metal on the street.

Bored out of their minds, the two start replaying the dash-cam footage from their wealthy boss's car — the only sequences shot in color, a window onto a life of mistresses and expensive dinners they'll never touch. At first it's just poor men spying on a rich one. Then one recording catches something they were never meant to see, and the pair realize they've stumbled onto a secret that small people don't survive.

Huang narrates the film himself, breaking the fourth wall to chat with the audience — a trick that turns a bleak story into a wry, surprisingly funny parable about the gulf between the haves and have-nots. His feature debut swept five Golden Horse Awards, including cinematography and best original song. Slow, ironic and deeply Taiwanese, it's one for fans of festival discoveries. Stream The Great Buddha+ (2017) online on iFILM.