Xiao-feng has just finished military service and heads straight for Taipeh where he wants to start a new life. A new chapter is also about to start for Fei-fei. She already tried to run away from home once before but was caught again by her mother; this time, she is determined to make a better job of it. One day, during a sudden storm, Xiao-feng and Fei-fei meet. Fei-fei and Yili both work as “betelnut beauties“. Scantily-clad in mini skirts that couldn’t be shorter and swinging their hips voluptuously, they sell betel nuts on the edge of the road. Their wares, which have an effect on the mind not unlike that of marihuana, are particularly popular among taxi drivers and truckers. The chance encounter between Xiao-feng and Fei-fei gradually turns into a love affair; the two cling to each other as they try to navigate the maelstrom of the big city that threatens to engulf them.

Born in a village in eastern Taiwan in 1959. Went to Taipei at the age of 16 and became a baker. During a workshop on directing in 1986 he met Ko Su-ching, who later became his wife. She and Lin were to produce his first documentary together in 1990, financed with money raised from their own fruit plantation. Made his first feature film in 1996. Has also sometimes worked as an actor.

Arguably one of the best directors emerging from the new Taiwanese cinema, Lin Cheng-sheng is fast establishing himself in the international arena. Filming with a fluid, almost jazz-like approach to film grammar, his films fit firmly with the slow-moving traditional Taiwanese cinema style, with an experimental but refreshingly unpretentious twist.

Betelnut Beauty comes as part of a series of films called Tales of Three Cities: Changing China. It follows Tian ma cha fang (1999), which is a love story set in Taiwan immediately after World War II and once again brings to light topical issues in modern-day Taiwanese society. Rising star Chang Chen (recently seen in Ang Lee's phenomenally successful film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) plays Feng, a former baker (like Lin himself), fresh from the army, who falls for a 'betelnut beauty', one of the many glamorous women who sell a marijuana-like chewing pepper from roadside stalls. Though selling betelnut is legal, this is a trade that invites a lot of criminal attention mainly from protection rackets and vice rings. As Cheng-Shen says: "The betelnut subculture tells us a lot about Taiwanese society."