Only Old Friends Left Alive

Incoming Editorial Team·Verified November 6, 2026

Retired Lao Cao and Xiao Lai, two old men, sit on opposite sides of a drinking table under an arcade in Taipei. They toast and talk nonsense like this every day, and they have done it for more than thirty years. A young director who meant only to watch somehow ends up at the table too, spending many absurd and moving nights with them. Years pass. Someone leaves, someone falls ill, and some relationships are repaired and then break again. The two men are old, they are nearly done with drink, and they no longer see each other often.