Reviews of Goodbye, Dragon Inn
Displaying all 2 reviews
Greg
11Mar10
I’m not sure if Goodbye, Dragon Inn is a juvenile “arty” film with nothing to say, or a sublime meditation on the impossibility of communicating other than through shred cinematic experiences.
Goodbye, Dragon Inn is the last feature at an old and dilapidated Taipei cinema that is about to close. The martial arts classic Dragon Inn is the final feature. Throughout the film (that is, Goodbye, Dragon Inn), the ticket woman tries to find the projectionist to give a steamed bun, yet they never meet. A young hustler wanders around the cinema in search of a homosexual encounter. Actors from the original Dragon Inn meet each other in the lobby. The film has almost no dialogue. (in fact, watching the film with subtitles is superfluous.) The first lines are not spoke until about half way through the film.
But is this beauty or is it excess? The characters seem to be searching for meaning. The only ones who find it seem to be the actors from the original film. This idea is worth exploring, but its counter balanced by some strange choices. For example, ten minutes from the end Tsai Ming-liang puts in a shot of an empty movie theater that lasts for about 10 minutes. Huh?
- Currently 2.0/5 Stars.
matt swift
2Dec09
Goodbye, Dragon Inn is probably one of the most engaging films I have seen lately, which isn’t saying too much since it is 5 years old. I say the film is engaging because within the first five minutes the films cinematography sends out a message to the viewer asking for a dialog. The use of a still composition that lets the action move in, through and out of its borders ask the viewers to identify what they are looking at for such a long period of time and why. The long moments showing nothing but the architecture of this outdated movie house suggest that the building itself is a character and has a presence. Throughout the film we as viewers learn more about the theater then about any one person in the entire ensemble of characters. Furthermore, the visual images have no real connection to each other as a narrative except that the omniscient presence of the theater tells us that the events we see are happening during a screening of a 1967 King Hu masterpiece on the closing night of the theater. The dialog created between the theater, the workers, and the other characters that are found in the theater suggest a foreboding awkwardness that combines with the still cinematography to pose the question, has the death of cinema finally arrived? I believe that this film suggest the death of cinema is coming but with the poetic closing ballad and the steady walk of the ticket clerk, the film suggest that there is still hope if we can just hold on.
- Currently 5.0/5 Stars.