Forest fires burn in Sumatra; a smoke covers Kuala Lumpur. Grifters beat an immigrant day laborer and leave him on the streets. Rawang, a young man, finds him, carries him home, cares for him, and sleeps next to him. In a loft above lives a waitress. She sometimes provides care and attention. More violence seems a constant possibility. They find another man abandoned on the street, paralyzed. They carry him. While no one speaks to each other, sounds dominate: coughing, cooking, coupling, opening bags; music and news reports on a radio, the rattle and buzz of a restaurant. It’s dark in the city at night. We see down hallways, through doors, down alleys. Who sleeps with whom? –IMDb
Along with Edward Yang and Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsai Ming-liang became one of Taiwan’s most prominent directors during the 1990s. His films regularly appeared in festivals around the globe and he received lavish praise from film critics worldwide. Born in Malaysia in 1957, Tsai moved to Taiwan and graduated from the Chinese Cultural University in 1982. For the next ten years, he worked in theater and writing screenplays for films and television. He directed his first feature in 1992, Rebels of the Neon God, which, with its tough but tender depictions of disaffected youth, earned him comparisons to Rainer Werner Fassbinder. In addition to Fassbinder, Tsai was also influenced by François Truffaut, to whom he was exposed as a student. His style differed from his idol Truffaut’s, however, like his countrymen Yang and Hou, Tsai preferred long takes, few close-ups, and sparse dialogue. And like another of his influences, Michelangelo Antonioni, he displayed a genius for placing the camera at… read more
love how words just wouldn't fit here. it's all about the urge (despair) of touching and the beauty that lives behind the gesture. even the butterfly scene (one of the most beautiful i have ever seen) suggests this. and i specially love the rythym.
cpc, Darinka, ramosbarajas, DT
One of the best photography in film I've come across. A remarkable piece, which left some impressive images in my head.
what to say about the ending? that scene will remain forever embedded in my head.
The final hour of this film may well be the greatest example of contemplative cinema I've ever seen. Tsai's finest for me, and it still stuns me each time I watch it.
Slow, yes, but rightly slow -- the last twenty five minutes or so of the film has so much power due to the way Tsai has developed the rhythms and the way the viewer has learned to watch it -- in particular the continuous return to the pool in the construction site. Norman Atun is absolutely amazing, as usual some of the greatest film actors are non-professional actors!
Tsai offers both an intensified take on his brand of voyeurism and a sweet valentine to his cast of regulars.
Starting with this, my third from Tsai, am I now really starting to ‘get’ him as a filmmaker: depicting life, even more intimately than his contemporary Yang, with all its trivialities (Vive l’amour… read review
All the familiar Ming-Liang Tsai tics are here: the unmoving camera, long takes, minimal dialogue, decrepit urban environments, themes of isolation, ubiquitous water, uncomfortable sexual situations… read review