While this art film may seem simple, long, and boring, it actually captures a melancholy about the reality of the art of film. Using overlong shots, static moments in time, the director gives glimpses into the dissolution of the cinema as a collective human experience. Set in a large Taiwan movie theater which once, probably, was filled daily, the film shows the demise, the last gasp, of the art form of cinema. This cinema, showing the great King Hu film "Dragon Inn" on its last day (lying that it is just closing for a short time) is in decline. The only people who haunt the cinema now are lost souls, seeking far more real human experiences than what is offered from the screen. Life has become too difficult to enjoy the offerings of art. Oddly, the film makes me think of the French film "Irma Vep" which sees the cinema reduced to a way of getting French filmmakers off the unemployment roles. In contrast, Tsai Ming-Liang fixates on the other side of the screen, the audience. Today, most of the audience is staying home, relying on the video rental store or video-on-demand via cable, mail, or internet. Few still haunt the physical cinema for anything less than a big teen event movie.
Here, Tsai affectionately looks at what is left of the grand cinema. He has carefully constructed a set of characters who are lost in time. Foremost among them is the theater crew. Wonderfully fleshed out in a few moments is the performance of Shiang-chyi Chen (the beautiful star of "I Don't Want to Sleep Alone" and "What Time Is It Over There?") as the lonely club-foot ticket seller. Her desire in life is to be noticed by the projectionist of the theater but lacks any ability to make her desire known. The young projectionist himself is too self-absorbed in the fact that the cinema is haunted, which is always true of theaters.
The audience is made up of two factions: those there for reasons other than the cinema and those who long for the true cinema experience of the old days. The cinema has always been a refuge for those who could not find their longings in reality. Here we have the Japanese tourist seeking a homosexual encounter and the peanut eating woman, seeking some kind of experience, sexual or otherwise, dominate the audience. Years ago, they would have blended in, hardly noticed. The child, chomping popcorn alone, becomes a potential victim of this. At one point an old man appears, sitting next to him, causing us to fear for his safety, though this man might be his grandfather, based on age. The third angle is the handsome older man who is only interested in the film being shown. In the end, the film makes us want to know more about these people, to wish they will find their heart's desire, while we are watching. To see some happy ending. Tsai refuses to give us this satisfaction.
While it is a challenge to watch, it is a short (82 minute) excursion into a world many of us enjoyed as young people and is losing ground in the world of home entertainment, a world which separates us from a communal experience which, for good or bad, brought us together and gave satisfaction in experiencing art and drama as a community.
SPOILER: Sort of a spoiler. Though you would have to know "Dragon Inn" since it is hard to catch from the film itself, the revelation that two of the audience members are actual actors from King Hu's epic film, seeing the film after many years, and waxing momentarily poetic on the fact that the film is as forgotten as they are, is poignant and painful. It leaves us with the fact that the cinema theater is gone, dead. The only person watching the film to watch the film was a child chomping on popcorn. What has happening to our world?
Here, Tsai affectionately looks at what is left of the grand cinema. He has carefully constructed a set of characters who are lost in time. Foremost among them is the theater crew. Wonderfully fleshed out in a few moments is the performance of Shiang-chyi Chen (the beautiful star of "I Don't Want to Sleep Alone" and "What Time Is It Over There?") as the lonely club-foot ticket seller. Her desire in life is to be noticed by the projectionist of the theater but lacks any ability to make her desire known. The young projectionist himself is too self-absorbed in the fact that the cinema is haunted, which is always true of theaters.
The audience is made up of two factions: those there for reasons other than the cinema and those who long for the true cinema experience of the old days. The cinema has always been a refuge for those who could not find their longings in reality. Here we have the Japanese tourist seeking a homosexual encounter and the peanut eating woman, seeking some kind of experience, sexual or otherwise, dominate the audience. Years ago, they would have blended in, hardly noticed. The child, chomping popcorn alone, becomes a potential victim of this. At one point an old man appears, sitting next to him, causing us to fear for his safety, though this man might be his grandfather, based on age. The third angle is the handsome older man who is only interested in the film being shown. In the end, the film makes us want to know more about these people, to wish they will find their heart's desire, while we are watching. To see some happy ending. Tsai refuses to give us this satisfaction.
While it is a challenge to watch, it is a short (82 minute) excursion into a world many of us enjoyed as young people and is losing ground in the world of home entertainment, a world which separates us from a communal experience which, for good or bad, brought us together and gave satisfaction in experiencing art and drama as a community.
SPOILER: Sort of a spoiler. Though you would have to know "Dragon Inn" since it is hard to catch from the film itself, the revelation that two of the audience members are actual actors from King Hu's epic film, seeing the film after many years, and waxing momentarily poetic on the fact that the film is as forgotten as they are, is poignant and painful. It leaves us with the fact that the cinema theater is gone, dead. The only person watching the film to watch the film was a child chomping on popcorn. What has happening to our world?