| TAIWAN |
| GOODBYE DRAGON INN |
Tsai Ming-Liang |
It’s the final night of a run-down Taipei
theatre. Once a majestic beacon for film-lovers, the theatre
now serves as a feeble refuge for society’s outsiders.
As King Hu’s martial arts classic Dragon Inn plays for
the last time, patrons and employees shuffle about the ghostly
surroundings searching to fulfill their intangible desires:
a Japanese man cruises the aisles for a hook-up, a disabled
cashier attempts to meet the projectionist—the object
of her unrequited affection—and audience members appear,
bearing uncanny similarities to the swordsmen on screen. Using
his trademark hypnotic long takes, Tsai deftly combines the
pathos of contemporary alienation with witty observational
humor to compose an eloquent elegy for the forgotten cinema
community of yesteryear. “Rarely has the experience
of movie going itself been so beautifully rendered. Tsai Ming-Liang
has fashioned what may be his most brilliant metaphor yet:
a lament for the death of feelings framed as a valediction
to an entire era of Chinese cinema and an obituary to film-going
in general. Needless to say, it’s cruelly, astringently
funny.”—Tony Rayns. Winner, Critic’s Prize,
Venice International Film Festival and this year’s Taiwanese
submission for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. (80 mins.) Print
courtesy of Home Green Films.
Selected Filmography: Rebels of the Neon God (92), Vive
l’amour (94), The River (96), The Hole (98), What Time
Is it There? (01).
SHOWTIMES: 2/14, 8:30pm and
2/15, 8:45pm B2; 2/17, 9:15pm B1. |
|
|
|
