Goodbye, Dragon Inn

[foray]

Synopsis here http://www.nzff.telecom.co.nz/filmsynopsis.asp?FilmID=1716&Archive=0&RegionID=2&EventID=8

This is one of the best films I've seen this year. I think Tsai Ming Liang is an amazingly interesting director.

Many in the audience found the silence (only a few mundane lines are uttered in the entire movie, and even then it's towards the end) and realistically slow pace challenging, but I didn't. When an actor finally spoke, someone in the audience (actually, my friend, grr) clapped. Some got up and left before the film ended.

For me, Goodbye, Dragon Inn conjured memories of the small, dilapidated, and now, obsolete cinemas I used to go to with my parents. A shell of a building. There characters in Goodbye are themselves like echoes of what they used to be. SPOILER At the end, there is a hint that maybe the caretakers of the cinema are ghosts because of the "TEMPORARILY CLOSED" sign outside the cinema. This confused me. However, I felt that in the end, these people may as well have been ghosts, judging by the way they were carrying on with their lives and routine.

There are strong themes of isolation and loss, as is characteristic of Tsai's films. No one really communicates with anyone else. One scene with a few gays surreptitiously looking each other up and down and brushing against each other demonstrates this: the people in this film never interact directly, preferring to remain within their own bubbles of existence. The large empty cinema was especially stunning because every seat indicated the absence of a human. We are left with this scene for at least a full minute. Maybe two. I dunno, it seemed a long time.

The camera shots very cleverly included us in the real audience. In effect, the real cinema became an extension of the movie. Very post-modern, I thought.

The entire movie also lasts as long as the kungfu film within the film. I was wondering if any other movie does this sort of thing, where the film exists in real time or something, and is therefore a comment on film itself?

foray

[pete]

if it weren't for the tripod, I'd say tsai ming liang is more dogma than dogma.  there have been a few movies in real time, but no movie within a movie in real time I guess.  Taiwanese arthouse directors seem to take a shine in Dragon Inn.  Ang Lee (maybe he's not so arthouse) wouldn't stop talking about it when Crouching Tiger came out.
If you liked Tsai MingLiang, try Hou HsiaoHsien and Wu NianJen (a Scorsese favorite), they're still pushing the envelope on the Ozu-inspired pacing and camerawork.

[pete]

so I saw this in the theaters, with no fastforwarding button.  man it was good.  I felt like I was a piece of meat getting marinated, like the images would just marinate you.  you soak in those quiet still shots.  what a slow and haunting movie.
check out tsai mingliang's Rebel of the Neon God, it's on netflix.  It's good.

[foray]

getting marinated, that's a nice analogy.

foray