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Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-Liang specializes in a minimalist style of
static camera, very long takes, laconic dialogue and no musical soundtrack.
Goodbye Dragon Inn (2003) is an incredibly subtle love story. It involves
the two people who man an old theater. The focus of the plot actually revolves
around the audience (one young man in particular) and eventually the theater
becomes the real protagonist. But this is part of Tsai's weird perspectives:
he shoots scenes from strange angles, and he tells his love story also from
a strange angle.
Most of the film is not spoken, the only words coming from an old movie that
is being shown in the theater.
An old historical film (that has the same title, "Goodbye Dragon Inn")
is being shown in a large theater. We see the audience from the backstage,
through a couple of drapes that are moved by the wind. Outside it is raining.
There seems to be nobody in the streets. A Young Japanese man walks into the
theater, perhaps to take shelter from the rain. A crippled young woman is
washing something in the restrooms while he sneaks into the theater.
The theater is almost empty. The crippled woman has warmed up her food,
which is a cake. She takes half of it and, walking slowly, brings it to
the projectionist. He is not there. She leaves the foot and walks slowly
back to the ticket window.
THe Japanese boy changes seat because someone is sticking his feet next to
his face. He doesn't seem completely sane: he tries to draw the attention
of one of the spectators by leaning towards him. The crippled woman is
checking the women's restrooms. The Japanese boy enters the men's restrooms
and takes the john next to another man. A third man walks in and also takes
a john next to them. Nobody moves, but clearly nobody is peeing either.
The crippled woman keeps walking slowly around the theater, and up and down
the stairs. Maybe she's looking for the projectionist? The Japanese boy
meets another young man in a hallway and asks for a match. The other man
tells him that the theater is haunted. He replies by shouting that he is
Japanese (those are the first and only words uttered by the characters of
the film). The Japanese boy walks back into the theater. He can hear a
sexy girl eating two rows from him. She drops a shoe and has to look for
it in the dark. Then she moves closer to the Japanese boy, who seems
scared about the noise behind him. The theater looks empty when viewed from
the top, but reveals one or two spectators when the camera moves through
the rows. The movie ends. The lights go on. Now that is empty and lit,
the theater looks much bigger. The crippled woman walks in and cleans the
floor. When she's done, only silence remains. The spectators are leaving
the theater. One of them meets his old teacher. It is still raining.
The projectionist rewinds the tape: he has not touched the half cake that
the crippled woman left him. The crippled woman is checking
the restrooms. Then she walks back to the ticket window, packs her stuff,
shuts the lights and walks outside. But then she waits, in front of the
sign that says "closed" (so we learn that the theater will be closed for
a while). The projectionist locks the theater's entrance, and then walks
outside. The crippled woman has waited, and watches him leave in the rain.
She walks home alone.
At the end we understand that she is in love with the projectionist and
that was the last chance to talk to him. She gave him half of her cake
as a gesture of love. She looked for him in the building, but never found him.
Whether he knows or not of her love, we don't know. The spectators, the
weird Japanese boy, the movie shown on the screen were simply signs about
the lives that the two have been living for who knows how long.
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(Translation by/ Tradotto da Gabriele Calderone)
Goodbye Dragon Inn (2003) Š una storia d'amore incredibilmente sottile.
La storia vede coinvolte due persone che lavorano in un vecchio teatro, ma
il centro della trama ruota in realt… attorno al pubblico (un giovane in
particolare) ed alla fine Š il teatro ad essere il vero protagonista.
Ma questo Š parte della prospettiva bizzarra di Tsai: riprendere scene da
angolazioni inconsuete, e parlare quindi anche della storia d'amore da
un'altrettanto particolare angolazione. La gran parte del film non Š
parlato, le sole parole provengono dal vecchio film che Š proiettato sul
grande schermo del teatro e da un paio di battute.
Un vecchio film storico (che ha lo stesso titolo: "Goodbye Dragon Inn")
viene proiettato sullo schermo in un grande teatro. Vediamo il pubblico da
dietro le quinte, attraverso una coppia di drappeggi mossi dalla brezza.
Fuori sta piovendo e sembra che le strade siano deserte. Un giovane
giapponese entra in teatro, quasi vuoto, forse per trovare riparo dalla
pioggia mentre una donna zoppa sta lavando qualcosa nella toilette.
La donna poi riscalda del cibo, una torta, ne prende la met… e camminando
lentamente la porta al proiezionista, ma non lo trova, cosŤ gli lascia il
cibo e torna indietro fino al baracchino della vendita dei biglietti.
Il giovane giapponese intanto cambia posto perch‚ qualcuno gli mette i piedi
vicino alla faccia; non sembra completamente in se stesso; prova ad attirare
l'attenzione di uno degli spettatori piegandosi verso di lui.
La donna zoppa controlla la toilette delle donne, il ragazzo giapponese
entra nella toilette degli uomini e si dirige in uno degli orinatoi vicino a
quello utilizzato da un altro uomo. Un terzo entra nella toilette e prende
posto vicino agli altri due: nessuno si muove, nessuno orina.
La donna zoppa comincia a camminare lentamente su e gi— per il teatro e su e
gi… per le scale. Forse sta cercando il proiezionista? Il giapponese
incontra un altro giovane in corridoio e gli chiede un fiammifero: l'altro
gli dice che il teatro Š infestato e lui gli risponde urlandogli che Š
giapponese (e queste sono le uniche battute che i personaggi pronunciano in
tutto il film). Il giovane ritorna in sala e ascolta un'affascinante ragazza
mangiare due file dietro di lui. Poi lei fa cadere una scarpa e si mette a
cercarla nel buio, per terra, movendosi sempre pi— vicino al ragazzo, che
sembra impaurito dal rumore che sente provenire da dietro.
La platea sembra vuota quando viene ripresa dall'alto, ma rivela invece
qualche spettatore quando la telecamera si muove tra le file di sedie della
sala. Poi la pellicola finisce e le luci si riaccendono: ora che Š vuoto e
illuminato, il teatro sembra ancora pi— grande. La donna zoppa compare e
pulisce i pavimenti; quando finisce, rimane solo il silenzio. I pochi
spettatori hanno lasciato il teatro e uno di loro incontra un suo vecchio
professore. Non Š ancora smesso di piovere. Il proiezionista riavvolge il
nastro: non ha nemmeno toccato la mezza torta che la donna gli aveva portato
e che ora controlla di nuovo le toilette, torna indietro al baracchino dei
biglietti, riordina le sue cose, spegne le luci ed esce da teatro.
Ma indugia, davanti al cartello che dice "chiuso" (sappiamo cosŤ che il
teatro rimarr… chiuso per un po'). Il proiezionista esce, guarda l'entrata
del teatro, quindi se ne va a sua volta. La donna zoppa per• ha aspettato lŤ
vicino, quindi ora pu• guardarlo allontanarsi nella pioggia. Infine va a
casa anche lei, sola.
Alla fine capiamo che Š innamorata del proiezionista e che quella era la sua
ultima chance di parlare con lui: gli ha dato met… torta come gesto d'amore,
lo ha cercato nel teatro ma non lo ha trovato_ Se lui sia a conoscenza
dell'amore della donna, questo non lo sappiamo. Gli spettatori, il bizzarro
ragazzo giapponese, il film proiettato sullo schermo, sono semplici simboli
delle vite che i due hanno vissuto per chiss… quanto tempo.
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Ni Na Bian Ji Dian/ What Time Is It There? (2001) is a triple tragedy
of loneliness. The three characters live pointless lives and don't even
search for meaning anymore (not to mention the dead man himself, who dies
alone). When they try to find meaning (or at least
emotional rescue) in sex, all three are disappointed.
The real protagonist is the passage of time.
Watches and clocks become a metaphor for their existence: they exist where
their watches and clocks are. So the kid starts living as if he were in Paris,
and the girl keeps living as if she was still home, and the mom adjusts her
routine to the time marked by the clock.
The director emphasizes ordinary life by showing even the most intimate
moments (for example, by showing people while they urinate, defecate,
vomit and masturbate) and by introducing elements of humor (like the fat
gay kid or little incidents of domestic life).
An old man alone at home calls his son. Nobody replies. He lights a cigarette.
The son, Hsiao, brings the ashes of his dead father to the Buddhist temple,
where the last ritual is performed (clearly the father has died and this is the
son he was calling).
At home he gets scared when he hears noises: the priest has told them that
the old man has so many days to return as a ghost.
Hsiao urinates in a plastic bag rather than walk to the bathroom.
During the day he sells watches on the sidewalk. One day a girl, Shiang,
stops to to look at his merchandise, but she mainly likes his watch.
She insists she needs that type of watch (that displays the time in two
different cities) by the following morning because she is leaving for Paris.
He mumbles something about the watch being a personal thing, that it would
bring bad luck if he sold it. She replies that she's a Christian, and doesn't
believe in those superstitions. Finally he accepts to sell it and she gives
him a cake to thank him.
That night he urinates in a plastic bottle.
His mother looks every morning for signs that the dead came back. Obviously
she was very attached and misses the dead.
She reproaches the son for not being as diligent. No life must be killed,
because anything, even a cockroach, could be father's reincarnation.
In the middle of the night he makes a phone call to find out what time it is
in Paris: that's where his watch is.
When he cannot catch sleep, he watches Truffault's 400 Blows, a French
movie.
His mother notices that the clock has changed time (Hsiao has set it to French
time) and, thinking it's a sign from the old man, she readjusts their schedule
to the time displayed by the clock.
In Paris the girl cannot sleep. She hears footsteps from the room upstairs.
(Is the noisy neighbor the ghost of the dead man that followed Hsiao's watch
to Paris?) She is a tourist in Paris but she doesn't seem to have anything to
do. In the subwsy she doesn't know where to go.
Meanwhile in Taipei, Hsiao enters a clock shop and sets all the clocks
to Paris time. A fat kid sees him and follows him to a movie theater. Hsiao
takes down the clock of the theater. The fat kid steals the clock from him
and walks into the restrooms. Hsiao follows him and the fat kid comes up
of a stall half naked with the clock covering his penis.
Hsiao's mother is getting more and more worried about father coming back.
She sets the dinner table for three, the third one being the dead man,
and serves food to all three. And she does so at odd hours, because she now
follows the clock that Hsiao set to French time.
In Paris the girl is still hearing the noisy neighbor upstairs and cannot
fall asleep. She has nothing to do in Paris. It almost feels like she went
to Paris only because it's the excuse she came up with to get the watch
and then she felt she had to live up to it.
Hsiao's mother is becoming neurotic. She cries in front of the dead man's
favorite fish. Hsiao cries too, in bed, and watches 400 Blows.
Another time his mother turns out all the lights in the house because she
thinks that father is afraid of light.
Shiang meets a man in a cemetery, JeanPierre (it is actually the protagonist
of Truffault's 400 Blows).
Hsiao is becoming more and more paranoid: he sets the clock of a high-rise
building to French time by using a pole from the roof. The
traffic is reflected in the windows of building next to clock.
Shiang gets sick and throws up. At a restaurant she meets another Chinese girl,
who is kind to her and invites her to stay at her place. Shiang drags her
suitcase to the girl's apartment.
All three characters now turn to sexual experiences.
The mother wears a sexy dress and prepares a
candlelight dinner with her dead husband.
Hsiao eats and drinks in his car and falls asleep, while a
prostitute knocks at the window.
Shiang and the other girl pretend to be asleep but they are both awake and
spying each other in bed.
The mother masturbates.
Hsiao has sex to the prostitute.
Shiang kisses the other Chinese girl but the girl turns away.
The prostitute steals Hsiao's watches.
Therefore the sex ends disappointingly for all three: Hsiao is robbed, his
mother fails to evoke the ghost, Shiang is rejected. Now they are
even more unhappy.
Shiang wonders around Paris dragging her suitcase. No matter how lonely
and unhappy, she doesn't seem to be able to go back home.
She falls asleep on a bench by a pond.
Kids stole her suitcase and throw it in the pond.
A Chinese man rescues it: it's Hsiao's dead father, who then lights a
cigarette and walks away. He has come back, just in the wrong city, and
apparently all because of the watch.
(Why is the watch related to the dead man, to the point of making him appear
where the watch goes, is not explained. Why the dead
man rescues the girl's suitcase, given that he never met her in his life,
is not explained either. It's almost as if the dead man had reincarnated
in the watch itself, and therefore been with the girl all the time that
his widow was expecting him to return home. By rescuing her suitcase maybe
he helped her return home and therefore return "him" to his home town and to
his wife).
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(Translation by/ Tradotto da xxx) Se sei interessato a tradurre questo pezzo, contattami
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