Shot in Kuala Lumpur, Tsai’s elliptical style captures the odd beauty of old places that seem devoid of warmth as his array of listless characters try to seek for that elusive intimacy and connection with another human being.
Frustratingly deliberate in its pacing, yet one draws contemplation from the film’s unique stillness, all from one of the most formidable artists of ‘slow cinema’ of our time.
An elegy to the demise of the ‘cinema’—both films and spaces—of the 20th century as we had experienced it, all to the pedestrian if oddly haunting pacing of Tsai’s delicate craft.
Tsai solidifies his oblique, slow-paced style with this odd, and at times, shocking meditation on the incommunicability of humans through a family of loners.
Tsai’s Venice Golden Lion-winning second feature may be sparse and silent, but it remains to be one of the deepest portrayals of existential loneliness in the director’s singular filmography.
Still one of Tsai’s very best, this is a solid feature debut that grapples with the ennui of ‘90s youth listlessness with stylistic aplomb.
One could maybe marvel at its storytelling efficiency with a 90-minute narrative spanning decades of tumultuous modern Chinese history, but it doesn’t quite know whether to be epic or cheesy in its treatment.
