Tsai Ming-Liang and a Cinema of Slowness

Tsai Ming-liang Filmography

177 Tsai Ming-liang Filmography Only feature-length films and one selected short film are listed; production companies are from Taiwan unless otherwise stated. Rebels of the Neon God (Qingshaonian Nezha), 1992; 106 minutes Production: Central Motion Picture Corporation Screenplay: Tsai Ming-liang Photography: Liao Pen-jung Editor: Wang Chi-yang Sound: Hu Ting-yi Original music: Huang Shu-chun Main cast: Wang Yu-wen, Chen Chao-jung, Lee Kang-sheng, Jen Chang-bin, Miao Tien, Lu Hsiao-ling Synopsis Hsiao-kang is resitting his college entrance examination and lives with his parents. Because of his increasingly rebellious behavior, his mother believes he is an incarnation of the Neon God. Becoming obsessed with a pair of juvenile delinquents he encounters at a video game arcade, Hsiaokang quits his cram school and pursues the pair in their misdemeanors. 178 Tsai Ming-liang Filmography Vive l’amour (Aiqing wansui), 1994; 118 minutes Production: Central Motion Picture Corporation Screenplay: Tsai Ming-liang, Yang Pi-ying, Tsai Yi-chun Photography: Liao Pen-jung, Lin Ming-kuo Editor: Sung Fan-chen Sound: Yang Ching-an, Hu Ting-yi Main cast: Yang Kuei-mei, Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Chao-jung Synopsis Hsiao-kang sells funeral niches and contemplates suicide. Mei-mei sells luxury apartments to no avail. Ah Jung sells women’s dresses as a street vendor. All three use an unsold apartment for their own purposes, though they do not always encounter each other. Mei-mei has casual sex with Ah Jung but realizes perhaps she has not found love. Hsiao-kang plants a kiss on a sleeping Ah Jung. The River (Heliu), 1997; 115 minutes Production: Central Motion Picture Corporation Screenplay: Tsai Ming-liang, Yang Pi-ying, Tsai Yi-chun Photography: Liao Pen-jung Editor: Chen Sheng-chang, Lei Chen-ching Sound: Yang Ching-an Main cast: Lee Kang-sheng, Miao Tien, Lu Hsiao-ling, Chen Shiangchyi , Chen Chao-jung, Yang Kuei-mei, Ann Hui Synopsis Hsiao-kang suffers from neck pain after immersing himself in the Tamshui River as an extra on a film set. His parents take him to seek treatments of all kinds. Water from the upstairs flat seeps into the father’s bedroom. The mother has an extramarital partner who sells Tsai Ming-liang Filmography 179 porn videos. On a trip to seek a cure in Taichung, Hsiao-kang and his father visit a gay sauna separately and end up having a sexual encounter with each other unknowingly. The Hole (Dong), 1998; 95 minutes Production: Arc Light Films, Central Motion Picture Corporation, China Television, Haut et Court (France), La Sept-Arte (France) Screenplay: Tsai Ming-liang, Yang Pi-ying Photography: Liao Pen-jung Editor: Hsiao Ju-kuan Sound: Yang Ching-an Songs performed by Grace Chang Main cast: Lee Kang-sheng, Yang Kuei-mei Synopsis It’s seven days to the year 2000. A district in Taiwan is plagued by an unnamed virus. An apartment block has been quarantined and the water supply cut off. It rains non-stop. A hole is drilled in the floor of an upstairs flat to investigate the cause of water seeping into the flat below, connecting the two neighbors who are otherwise strangers to each other. Musical numbers featuring the two neighbors are interspersed with the narrative. What Time Is It There? (Ni nabian jidian), 2001; 116 minutes Production: Homegreen Films, Arena Films (France) Screenplay: Tsai Ming-liang, Yang Pi-ying Photography: Benoît Delhomme Editor: Chen Sheng-chang Sound: Du Duu-chih, Tang Hsiang-chu Main cast: Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Shiang-chyi, Lu Yi-ching, Miao Tien, Cecilia Yip, Chen Chao-jung, Jean-Pierre Léaud 180 Tsai Ming-liang Filmography Synopsis Hsiao-kang sells watches on a skywalk near Taipei’s central train station. His father has just died and his mother grieves incessantly. Shiang-chyi buys a dual-time watch from Hsiao-kang and travels to Paris, where she encounters Jean-Pierre Léaud. Hsiao-kang buys and watches a copy of The 400 Blows and goes about turning clocks and watches back by seven hours to Parisian time. In Paris, Shiang-chyi becomes ill and has an encounter with a woman. The Skywalk Is Gone (Tianqiao bujian le), 2002; 22 minutes Production: Homegreen Films, Le Fresnoy–Studio National des Arts Contemporains (France) Screenplay: Tsai Ming-liang Photography: Liao Pen-jung Editor: Chen Sheng-chang Sound: Du Duu-chih, Kuo Li-chi Song performed by Tsui Ping Main...