Tsai Ming-Liang: An American Cinematheque Retrospective

Tsai’s work exudes an unparalleled beauty, as his camera lingers in and around the quiet corners of urban cities, forming enigmatic character studies in the lonely existence of his many alienated subjects. Actor Lee Kang-sheng is often tasked with embodying one of these lonely urban inhabitants, as he has appeared in all of Tsai’s feature films to-date, and whom the American Cinematheque welcomes alongside the filmmaker in Q&As during this very special tribute to one of the vital voices in world cinema. Focus on the numerous French co-productions included in this series.

I DON’T WANT TO SLEEP ALONE
July 31, 2024 7:30 PM I Aero Theatre I Part of a double feature with Vive l’amour.

Rawang, an immigrant from Bangladesh living in awful conditions, takes pity on a Chinese man, Hsiao-kang, who is beaten up and left in the street. Rawang lovingly nurses him on a mattress he found. When he is almost healed, Hsiao-kang meets the waitress Chyi. His love for Rawang is put to the test. DCP, Taiwan/Malaysia/France/China/Austria, 2006, Musical, Home Green Films, 115 minutes, in Mandarin, Malay and Bengali with English subtitles.

Written and directed by: Tsai Ming-Liang
Starring: Kang-sheng Lee, Shiang-chyi Chen, Norman Atun

Q&A with filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang and actor Lee Kang-sheng. Moderated by Carlos Aguilar.
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JOURNEY TO THE WEST
August 3, 2024 7:30 PM I Los Feliz 3 I Part of a double feature with Abiding nowhere.

In 2012, Tsai Ming-liang began a series of short video works in which his longtime collaborator Lee Kang-sheng dresses in the robes of a Buddhist monk and wanders slowly, almost imperceptibly so, through the exterior and interior spaces of cities around the world. The videos were born out of Tsai’s “obsession” with Xuanzang, a seventh-century Chinese Buddhist monk whose seventeen-year pilgrimage from China to India formed the basis for the sixteenth-century literary classic Journey to the West. Named after that work (and a sly reference to its setting in Marseille), this is the most ambitious of these videos so far. With his bright red robe contrasting with the subdued tones of the city, Lee moves with uncanny slowness through the bustling streets, this time accompanied by the equally eccentric French actor Denis Lavant. DCP, France/Taiwan, 2014, Documentary/Avant-garde, Home Green Films, 56 minutes, in Mandarin and French with English subtitles.

Written and directed by: Tsai Ming-Liang
Starring: Kang-sheng Lee, Denis Lavant

Introduction by filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang and actor Lee Kang-sheng.
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THE HOLE
August 4, 2024 4:00 PM I Los Feliz 3

Set just prior to the start of the 21st century, this vaguely futuristic story follows two residents of a quickly crumbling building who refuse to leave their homes in spite of a virus that has forced the evacuation of the area. As rain pours down relentlessly, a single man is stuck with an unfinished plumbing job and a hole in his floor. This results in a very odd relationship with the woman who lives below him. Combining deadpan humor with an austere view of loneliness and a couple of unexpected musical numbers, Tsai Ming-Liang crafted one of the most original films of the 1990s. 35 mm, Taiwan/France, 1998, Big World Pictures, 95 minutes, in Mandarin with English subtitles.

Co-written and directed by: Tsai Ming-Liang
Starring: Kang-sheng Lee, Kuei-Mei Yang.

Q&A with filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang and actor Lee Kang-sheng.
To get tickets, please click here.

THE WAYWARD CLOUD
August 4, 2024 7:00 PM I Los Feliz 3

Hsiao-Kang, now working as a pornographic actor, meets Shiang-chyi once again. Meanwhile, the city of Taipei faces a water shortage that makes the sales of watermelons skyrocket. They become something to share with a guest and an aphrodisiac. 35 mm, France/Taiwan, 2005, Musical, Home Green Films, 114 minutes, in Mandarin with English subtitles.

Written and directed by: Tsai Ming-Liang
Starring: Kang-sheng Lee, Shiang-chyi Chen

Introduction by filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang and actor Lee Kang-sheng.
To get tickets, please click here.

WHAT TIME IS IT, THERE?
August 6, 2024 7:00 PM I Los Feliz 3

Street vendor Hsiao Kang sells a dual-time-zone watch to a woman on her way to Paris. While she aimlessly roams the streets of the French capital, he remains in Taipei and obsessively and comically sets all watches and clocks to Paris time. In search for a connection, Hsiao Kang repeatedly watches Truffaut’s THE 400 BLOWS. Meanwhile, the real-life star of the 1959 French New Wave classic, Jean-Pierre Léaud, makes an uncanny appearance in front of the lone traveler in a cemetery. 35 mm, Taiwan/France, 2001, Home Green Films, 116 minutes, in Mandarin and French with English subtitles.

Co-written and directed by: Tsai Ming-Liang
Starring: Kang-sheng Lee, Shiang-chyi Chen.

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STRAY DOGS
August 10, 2024 7:00 PM I Los Feliz 3

A single father makes his meager living holding up an advertising placard on a traffic island in the middle of a busy highway. His children wait out their days in supermarkets before they eat with their father and go to sleep in an abandoned building. As the father starts to come apart, a woman in the supermarket takes the children under her wing. There are real stray dogs to be fed in Tsai’s everyday apocalypse, but the title also refers to its principal characters, living the cruelest of existences on the ragged edges of the modern world. DCP, Taiwan/France, 2014, Cinema Guild, 140 minutes, in Mandarin with English subtitles.

Co-written and directed by: Tsai Ming-Liang
Starring: Kang-sheng Lee, Kuei-Mei Yang, Yi-ching Lu, Shiang-chyi Chen.

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FACE
August 13, 2024 7:00 PM I Los Feliz 3

A single father makes his meager living holding up an advertising placard on a traffic island in the middle of a busy highway. His children wait out their days in supermarkets before they eat with their father and go to sleep in an abandoned building. As the father starts to come apart, a woman in the supermarket takes the children under her wing. There are real stray dogs to be fed in Tsai’s everyday apocalypse, but the title also refers to its principal characters, living the cruelest of existences on the ragged edges of the modern world. DCP, Taiwan/France, 2014, Home Green Films, 141 minutes, In Mandarin and French with English subtitles.

Co-written and directed by: Tsai Ming-Liang
Starring: Kang-sheng Lee, Yi-ching Lu, Fanny Ardant, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Laetitia Casta.

To get tickets, please click here.

For full schedule, click here.