Description
What Time Is It There?
Get your free tickets here: https://tsaimingliang.eventive.org/films
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoQCaJf5W-c
“I’m using this movie to raise the question, ‘When someone you love very dearly passes away, is it only fear that you’re feeling, or is it more than that?’ Basically, this character is in shock after his father dies. . . . He has lost a certain sense of direction, which compels him to change every clock in the city.” —Tsai Ming-liang
This metaphysical comedy blends the themes and obsessions of Tsai’s earlier films into one of his most elegant and accomplished creations. An assertive young woman (Chen Shiang-chyi), who is about to leave for Paris, convinces a watch seller (Lee Kang-sheng) to sell her the watch on his own wrist. Immediately smitten, he acts out his obsession with her by attempting to change every clock he sees to Paris time. Meanwhile, his grieving mother (Lu Yi-ching) is troubled by the idea that her dead husband might be reincarnated in another time zone. Mixing melancholy with deadpan comedy, this film is also a tribute to Tsai’s cinematic idol, the French director François Truffaut, and even includes a wonderful cameo by one of Truffaut’s most famous collaborators, actor Jean-Pierre Léaud. Print provided by the Yale Film Studies Center. (Dir.: Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan/France, 2001, 116 min., 35mm, Mandarin, French, and English with English subtitles)
What Time Is It There? will be followed by:
The Skywalk Is Gone
A short film meant to serve as a bridge between features, The Skywalk Is Gone was inspired by the fact that the actual Taipei skywalk where much of What Time Is It There? was filmed was torn down shortly after the film was completed. Seemingly disoriented by its disappearance, the two characters from the previous film (played again by Lee Kang-sheng and Chen Shiang-chyi) struggle to find their bearings in a reconfigured metropolis, or, in Chen’s case, even to cross the street. (Dir.: Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan, 2002, 25 min., DCP, Mandarin with English subtitles)
Film still courtesy of Homegreen Films
Cost
Free
