Rizi/Days

"Rizi" ("Days" in English) is the first Tsai Ming-liang movie that I've ever seen. It appears that he's Taiwan's answer to Jim Jarmusch. The movie is the ultimate example of slow cinema, featuring long takes and only a handful of lines (none of which are subtitled). I guess you could say that the movie is about life, as an affluent man and an immigrant have a brief fling.

You'll have to avoid the movie if you want to see superheroes, explosions, car chases, etc. This is a low-key film focused very much on the characters. I wouldn't call it the greatest movie ever made, but it's still more interesting than the umpteenth movie where Tom Cruise narrowly avoids all danger. I don't know if it's available on any streaming service, so you'll probably have to check a neighborhood video store.

Basically, nothing happens in the movie. If i record my daily life under covid restrictions it would be a more interesting movie. I was able to watch it on 2X fast-forward and the scenes were still ridiculously long.

Days is one of those movies that you either hate and feel so bored or love and truly enjoy. It's like 2 h long with no dialogue, there's literally no conversation at all, and the shots are slow, motionless and long. I personally don't mind this genre and I did love this movie. Days is visually stunning, the cinematography is great with many amazing frames. It has no words but it has lots of vibes, it delivers lots of emotions about loneliness, affection, attachment, routine, etc. If you're into a beautiful silent visual cinematic experience then Days would be a perfect choice.

Tsai's films have been becoming more and more minimalist over time. Yet while his stories have always been very implicit, films such as Ai qing wan sui (1994), Good Bye, Dragon Inn (2003) and the masterful Jiao you (2013) all have a message, a concept, a central idea. Even a extremely minimalist piece such as Viaje al oeste (2014) is very conceptual.

Rizi lacks in that regard, in my opinion. I can see how Tsai wanted to strip down a film even more than some of his other work, to get even closer to the essence, and this is to be applauded. At the same time it seems to me the film is an afterthought and not a premeditated work. From what I gather, Tsai had been shooting Kang-sheng Lee and Anong Houngheuangsy separately, without the goal of making a film.

Apparently he was then compelled to create a feature film after all and decided the center piece would be an encounter between the two men. Now, that encounter is filmed beautifully and while it has been described as erotic, I'd say above all it is a human encounter.

However the material before and after this central event is disconnected and does not have the same weight as provided by the performances in some Tsai's earlier films. One could argue that this disconnection is on purpose, but it just did not feel that way to me. It felt somewhat artificial.

Still, the two hours were a nice meditative experience, so if you are a slow cinema afficionado it's worth seeing. But it's no Stray Dogs or Goodbye Dragon Inn.

Actually, none/nada, but still captivating as we silently (except for a few scenes with background noise) follow two men as they live their days. We experience one's pain though heated acupuncture; acupressure; neck brace; very deep total body muscle tearing massage. For millions that day-to-day marginal existence defines their lives?