The Skywalk Is Gone

Having seen this before the flawless masterpiece "Goodbye, Dragon Inn" and actually coming out of them both with this still in my mind (after all the power and beauty of GDI), clearly shows the brilliance and vision of Ming-Liang's later films.

I must admit - I didn't like his films before. The long takes seemed unnecessary and most of his films felt plain and boring. Most notably "The River", which was incredibly overrated.

But now, the difference !

His dogma hasn't changed - Ming-Liang still uses the same visual concepts of long planes and minimalism, but he takes it to a never before seen level of freshness and beauty. Forget "The River"'s boring tone. This and "GDI" share a lyricism and an underlying humor that few films have managed to capture.

Make no mistake about it - he is most creative and honest film maker today. This small comedic masterpiece is not only interesting on a visual level, it's brilliant in a hopeless, urban way.

If you have the privilege to see both this and "Goodbye, Dragon Inn", don't waste it.

You'll be seeing the best there is Cinema today.

Forget Von Trier, Lynch, the Andersons.

Ming-Liang is where it's at.

Most of the film makers are deeply in love with the cities where they reside,where they satisfy their creative instincts.To pay their homage to their respective cities they sometimes make short films about them. This film is also an attempt by Tsai Ming Liang to understand his city better. He has chosen to film a river which passes through the ever growing,bustling metropolis of Taipei.The focus is on the dryness of the river due to the ill effects of heat.In the background there is a dog.Tsai decided to make this film after he got an invitation from Simon Field who is the former director of International Film Festival of Rotterdam.I saw this film at FEMIS, Paris which is a famous film school.This film has not been released on DVD and lucky ones can watch it along with a complete retrospective of Tsai Ming Liang's works.

Tsai-Ming Liang catches the ordered chaos of a Taiwanese city where love is lost and needs to be found again. It's a short film with long shots letting you immerse in the fine composition of the images and the feeling of the city. The film is basically a prologue to "The Wayward Cloud". I'm not sure how well the story works if you haven't seen the latter (but then you can wonder the buzzing city for 20+ minutes).