Lee Kang-sheng and Chen Shiang-chyi in The River.

Director Tsai Ming-Liang Has No Story To Tell

By Anne Lee

Many films tell a story. Whether it is a touching story, a comical story, or a love story, it is narrated from beginning to end, usually leaving the audience with at least a simple way to retell the movie to their friends later.

Not Tsai Ming-Liang's films. To Tsai, a Malaysia-born Taiwanese filmmaker, films are not restricted to simply narrating stories, but conveying raw feelings. With his realistic techniques, one of his most famous scenes being Yang Kuei Mei's five-minute crying scene at the end of "Vive l'Amour," he has won many awards, such as the Venice Mostra's Gold Lion Award for "Vive l'Amour" in 1994, and the Berlin Festival's International Press Prize and Silver Bear Award for "The River" in 1996.

Director Tsai Ming Liang

Tsai emphasizes that his films do not tell stories in any conventional way because he has no inspiration; his films merely describe an emotion, which he usually draws from himself. It is not even a story, but at most a gathering of details from the various characters' lives. He states that although life has many stories, most of the time, "there are no stories, or everyone's stories are more or less similar." His aspirations are merely to capture a slice of life in his films. For instance, his idea for "The River" came from a personal experience with his actor, Lee Kang-sheng. Before he shot the film, Lee was ill with a neck ailment for nine months, and Tsai expressed that he could feel his pain, especially as he accompanied him on his visits to the doctor. After he recovered, Tsai wanted to document the emotion behind it all. He stated, "Can you really control your spirit? Or your thoughts? Or your life? Maybe you can't. This experience reminded me that many times, I can't control my life either … and that's life. But when you can see through the pain, you can be more understanding of other people, and even forgive yourself."

He also refuses to succumb to modern pressures of turning all his films into stories, even if it means losing some of his audience or generating negative criticism from critics. He asserts that nowadays, "people become too restricted to a set filmmaking formula when the definition of films should be flexible and broad, and people more open-minded."

Yang Kuei Mei in Vive l'Amour.

Tsai's most recent product is "Goodbye Dragon Inn," which has already won the Fipresci Award at the Venice Film Festival and is currently entered in both the Chicago and New York Film Festivals. The title alludes to the legendary martial arts film director King Hu (Hu Jing-Chuan)'s renowned film, "Dragon Inn." It is especially interesting because the film features Miao Tien and Shih Chun, the original actors in King Hu's "Dragon Inn," watching themselves in "Dragon Inn" at this old, about-to-be-torn down movie theater. In "Dragon Inn," they are still young, and they play enemies, but in Tsai's film, they are merely old men watching a remnant of their past.

"Goodbye Dragon Inn" was originally intended as the second part of Lee Kang Sheng's own directorial debut, "The Missing," which won "The New Currents
Award," given to the best film of a first-time director in Asia, at the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea. The titles of the films in Chinese, "Bu Jian," Lee's film, and "Bu San," Tsai's film, together form a common phrase "bu jian bu san" that means "don't depart until we see each other." However, Tsai's film turned out much longer than the originally anticipated short, and Lee ended up shooting more footage too, resulting in two separate full-lengths. Nonetheless, the spirit and essence of the films remain similar, both capitalizing on disappearances, with Tsai's film about an old movie theater about to be torn down, and Lee's about a missing boy. The most direct connection of the two films is Miao Tien and the child he brings with him into the theater at the beginning of "Goodbye Dragon Inn." The old man and boy who walk past the grandma of "The Missing" are Miao Tien and the same child.

Tsai's films, without a doubt, are a departure from mainstream movies, whether it is sparse dialogue or no music, to long shots of ordinary everyday objects, such as a cup. He reinforces that "even though a lot of things have become more convenient now (with technology), at the same time, it has created a lot of problems…if you don't think about it, there are no problems, but when you (do), there are actually a lot of problems." Tsai brings films back to its simplest nature, capturing humans in their most ordinary lives, creating a different reality in film culture.

October 24, 2003