Those familiar with the artistic style of Tsai Ming-liang
In a break from screenings of previous works, the sound of laughter could often be heard at yesterday's screening of What Time Is It There? at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was shown to international media.
The first half of the film shows different ridiculous but funny situations between the main character Hsiao-kang
PHOTO: SONG HSIN-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
Hsiao-kang then meets Shiang-chih
The roles Shiang-chih and Hsiao-kang seem like two sides of a coin. Shiang-chih is traveling in Paris, where she keeps losing her personal belongings and has difficulty communicating. She is tired and frustrated and her exact reasons for being there are never clear, but both Hsiao-kang and her are clearly running from something.
The movie climaxes when Hsiao-kang, Shiang-chih and the mother unleash their emotions and desires. The mother, dressed in Chinese dress, masturbates in the father's old room. Shiang-chih spends an awkward night on the same bed with a girl from Hong Kong whom she had tried, but failed, to kiss. Hsiao-kang spends the night with a prostitute.
The question of whether the father's ghost returns is revealed at the end of the movie. A Chinese man encounters Shiang-chih as she falls asleep on a park bench. He helps her pick up her suitcase, lights a cigarette and gazes with a compassionate but solitary look on his face. He is Hsiao-kang's father and his look seems to acknowledge our fear, anxiety and insanity, but reassures us that he, however remotely, is thinking of us. This is Tsai's own personal tribute to his father and the father of the actor who plays Hsiao-kang. Both of the fathers died shortly before the shooting of the film.
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