What Time Is It There?

I'm not sure at what point it morphed from an aesthetically disciplined deadpan comedy to a devastating portrait of grief and dislocation, but the emotional wallop offered by the end surprised the hell out of me.

I heard a really great description of this film. It's like when you are at a party at a friend's house and that friend has an odd painting. You're looking at it a few moments and eventually some friends come to look at it, too. You all make little jokes and quips about the painting. Then your friends leave and you are left looking at the painting going, "That sure is something." That's this film.

I got this to see an old Leaud. And man does he look old. This film is really beautifully shot but it is forgettable and slow moving. 2 minutes of screen time for Leaud, annoying!

The most accessible and funny of Ming-liang Tsai's films to date, it still doesn't compromise his oblique take on human pathos. I saw this film in Chicago and the director was there. When asked what the significance was of featuring excerpts from The 400 Blows, he said it didn't mean anything; he simply liked the film. And I don't think he was taking the piss, either. That anecdote confirmed what I've always said: His films aren't pretentious. For him they're all natural. So, enjoy the silence.

Don't hold me to this, but this might be my favourite Hsiao-hsien Hou movie - ever. I found Belmondo's cameo to be particularly poignant.

An interesting experience, despite the slowness all over. It is a good demonstration of this disease called loneliness...

I don't really get the film as a whole but I like all the parts. The static camera, the lingering pace, the dark subtle situational humour are all very impressive and enough to keep my interest.

very powerful beginning, twice as powerful ending. In between - a calm, peaceful meditation upon melanchony and alianation. The denouement just before the end- lone and frigid sex after desparate searching for love. Bravo Mr. Tsai!

Tsai's greatest film and an art film that is impossible to pin down. A movie that pines for missing love, both familial and romantic. Lingers in the senses.

There's a lot of raw talent here. It's something of a flash in the pan.

Tsai's exquisite formal control, understated playfulness, and humanist vision make this my favorite of his films. Loneliness pervades, but the palpable desire for lasting connections comes through in nearly every shot. And while Tsai's camera moves very little, there's a lushness to each shot that rewards contemplation. The film also raises the notion that while time might keep us apart (generationally and geographically), we remain connected to one another through our affections for each other.

The imagery seems to be always looking in from the outside and uses loads of negative space, but is very beautiful nonetheless. The problem with always looking in, however, is that we have to infer a lot about the characters ourselves.

Great.

Starts out as a surprisingly funny film with many moments that carry with them a certain melancholy tragedy, or at least something honest about the character's emotional situation that would be painful if it weren't so darn amusing. And yet, as the film goes on the tragedy of the situation becomes more and more palpable and devastating. The ending offers us no solutions, but rather a quiet, calm break from the trials of the journey. A nice rest before we wake up and the confusion restarts again.

A pleasant, slow-paced, easy-to-follow piece of thematic experimentalism, the film has a lot to like in its compositions, editing and mischievous ideas about the lives of others. It's the second Tsai Ming-Liang feature I've seen (after Visage), and while I still enjoy his pacing, his surreal sense of humour, and his preference for themes over narrative, I do worry that he's another of these auteurs (Hsien, Lynch, Almodovar) who are destined to repeat themselves ad nauseam. Hope I'm wrong though.

Alienated in the middle of nowhere..

Star Rating: ★★★★1/2

Everybody misses somebody I guess.

Is This Movie Over Yet?

Tsai is a filmmaker who dwells on still shots and long takes, establishing time and space as the connective tissues between wayward souls and ghosts of the past. This is a spellbinding and deeply moving film, metaphysical and metatextual like the later Goodbye Dragon Inn - not only in theme but also in the first appearance of that film's physical location - contending that cinema itself is the most pertinent medium of these liminal concepts.

I found this to be A LOT more interesting and dynamic than The River. It also hit the comedic notes better, and had characters which I enjoyed following. The beautiful visuals are retained as well, but so is some of the droning atmosphere, which is bound to split viewers. That said, I didn't mind having to watch this.

une nuit, j'ai attendu mon ami pendant des heures sur le canal de seine. J'ai mangé la pizza froide et j'ai essayé d'éviter les rats. paris est sale, peu pratique, mais de temps en temps, 400 fois je me retrouve à être comme hsiao-kang

Even if you're not fascinated by Ming-liang Tsai in general like I am, there really aren't that many scenes where "nothing happens". And even those scenes are pretty brief. It's obviously not for everyone, but I think the whole thing is entrancing and meaningful and touching and damn funny at times, too.

Que Horas São Aí?/Hora de Partida estreava há 20 anos no Festival de Edinburgh. É aqui que Tsai Ming-liang eixa claro a enorme influência da saga de Doinel na sua própria saga de Hsiao-kang, não só ele insere literalmente Os Incompreendidos na tela, como o próprio Léaud. Muito mais minimalista do que Truffaut, o diretor consegue construir um tratado da incomunicabilidade e solidão do século XXI, sempre a mercê do tempo e do espaço. DVDRip no MakingOff.

The cinematography was nice, but that's about all. I mostly like narrative and atmosphere in films, and this has neither. The problem with films like this is that unless you're on the same wavelength as the director, you're not going to enjoy it. I tend to dislike 'meditative' films because I find them lazy, but they can sometimes work. This one didn't for me.

Almost endlessly fascinating and interesting, fairly touching and heartfelt in a very weird way.

What Time Is It There is my favorite Tsai film so far. Unlike the three others of his I've seen so far, which to me felt much more gimmicky, this one justifies its slow pace and "artsyness" very well. I suspect I may have saved the best Tsai for last, though, since three of the four movies of his that I haven't seen seem to be considered to be among his four best (What Time Is It There being the last of his four best).

12 Ocak '13, zevahir & Vive L'Amour, elde edemeyisin, dokunamayisin filmiyken, bu film, yitirilen seye dair duyulan agir melankolinin filmidir. Olen bir koca, teget gecen bir ask ve neticesinde aramizda saat farkindan otesi var. Lakin insan yine de Paris'te saatin kac oldugunu bilmek istiyor iste ve en sonunda dayanamiyor, gozyaslari icinde Truffaut'un 400 Darbe'sini izliyor. Eminim Turgut Uyar'in bu filmden yillar once yazdigi, buna uygun bir siiri vardir. Yorgunum.

"Tsai Ming-liang's ghosts are painfully aware of their not-being." - Ed Gonzalez

Good Movie

A very 'free' type of film, from what I gather, its Tsai Ming Liang's style.

A funny film about isolation and mourning. Really well done.

Interesting and intriguing portrait of three isolated yet oddly in tune characters. While the detailed and minimalist narrative kept me engaged, I would have appreciated more substance.