"Even in the early 90s, I was already starting to mix professional actors with non-actors. I always enjoyed working with non-professionals, because their performances are very natural and unaffected."
TSAI MING-LIANG
(1957- ) Born October 27, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia
Key Production Countries: Taiwan, France
Key Genres: Drama, Comedy Drama, Psychological Drama, Urban Drama, Erotic Drama, Avant-garde/Experimental
Key Collaborators: Lee Kang-sheng (Leading Actor), Liao Pen-jung (Cinematographer), Chen Shiang-chyi (Leading Actress), Lu Yi-Ching (Leading Character Actress), Chen Chao-jung (Leading Character Actor), Chen Sheng-Chang (Editor), Miao Tien (Leading Character Actor), Yang Kuei-Mei (Leading Character Actress), Yang Pi-ying (Screenwriter), Vincent Wang (Producer), Hsu Li-Kong (Producer), Lee Pao-Lin (Production Designer)
"One of the major names in New Taiwanese Cinema, along with Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang, Tsai Ming-liang specializes in static depictions of urban alienation featuring minimal dialogue, long fixed shots and sudden bursts of surreal humor courtesy of impassive actor Lee Kang-sheng, who has appeared in all of the director's features." - Andrew Bailey (Cinema Now, 2007)
"Alongside Edward Yang and Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsai Ming-liang has propelled Taiwanese film to the front ranks of arthouse cinema with his self-contained plot-averse brand of auteur filmmaking. All of his films inhabit a world of contemporary urban angst and disconnection. They are not easy on the viewer - but they are not meant to be - and their moods can be hard to pin down. And although renowned for their difficult and sometimes harrowing subjects and slow fly-on-the-wall pacing (often unpunctuated by dialogue), some of Tsai's films have included musical numbers and been characterized as "sweet", rather than miserablist." - Richard Craig (The Rough Guide to Film, 2007)
"Tsai films silent people — strangers or neglected family members — who maintain one another in a common space. People are engrossed in their own tasks, yet somehow "supported" by the actions of others — for instance, a neighbor at the end of the hall. The characters may be deadpan, but we see the degree of comfort or inhibition they get from each other." - Lesley Chow (Bright Lights Film Journal, 2006)
"Along with Edward Yang and Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsai Ming-liang became one of Taiwan's most prominent directors during the 1990s. His films regularly appeared in festivals around the globe and he received lavish praise from film critics worldwide. Born in Malaysia in 1957, Tsai moved to Taiwan 20 years later and graduated from the Chinese Cultural University in 1982. For the next ten years, he supported himself by working in theater and writing screenplays for films and television." - Tom Vick (Allmovie)
"Even by the standards of his New Taiwanese Cinema contemporaries, Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang, Tsai’s films are, as some would say, deliberately paced. Cutting together long takes, often of static medium and long shots, he unabashedly requires each viewer to slow down and patiently experience another’s life, thereby avoiding the dictatorial imposition of classical continuity editing that would lead inevitably, in the words of Andrei Tarkovsky, to “a facile interpretation of life’s complexities.” Instead, Tsai’s camera lingers near his subjects in an almost documentary fashion, observing their behavior with relative objectivity, just as the director himself came of age freely observing and admiring the slow movements of Malaysian life." - Darren Hughes (Senses of Cinema, 2003)
"Like many of the most innovative directors, Tsai is a rebel soul. His subjects are almost exclusively outsiders, be they petty criminals, watch-sellers or porn stars of the sort that may haunt any of our cities. Tsai observes them, with a tough, almost invasive compassion – he's not a director to avoid a confrontation with truth, but neither is he immune to life's ironies, or the sweet seductions of a song. He's Western-friendly, too – a flag-bearer for the stylistic breakthroughs of the French New Wave, for instance. But despite that, his profile in the West – and in Britain – has remained discreet, his work hard to obtain, and you'll find few if any books dedicated to him." - Wally Hammond (Time Out)
(1957- ) Born October 27, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia
Key Production Countries: Taiwan, France
Key Genres: Drama, Comedy Drama, Psychological Drama, Urban Drama, Erotic Drama, Avant-garde/Experimental
Key Collaborators: Lee Kang-sheng (Leading Actor), Liao Pen-jung (Cinematographer), Chen Shiang-chyi (Leading Actress), Lu Yi-Ching (Leading Character Actress), Chen Chao-jung (Leading Character Actor), Chen Sheng-Chang (Editor), Miao Tien (Leading Character Actor), Yang Kuei-Mei (Leading Character Actress), Yang Pi-ying (Screenwriter), Vincent Wang (Producer), Hsu Li-Kong (Producer), Lee Pao-Lin (Production Designer)
"One of the major names in New Taiwanese Cinema, along with Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang, Tsai Ming-liang specializes in static depictions of urban alienation featuring minimal dialogue, long fixed shots and sudden bursts of surreal humor courtesy of impassive actor Lee Kang-sheng, who has appeared in all of the director's features." - Andrew Bailey (Cinema Now, 2007)
"Alongside Edward Yang and Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsai Ming-liang has propelled Taiwanese film to the front ranks of arthouse cinema with his self-contained plot-averse brand of auteur filmmaking. All of his films inhabit a world of contemporary urban angst and disconnection. They are not easy on the viewer - but they are not meant to be - and their moods can be hard to pin down. And although renowned for their difficult and sometimes harrowing subjects and slow fly-on-the-wall pacing (often unpunctuated by dialogue), some of Tsai's films have included musical numbers and been characterized as "sweet", rather than miserablist." - Richard Craig (The Rough Guide to Film, 2007)
"Tsai films silent people — strangers or neglected family members — who maintain one another in a common space. People are engrossed in their own tasks, yet somehow "supported" by the actions of others — for instance, a neighbor at the end of the hall. The characters may be deadpan, but we see the degree of comfort or inhibition they get from each other." - Lesley Chow (Bright Lights Film Journal, 2006)
"Along with Edward Yang and Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsai Ming-liang became one of Taiwan's most prominent directors during the 1990s. His films regularly appeared in festivals around the globe and he received lavish praise from film critics worldwide. Born in Malaysia in 1957, Tsai moved to Taiwan 20 years later and graduated from the Chinese Cultural University in 1982. For the next ten years, he supported himself by working in theater and writing screenplays for films and television." - Tom Vick (Allmovie)
"Even by the standards of his New Taiwanese Cinema contemporaries, Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang, Tsai’s films are, as some would say, deliberately paced. Cutting together long takes, often of static medium and long shots, he unabashedly requires each viewer to slow down and patiently experience another’s life, thereby avoiding the dictatorial imposition of classical continuity editing that would lead inevitably, in the words of Andrei Tarkovsky, to “a facile interpretation of life’s complexities.” Instead, Tsai’s camera lingers near his subjects in an almost documentary fashion, observing their behavior with relative objectivity, just as the director himself came of age freely observing and admiring the slow movements of Malaysian life." - Darren Hughes (Senses of Cinema, 2003)
"Like many of the most innovative directors, Tsai is a rebel soul. His subjects are almost exclusively outsiders, be they petty criminals, watch-sellers or porn stars of the sort that may haunt any of our cities. Tsai observes them, with a tough, almost invasive compassion – he's not a director to avoid a confrontation with truth, but neither is he immune to life's ironies, or the sweet seductions of a song. He's Western-friendly, too – a flag-bearer for the stylistic breakthroughs of the French New Wave, for instance. But despite that, his profile in the West – and in Britain – has remained discreet, his work hard to obtain, and you'll find few if any books dedicated to him." - Wally Hammond (Time Out)
Highly Recommended
Rebels of the Neon God (1992), Vive L’Amour (1994), The River (1997), What Time Is It There? (2001), Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003)
Recommended
Give Me a Home (1991), The Hole (1998), My Stinking Kid (2004), The Wayward Cloud (2005), I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone (2006), Stray Dogs (2013)
Worth a Look
Sleeping on Dark Waters (2008)
Rebels of the Neon God (1992), Vive L’Amour (1994), The River (1997), What Time Is It There? (2001), Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003)
Recommended
Give Me a Home (1991), The Hole (1998), My Stinking Kid (2004), The Wayward Cloud (2005), I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone (2006), Stray Dogs (2013)
Worth a Look
Sleeping on Dark Waters (2008)
