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Tsai Ming-liang's "Goodbye, Dragon Inn" is a love letter to film and cinemas

  • Date:2020-12-21
©Metrograph Digital

The New York Times on Dec. 18 carried film critic J. Hoberman's report on "Goodbye, Dragon Inn: The Last Picture Show in Taipei" by Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮), describing the 2003 movie, which was restored by the Royal Belgian Film Archive (CINEMATEK) in 2019, as "a love letter to cinema and also cinemas." The 4k restoration of "Goodbye, Dragon Inn (不散)" is currently being streamed online by New York's Metrograph theater.

A movie within a movie, "Goodbye, Dragon Inn" is predicated on the interplay of the projected "Dragon Inn (龍門客棧)," King Hu’s 1967 wuxia classic, and the life of the spectators inside the Fu-Ho Grand Theater (福和大戲院) in central Taipei. 

Hoberman notes that "Goodbye, Dragon Inn" depicts the atmosphere of the old theater on the day before its permanent closure, while King Hu's wuxia classic "Dragon Inn" was playing. "The various activities constitute a ballet of daily life, reminiscent of Jacques Tati's subtle slapstick or Robert Wilson's glacially paced operas," he suggests.

Hoberman also quotes film critic A.O. Scott’s comment: "His rigorous minimalism expresses a sensibility that is both tartly comic and mournfully romantic." Scott wrote in the New York Times when "Goodbye, Dragon Inn" was shown at the 2003 New York Film Festival.

Hoberman worked as a senior film critic for the weekly newspaper "The Village Voice" and served on juries at the New York Film Festival. He has published several film related books, and taught at Harvard University, New York University and The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.

The Taipei Cultural Center in New York noted that "Goodbye, Dragon Inn" has won acclaim from international film critics, and the online screening of the 4k restored film is a manifestation that "films are still playing despite the closure of theaters." "Goodbye, Dragon Inn" will be virtually playing from Dec. 18 to 24 at New York's Metrograph theater.

More information on the online screenings here
Read director Tsai Ming-liang's article "Chasing the Film Spirit" here.