Faces of Tsai Ming-Liang

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Previews

Published on Thursday, 19 November 2009 04:33

Written by Lynne E Shannon

AsiaSociety is proud to present Faces of Tsai Ming-Liang, a series of of Tsai’s best earlier films, plus a preview screening of Tsai’s newest film, at 725 Park Avenue at 70thStreet, NYC, from November 13 to 21, 2009. Highlighting the presentation is a conversation with director Tsai Ming-Liang along with actor Lee Kang-Sheng, who has appeared in every single Tsai film.

Employing little dialogue and minimalist long takes, often made up of static medium to long shots, Tsai creates what Asia Society’s Senior Program Officer La Frances Hui calls “an oppressive silence calling for the viewers to slowly observe and experience the psychological states of the characters. He maps out an emotional universe that is deeply felt and shared.”

The series begins with screening of Rebels of the Neon God, the director’s first feature film. Rebels introduces us to the recurring character Xiao Kang, played by Lee Kang-Sheng.

The centerpiece film is a preview screening of Face, about a Taiwanese director who makes a film based on the myth of Salomé at the Louvre. Language barriers and the sudden news of the passing of the filmmaker’s mother in Taipei threaten the completion of the film. The all star ensemble cast includes Jean-Pierre Léaud, Jeanne Moreau, Fanny Ardant, Lee Kang-Sheng and supermodel Laetitia Casta.

Following the screening will be the conversation with Tsai Ming-Liang and actor Lee Kang-Sheng.

The other films to be shown are Vive L’Amour, in which three characters cross paths in a vacant Taipei apartment without ever really connecting; The Hole, about the days before the new millennium, as Taipe is plagued by an endemic that causes people to behave like cockroaches; and the poignant What Time Is It There?, about a watch vendor who sells a watch to a young woman as she leaves for Paris, compelling him to set every clock he sees to Paris time.

For more information, please call (212) 517-ASIA
 or visit www.AsiaSociety.org.

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