The greatest movie ever made..!

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

While this art film may seem simple, long, and boring, it actually captures a melancholy about the reality of the art of film. Using overlong shots, static moments in time, the director gives glimpses into the dissolution of the cinema as a collective human experience. Set in a large Taiwan movie theater which once, probably, was filled daily, the film shows the demise, the last gasp, of the art form of cinema. This cinema, showing the great King Hu film "Dragon Inn" on its last day (lying that it is just closing for a short time) is in decline. The only people who haunt the cinema now are lost souls, seeking far more real human experiences than what is offered from the screen. Life has become too difficult to enjoy the offerings of art. Oddly, the film makes me think of the French film "Irma Vep" which sees the cinema reduced to a way of getting French filmmakers off the unemployment roles. In contrast, Tsai Ming-Liang fixates on the other side of the screen, the audience. Today, most of the audience is staying home, relying on the video rental store or video-on-demand via cable, mail, or internet. Few still haunt the physical cinema for anything less than a big teen event movie.Here, Tsai affectionately looks at what is left of the grand cinema. He has carefully constructed a set of characters who are lost in time. Foremost among them is the theater crew. Wonderfully fleshed out in a few moments is the performance of Shiang-chyi Chen (the beautiful star of "I Don't Want to Sleep Alone" and "What Time Is It Over There?") as the lonely club-foot ticket seller. Her desire in life is to be noticed by the projectionist of the theater but lacks any ability to make her desire known. The young projectionist himself is too self-absorbed in the fact that the cinema is haunted, which is always true of theaters.The audience is made up of two factions: those there for reasons other than the cinema and those who long for the true cinema experience of the old days. The cinema has always been a refuge for those who could not find their longings in reality. Here we have the Japanese tourist seeking a homosexual encounter and the peanut eating woman, seeking some kind of experience, sexual or otherwise, dominate the audience. Years ago, they would have blended in, hardly noticed. The child, chomping popcorn alone, becomes a potential victim of this. At one point an old man appears, sitting next to him, causing us to fear for his safety, though this man might be his grandfather, based on age. The third angle is the handsome older man who is only interested in the film being shown. In the end, the film makes us want to know more about these people, to wish they will find their heart's desire, while we are watching. To see some happy ending. Tsai refuses to give us this satisfaction.While it is a challenge to watch, it is a short (82 minute) excursion into a world many of us enjoyed as young people and is losing ground in the world of home entertainment, a world which separates us from a communal experience which, for good or bad, brought us together and gave satisfaction in experiencing art and drama as a community.SPOILER: Sort of a spoiler. Though you would have to know "Dragon Inn" since it is hard to catch from the film itself, the revelation that two of the audience members are actual actors from King Hu's epic film, seeing the film after many years, and waxing momentarily poetic on the fact that the film is as forgotten as they are, is poignant and painful. It leaves us with the fact that the cinema theater is gone, dead. The only person watching the film to watch the film was a child chomping on popcorn. What has happening to our world?

There has been both glowing and dismissive reviews of this film.If you want to be entertained and shown a good time, then this is not the film for you. This film is on the other end of the spectrum than the average action film.This film lays down a subtle tapestry of images whereupon the characters drift about and interact (often without words) as they go about their separate quests or duties.A quiet film with quiet rewards for those with patience to finish it.Sometimes sparseness of action on the screen is needed. It's the difference between looking at a snap shot, and experiencing the stillness of the scene. The world is not always filled with action, it often has periods of reflection and meditation. Avoid using the Fast Forward function of your DVD player.

I just watched this film in my World Cinema film class. It was very interesting I must say, but I appeared to be the only person in the class to have enjoyed it. Others said the movie was too slow, had no plot, and was boring.I understand where they're coming from, this type of film has a specific target audience. It reminded me of a couple of Gus Van Sant's films, "Elephant" and "Gerry". They were slow-paced and very quiet, nothing really went on, but i love these kinds of movies. Would I recommend watching it? Yes. Would I recommend buying it? No. It's not the type of movie you'll watch more than once or twice. It does get sort of monotonous towards the end, with the extremely long cuts that never moved.But there were some good qualities. For me, the movie was hilarious. It was definitely my kind of humor. There's the gimp girl that works at the theater who we are forced to watch walk up the stairs, limping all along the way. And then, my favorite, was the awkward Japanese boy who watched everybody in the theater. the uncomfortable situations he's put in our hilarious. We think something is going to happen each time, but nothing ever does. But still, that's why it's so hilarious. Definitely not the type of humor for everyone though. If you're the kind that gets bored easily then you'll be too frustrated to appreciate the humor, b/c chances are you'll turn the film off. There was some beautiful composition and cinematography. the different camera angles and distances are interesting for the most part. but again, this is probably something more for film students than the average viewer.So, overall I think this movie is worth a look. Depending on who you are, you may find it funny, but you may find it sad b/c of how lonely the characters are, esp. the Japanese boy and the gimp. This film will make you uncomfortable and you may squirm at times. If you like that in a film then I'd recommend this.

I am compelled to write a review of this movie that doesn't berate it, since most people seem to expect an action-packed and commercially viable film, not the artful and well done piece that it is. Liang's point is quite clear, and whether "nothing happens" or not is left up to the viewer's interpretation I guess. It's a short feature though, and anyone who is seriously interested in film should check this out. "Nobody goes to the movies anymore." With this line, we are told exactly what Liang is saying to us. The film is an ode to going to the movies. If you don't like going to the movies, then you shouldn't watch this film. If you do, then it should fill you up with the fuel that you need to get you through this piece.