Ming-liang Tsai

The acting is top-notch, the camera work is spot on and Tsai's sense of humor is both unique and funny. Add to that one of the most stupefying and epic endings and you get my favorite Tsai.

Tsai allows you to slow down along with it, transporting you to a wet and distant place where you can enjoy the final day of a local cinema.

In the end I Don't Want To Sleep Alone is another typical Tsai film, with some slight experimentations that are in no way big enough to attract new viewers or to push away existing fans.

The latest entry in Tsai's Buddhist walker series. I will say I wasn't too impressed with his previous entries, nor with anything he did in the past decade. Tsai has gone more in the direction of ego-documentaries and art installations, and while Sand fits the description of the latter, the longer runtime works in its favor (something surprisingly).

I've been rewatching quite a few Tsai's these past years, the bottom line is that most of them don't really seem to hold up. What Time Is It There? is no exception. I can still see why I liked this so much the first time around, but the sloppier finish (certainly compared to someone like Hou) keeps me from 100% enjoying them.

Watching back these older Tsai films, I'm amazed at how dryly absurd they are. They're not full-blown comedies, but they're certainly not just pure dramas either. I had quite a bit of fun revisiting The Hole, the biggest problem for me was the rather plain styling, which Tsai did better in some of his later films.

An intentionally unsubtitled film. It sounds like quite an experience, certainly as it's a Taiwanese film, until you realize there is hardly any dialogue. People who have been following Tsai should know what to expect by now. Slow cinema in its purest form, observing people who are walking, sitting and going about their daily business.

Most people have lost track of Tsai's work long ago, only a few dedicated arthouse fans know what the man's been up to lately. I can't say I've had too much interest in the things he's been doing this past decade, though they haven't been all bad. Wandering could be interpreted as closure for this period in his career, though that may be just my wishful thinking.

More art project than documentary, even so this conversation between director Ming-liang Tsai and his protégé Kang-sheng Lee wasn't as dull as I had feared. It doesn't feel entirely natural and Tsai is a little too dominant, but it does offer a nice peek into the lives of two famous men who left an incredible mark on Taiwanese cinema. 135 minutes is just too long though.

I'm quite partial to anthology films, as they allow directors to go a little crazy. Because they are comprised of several shorts, these projects allow for a little more risk. One or two failed entries don't necessarily mean a failed film. For the larger part, anthology films deliver, but only when the directors are willing to play.

I like a good anthology, but these more arthouse-oriented projects tend to disappoint. Beautiful 2012 managed to attract some interesting names, but the result is rather lackluster. None of the shorts really stand out and almost all of them felt rushed and underdeveloped, as if the directors sent in some leftovers.

Tsai's TV work is clearly not as great. The story of a kid suffering from a rare disease has potential, but the execution is plain. We see the boy as he struggles through school, while his mom tries to educate the world about the nature of his disease, but apart from some well-scored moments the film lacks impact.

A documentary on I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone, directed by Tsai himself. It's little more than a simple behind-the-scenes doc though, with Tsai contemplating some shots and explaining his motivations for making the film. While I did like I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone, I think you're better off just watching the film again.

In between his feature films, Tsai has always liked doing documentaries too. They tend to be somewhat rough and unpolished, but they're early indicators of the direction Tsai would come to take in more recent years. Fish, Underground perfectly fits that mold, so it wasn't really for me.

Another made-for-TV Tsai film. Without Tsai's usual focus on style and minimalism, his films are little more than social criticism. Fine if that's your thing, but this rather bleak and unattractive peak into the lives of poor immigrant construction workers didn't really do it for me. I prefer his more cinematic work.

I've seen a bunch of Tsai's pre-cinema films now and though somewhat relevant to the filmmaker he would become, these TV dramas aren't all that great. You see flashes of Tsai's later self, but the poor production values and lacking cinematic appeal really hamper the enjoyment for me.

The start of Ming-liang Tsai's career. Like his other TV work, there are small glimpses of the style that would bring him international recognition, but they are hidden in very mediocre TV drama. These films are hardly worth the trouble, unless you're a completist like me and you just want to watch all of Tsai's films.

I used to like Tsai's films, but ever since he turned his back on feature films his work has gone downhill. I'm not sure what Tsai hoped to discover here, but unless you like regular folk sitting awkwardly in front of a camera, unsure what to do, then there's very little here. Point in case one interviewee who fell asleep.

This was a really poor effort by Tsai. Madame Butterfly is a short film from around the time Tsai's feature films started to slip, as he seemed more and more interested in documentary film making and even art installations. It's not that I hate slow cinema by default, but there has to be more than a camera trailing someone for 30 minutes across two locations.

Tsai's final TV film, before he would start his cinematic run (and his rise to arthouse stardom). It's also the first film that would kick off his lifelong collaboration with Kang-sheng Lee. A landmark in other words, but only if you care about Tsai's career, as the film itself is pretty bland.