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What Time Is It There? 2001 |
Review by Jonathan Cornwell |
Directed by Tsai Ming-Liang
NR, 116 min. (sexual content) |
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Starring: Lee Kang-Sheng, Chen Shiang-Chyi, Lu Yi-Ching, Shiang-chyi Chen, Jean-Pierre Léaud
Producer: Bruno Pesery
Screenplay: Tsai Ming-Liang, Pi-Ying Yang
Distributor: Winstar Cinema
Released: 1/11/02 (Limited)
(In Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles) |
Rating:
 (out of ) |
Tsai Ming-Liang's What Time Is It There? is a highly intuitive, exquisitely crafted film that asks many more questions than
it attempts to answer. How does one cope with death? With loneliness? With despair? With disconnection? Tsai touches
on all these questions with a quiet intensity, as if the film were truly running out of time to answer them. What his
characters do to appease their own torturous inadequacies is at the heart of the story, yet takes a back seat to a
rhythmic-like introspection that forces the viewer to ponder possible answers. Time is both comedic and heartbreaking,
using both emotions to portray irony and despair in a relentlessly quiet way. Yes, this is an art film, but one well-worth
investing some time on.
The film's central character is Hsiao Kang (Lee Kang-Sheng), a man who sells watches from a display case on the
sidewalks of Taipei. His detached existence is suddenly enlivened by Shiang-Chyi (Chen Shiang-Chyi), a young woman
who insists on buying the watch on Hsiao's wrist rather than one on display. She's going to Paris for vacation and wants
a reliable watch, but Hsiao, although smitten with her, refuses. The story shifts to Hsiao's home life, which is pathetic and
depressing. His father has recently died, leaving his mother (Lu Yi-Ching) to mourn his loss by believing their pet fish
has captured his departed soul. Hsiao sits alone in his room and watches television, as if trapped in a world of inescapable
loneliness. Meanwhile, Shiang-Chyi is faring no better in Paris, where she retreats to her modest hotel room to also escape
the disconnection she feels from society. All three characters are looking for release, and they find it, momentarily, in
sex. Hsiao reluctantly submits to a prostitute, his mother satisfies herself while viewing a picture of her departed husband,
and Shiang-Chyi meets another woman in which to release frustration. Their interconnected yet distant lives revolve
around the construct of time, in that they have both too much of it and not enough.
At one point, Hsiao is seen changing the time of every clock he can find to Paris time, as a cry for connection with
Shiang-Chyi. But is this an attempt to connect with her or simply another way to puncture the dreariness? We're not sure, but
Time makes us think about these things. Tsai builds his picture through poetic stoytelling, with many quiet scenes
that will make most moviegoers squirm for some action. But there's a point to this structure - he's not only relating the
characters' feelings but also the reality of many peoples' lives. Inasmuch as he wields the power of silence, Tsai
infers that time is only as important as we make it. Here, his characters are consumed by it.
Time is a difficult film to interpret and requires patience from its audience. There are times that one is bewildered
by the ebb and flow of its soporific narrative, but at other times is enchanted by its honesty. Tsai relates his film as
a study of characters that long for something that they can't connect with but try to anyway. The Chinese cinema has
given us some wonderful films, and What Time Is It There? joins that category with an insightful, thought-provoking
study piece.
© 2002 Jonathan Cornwell
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 |
 | Masterpiece - Film perfection |
 | Excellent - A Must See |
| Good - Highly Recommended |
| Fair - Worth seeing |
| Average - Viewable, but not recommended |
| Below average - View at own risk |
| Poor - Avoid at all costs |
| Very poor - An embarassment to the film industry |
| Zero | Awful - One of the worst films ever made |
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