Movie No. 53 (2013): GOODBYE, DRAGON INN

Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003)
Director: Ming-Liang Tsai
Cast: Kang-Sheng Lee, Kiyonobu Mitamura, Shiang-Chyi Chen
In Mandarin, with English subtitles

On the night of the last-picture showing in a Chinese theater that has seen better days, a young Japanese guy gets trapped in the theater due to heavy rain. The guy and a few other souls in the theater bid goodbye to Dragon Inn, the final film being shown.

The film will test your patience. In my case, when I noticed that it had been more than 20 minutes of running time and still not a single character talked, I considered giving up. That nothing was happening was what was really happening. But I didn't lose interest. It's only after about 44 minutes that someone finally spoke - just two lines! He said, "Do you know that this theater is haunted?" And the next dialogue would be a couple of minutes before the film ended. Such dialogue, although extremely brief, is important for better understanding of the film.

The film is weird, but not in a bad way. While some may lose patience with the long shots and practically still shots, I endured such agonizing shots. It feels like the director has put me inside the theater and observe the other people as they watch the  very few people (or ghosts?) watch the movie. In a way, the film is an elegy to the dying movie-going tradition/culture.

Date seen: March 3, 2013

Rating: 4.0/4.0