Goodbye, Dragon Inn & The Skywalk Is Gone

Goodbye, Dragon Inn was pretty typical Ming-liang Tsai, with lots of long non-moving shots. However, for an added bonus, I also got to see my parents' bored reactions. Which was fun. Because this was 80 minutes of very little happening. I had to read reviews to keep from just giggling uncontrollably at how it was not going to make anyone who doesn't already love movies or spends too much time in movie theaters bored out of their minds. So I can see why people would hate it. I, however, did not hate it, and enjoyed almost every part. The little bits of observational humor were funny, and my only real complaint is that he pushed the viewer a little too much. While he could have done everything in the movie in about 10 minutes, he kept some scenes going way too long. And that's from someone who enjoyed the movie. My dad didn't even make it to the first lines of dialogue halfway through. Definitely a movie that rewards multitasking. Focusing too much on it might actually cause you to hate it.

The Skywalk Is Gone is apparently an epilogue to Tsai's earlier film, What Time Is It There? which I haven't seen. However, I do intend to see it at some point, and the Wayward Cloud (his followup to those two), so I felt I should see it rather than be forced to rent it again after seeing the other one. So I felt a little strange as I didn't have the full background to get at it. But it works, somewhat, as I knew the basic plot of the original, but I have a feeling that I need to see the two full-length films to make a real judgment about this. So, for now, I have to say that it was interesting, but not that interesting.