still from The Deserted (VR) (Tsai Ming-liang, TW 2018)
Virtual reality, films & talks
Tsai Ming-liang
10 — 30 January 2019
still from The Deserted (VR) (Tsai Ming-liang, TW 2018)
Tsai will also visit Eye for a Masterclass on 12 January. Eye will rerelease digital restorations of Tsai's first three films in national theatres: Rebels of the Neon God (1992), Vive l'amour (1994) and The River (1997). The films can also be viewed via Picl.
Eye Filmmuseum presents a retrospective of all of the Taiwanese master’s films to accompany Tsai Ming-liang’s first VR production The Deserted, from Rebels of the Neon God (1992) to Your Face (2018).
Tsai Ming-liang behind the scenes of Your Face © Chang Jhong Yuan
Tsai Ming-liang behind the scenes of Your Face © Chang Jhong Yuan
Meditative, oppressive and enchanting: over the years plenty of adjectives have been used to describe Tsai Ming-liang's. Words, however, are of little meaning when discussing the work of a man who strips his films back to visual essence. The acclaimed Taiwanese director captures his subjects in tightly framed images, in the tradition of filmmakers such as Michelangelo Antonioni and Ingmar Bergman.
Watch an interview with Tsai Ming-liang in Eye:
still from What Time is it There? (Tsai Ming-liang, TW 2001)
Eye – then still known as Filmmuseum – distributed several of Tsai Ming-liang's films in the Netherlands in the past, including I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone (2006) and What Time is It There? (2001). Tsai’s breakthrough film Vive l'amour (1994) is also part of Eye's collection.
Yearning in silence
Tsai Ming-liang was born in 1957 in Kuching, Malaysia. Ten years after graduating from Chinese Cultural University in Taiwan, he made his first feature film Rebels of The Neon God (1992). Since then he has been counted among the most interesting filmmakers in Taiwan and has won many international prizes, including at the prestigious film festivals in Berlin and Venice.
still from Vive l'amour (Tsai Ming-liang, TW 1994)
still from Visage (Tsai Ming-liang, FR/TW/NL/BE 2009)
Tsai Ming-liang renewed cinematic language by being entirely trusting of the visual. He shows that loneliness is the price we pay in our consumer society. Everyone yearns in silence, but the desire for contact is rarely met.
still from Goodbye Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming-liang, TW 2003)
Films, virtual reality & talks
This programme was made possible by:
still from Wayward Cloud (Tsai Ming-liang, TW 2005)
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