cinéaste

Days 日子 (2020, dir. Tsai Ming-liang)

In terms of narrative features, this is what I’ve been wanting to push forward: something that is not screenplay-based. As long as there’s a screenplay, however simple it might be, you would have a storyline and a film based on that storyline. I want to change the way people think about narrative films and replace screenplays with images. That can open up the movie-watching experience to include more possibilities. 

Zhuo-Ning Su, “Tsai Ming-liang on His New Approach to Filmmaking and Why Days Doesn’t Need Subtitles”

For me, all my frames should be like a painting, filled with these consonant details. For example, there could be a fish intruding in the frame, or a cat. Basically, it has to be a space alone that attracts me. Everything else can come in and everything can go out.

Christopher Small, “‘There’s Really No Plan for This Film at All’: Tsai Ming-Liang on Days”

Lee Kang-sheng wanted to see a doctor, so I said I wanted to film it. He didn’t disagree, so I followed him to the doctor with the cinematographer. I felt that if I didn’t film that day, if I didn’t capture those images, then no one would ever see Lee Kang-sheng’s face and body at that moment. It sounds strange, but when he got sick there was something heartbreaking about it. I wanted to save those images.

I thought the images would be used in a museum piece, but eventually I met Anong and while we were video-chatting I saw him cooking, and the way he cooked really touched me. I wanted to film it, so I flew to Thailand. That is what I am looking for. I’m always looking for something very real.

“…something dies in places like this. Tenderness and time. Necessity is a knife that passes through the body … Money bleeds the sky, and hearts empty themselves. It’s a putting to death, slow and eternal. But we, but I—what are we doing in this place, an emporium of blood and sweat, an emporium of slavery and indifference?” ― Tahar Ben Jelloun, La réclusion solitaire

You’ve got a nasty curse on you, too.  It seems like everyone in this family has problems.