Short of the Week: A meditative dream by Tsai Ming-liang
Tsai Ming-liang, the formidable Taiwanese auteur, has been one of the most interesting filmmakers in the world for the last three decades or so. Known for his unforgettable masterpieces, such as Rebels of the Neon God and Vive L’Amour, he has established himself as a pioneering figure in the landscape of contemporary cinema.
A recurring theme in Tsai’s cinema is an apocalyptic sense of social alienation and urban isolation. Through his films, one can gain deeper insights into the rapid modernisation in Taiwan (especially Taipei) and its devastating existential implications. This can be seen in almost all of Tsai’s work, including the everlasting masterpiece The Hole.
For this edition of Short of the Week, we have chosen Tsai’s 2012 short, Walker, which is part of an entire series of similar artistic explorations. It stars the Taiwanese director’s frequent collaborator Lee Kang-sheng, who has worked with Tsai on all his features and multiple shorts, as a monk who walks around in Hong Kong.
Earlier this year, Tsai appeared in an interview where he talked about his latest addition to the series – Wandering. The director noted: “It shows the Walker series I have been working on for the past 10 years and it is very much about this particular space and this particular series that I want to showcase. I don’t really have a specific reason or purpose for making it. At one point, I thought maybe it can be promotional footage for the exhibition, but then I didn’t really use it for that.”
“Recently, the way I think about filming is that I really want to become freer,” he added. “As an artist I don’t want to limit myself in terms of what kind of purpose I have to make films. Also, I am not inclined to do narrative films anymore. And the reason for that is because I do think that freeing myself from that kind of format and framework is where I am right now with my work. I would rather film something that doesn’t have a beginning or ending and is just for the for the sake of it that without any specific reason to do so.”
Tsai’s evolution as a filmmaker has been highly impressive, even though many fans still point to his early works as the apotheosis of his artistic achievements. Walker is definitely among the most intriguing shorts Tsai ever made, chronicling the spiritual alienation enforced by an ever-expanding capitalist wasteland.
Watch the film below.
