Two men (Lee Kang-sheng and first time actor Anong Houngheuangsy) unknown to each other, living lives of silent isolation, have a brief but meaningful encounter, then go their separate ways.
That’s the bare-bones plot of “Days,” the latest from Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang, another chapter in the filmmaker’s three-decade long, contemplative examination of loneliness.
“Days” begins with Kang seated in a room at home, staring out a window at rain. Tsai’s usual filmmaking practice has often been associated with the Slow Cinema movement, consisting of a group of disparate filmmakers who, more than anything, share a welcome affinity for the kind of silence and deliberate action that mainstream cinema has abandoned. Appropriately, this opening shot is wordless, nearly motionless, and lasts about five minutes.
This is nothing new for a filmmaker famous for very long takes with minimal edits, yet also a fairly brief example, considering he ended his 2013 film,...
That’s the bare-bones plot of “Days,” the latest from Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang, another chapter in the filmmaker’s three-decade long, contemplative examination of loneliness.
“Days” begins with Kang seated in a room at home, staring out a window at rain. Tsai’s usual filmmaking practice has often been associated with the Slow Cinema movement, consisting of a group of disparate filmmakers who, more than anything, share a welcome affinity for the kind of silence and deliberate action that mainstream cinema has abandoned. Appropriately, this opening shot is wordless, nearly motionless, and lasts about five minutes.
This is nothing new for a filmmaker famous for very long takes with minimal edits, yet also a fairly brief example, considering he ended his 2013 film,...
- 8/12/2021
- by Dave White
- The Wrap
"A spare, melancholy story..." Grasshopper Film has unveiled a US trailer for the film Days, the latest work from Taiwan-based filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang. This originally premiered at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival last year just before the pandemic shut everything down. It received some mixed reviews, with a few critics raving about it. The film is made up of nearly "two-dozen fixed-frame shots held for around 5 minutes each" and that's it. Set in Bangkok about two strangers. Kang lives alone in a big house, Non in a small apartment. They meet, and then part, their days flowing on as before. This stars Lee Kang-sheng and Anong Houngheuangsy. This slow cinema definitely isn't for everyone, but it should connect most with anyone already familiar with Tsai Ming-liang's style. Take a look. Here's the official US trailer (+ poster) for Tsai Ming-liang's Days, direct from Grasshopper's YouTube: Under the pain of illness and treatment,...
- 7/22/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
We have been crazy about Tsai Ming-liang’s Days for quite a while—premiering at Berlin 2020, which will go down as the last gasp of film culture as we knew it before Covid completely rewrote the rules, will do that. Thus the movie’s occupied a nether region since: those who saw Days managed to land it on our best of 2020 list, while the rest of us call it one of the best 2021 films we’ve already seen. Having caught it on the festival circuit and being stunned yet again by Tsai’s complete, total mastery of a form oft-imitated but never bested, I dare call these lines arbitrary. What in fact matters is that Grasshopper Film will finally release Days on August 13. Thus the U.S. trailer is here to set a distinctly Tsai-ian tone.
Much like Days itself, this lacks subtitles, instead evoking urban sprawl, natural force, and...
Much like Days itself, this lacks subtitles, instead evoking urban sprawl, natural force, and...
- 7/21/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
When his previous feature “Stray Dogs” premiered in 2013 at the Venice International Film Festival, Tsai Ming-Liang hinted that he was thinking of retiring from making feature films. For a while he produced mostly smaller-scaled, works in various formats, including an excursion into VR and a documentary. But luckily for us, he didn’t follow through or “Days” his latest film would have never seen the light. “Days” premiered at the 2020 Berlinale where it won the jury Teddy Award.
“Days” is Screening at Black Movie
The story follows two men, Kang & Non, for a few days in their lives. Kang is a middle-class man who lives in a big house in the countryside and visits the city to seek help with a medical problem. Non, a young guy, lives in a small apartment in the city where he works at a market stand. We see them going their own way until...
“Days” is Screening at Black Movie
The story follows two men, Kang & Non, for a few days in their lives. Kang is a middle-class man who lives in a big house in the countryside and visits the city to seek help with a medical problem. Non, a young guy, lives in a small apartment in the city where he works at a market stand. We see them going their own way until...
- 1/24/2021
- by Nancy Fornoville
- AsianMoviePulse
When his previous feature “Stray Dogs” premiered in 2013 at the Venice International Film Festival, Tsai Ming-Liang hinted that he was thinking of retiring from making feature films. For a while he produced mostly smaller-scaled, works in various formats, including an excursion into VR and a documentary. But luckily for us, he didn’t follow through or “Days” his latest film would have never seen the light. “Days” premiered at the 2020 Berlinale where it won the jury Teddy Award.
“Days” is streaming at Thessaloniki International Film Festival
The story follows two men, Kang & Non, for a few days in their lives. Kang is a middle-class man who lives in a big house in the countryside and visits the city to seek help with a medical problem. Non, a young guy, lives in a small apartment in the city where he works at a market stand. We see them going their own...
“Days” is streaming at Thessaloniki International Film Festival
The story follows two men, Kang & Non, for a few days in their lives. Kang is a middle-class man who lives in a big house in the countryside and visits the city to seek help with a medical problem. Non, a young guy, lives in a small apartment in the city where he works at a market stand. We see them going their own...
- 11/8/2020
- by Nancy Fornoville
- AsianMoviePulse
The Asian Film Awards Academy has decided to announce the winners online on October 14.
Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite leads the nominations for this year’s Asian Film Awards (Afa) – hosted by Busan International Film Festival and the first to be held outside of Hong Kong and Macau – with ten nominations including best film and best director.
The Asian Film Awards Academy (Afaa), comprising the Hong Kong, Tokyo and Busan international film festivals, announced during last year’s Busan that the 14th Afa ceremony would be held in the South Korean city this year. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the organisers...
Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite leads the nominations for this year’s Asian Film Awards (Afa) – hosted by Busan International Film Festival and the first to be held outside of Hong Kong and Macau – with ten nominations including best film and best director.
The Asian Film Awards Academy (Afaa), comprising the Hong Kong, Tokyo and Busan international film festivals, announced during last year’s Busan that the 14th Afa ceremony would be held in the South Korean city this year. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the organisers...
- 9/9/2020
- by Jean Noh
- ScreenDaily
When his previous feature “Stray Dogs” premiered in 2013 at the Venice International Film Festival, Tsai Ming-Liang hinted that he was thinking of retiring from making feature films. For a while he produced mostly smaller-scaled, works in various formats, including an excursion into Vr and a documentary. But luckily for us, he didn’t follow through or “Days” his latest film would have never seen the light. “Days” premiered at the 2020 Berlinale where it won the jury Teddy Award.
The story follows two men, Kang & Non, for a few days in their lives. Kang is a middle-class man who lives in a big house in the countryside and visits the city to seek help with a medical problem. Non, a young guy, lives in a small apartment in the city where he works at a market stand. We see them going their own way until Kang arranges for a massage and their paths cross.
The story follows two men, Kang & Non, for a few days in their lives. Kang is a middle-class man who lives in a big house in the countryside and visits the city to seek help with a medical problem. Non, a young guy, lives in a small apartment in the city where he works at a market stand. We see them going their own way until Kang arranges for a massage and their paths cross.
- 4/18/2020
- by Nancy Fornoville
- AsianMoviePulse
Tsai Ming-liang, Malaysian-born, raised in Taiwan, a puppet master of slowness, a monk dwelling in the eeriness of time, a philosopher of human loneliness and restlesness of a body. When water is peacefully falling down, drop by drop; when lovers say one last goodbye to each other; with cinemas having their last fade-out on the screen, the audience staring at it, with tears in their eyes; when the music box waves with tunes for the last gaze between those who want to fall in love, but are lost in their solitude. This is where Tsai Ming-liang’s films plunge. Delicately and slowly.
Premiering at 70th Berlinale, Tsai’s recent feature Days is a slowcore contemplation of body and soul, but then again love and loneliness. It’s a peacefully constructed meditation, a profound take on the deepest mistrusts of one’s heartaches set in a lonely Bangkok. On the occasion of premiere of his film,...
Premiering at 70th Berlinale, Tsai’s recent feature Days is a slowcore contemplation of body and soul, but then again love and loneliness. It’s a peacefully constructed meditation, a profound take on the deepest mistrusts of one’s heartaches set in a lonely Bangkok. On the occasion of premiere of his film,...
- 3/20/2020
- by Lukasz Mankowski
- AsianMoviePulse
The 2020 Berlinale marks the 70th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival. The anniversary, which took place from February 20 to March 1, 2020, was the first festival headed by director duo Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian. This year, seven Chinese-language films[1] produced by filmmakers from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan were screened at Berlinale. This article discusses the films individually through a brief account of their content and an introduction of their filmmakers.
1. Rizi (Days)- Competition
Directed by Tsai Ming-Liang with Lee Kang-Sheng, Anong Houngheuangsy.
Taiwan 2019, Without dialogue, 127’, World premiere
Winner Teddy Jury Award, Berlinale
No International Sales Agent (Isa)
Among the 18 films in the main competition section, Rizi (Days) is the only Chinese-language film. The film, delving into the colossal topic of loneliness through a depiction of the time two marginalized male protagonists spent in a hotel in Bangkok, was given the Teddy Award on February 28. Tsai spent 4 years shooting this unplanned,...
1. Rizi (Days)- Competition
Directed by Tsai Ming-Liang with Lee Kang-Sheng, Anong Houngheuangsy.
Taiwan 2019, Without dialogue, 127’, World premiere
Winner Teddy Jury Award, Berlinale
No International Sales Agent (Isa)
Among the 18 films in the main competition section, Rizi (Days) is the only Chinese-language film. The film, delving into the colossal topic of loneliness through a depiction of the time two marginalized male protagonists spent in a hotel in Bangkok, was given the Teddy Award on February 28. Tsai spent 4 years shooting this unplanned,...
- 3/9/2020
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSJean-Luc Godard and Claude Chabrol at the Cahiers du Cinéma offices in 1959. (Photo by Jack Garofalo)Seven out of nine of the editorial staff of Cahiers du cinéma, which recently announced its new ownership by a group of "bankers, tech entrepreneurs, and film producers," have resigned. The writers have cited a conflict of interest regarding the publication of critical reviews. This year's Berlinale has come to an end. A complete catalog of coverage can be found here, along with a list of the festival's winners. Recommended VIEWINGNetflix has released a teaser for Damien Chazelle's Paris-set miniseries, The Eddy.Václav Marhoul's The Painted Bird, an adaptation of the controversial Jerzy Kosiriski novel, follows the wanderings of a young boy in Eastern Europe at the end of World War I. Read our review of the film here.
- 3/4/2020
- MUBI
Above: Tsai Ming-liang. Photo by Chang Jhong-Yuan.One of the strongest qualities of this year’s Berlin International Film Festival is just how many small scale movies have been granted a much-deserved premiere on the biggest of screens and reddest of carpets here, in the main competition. The most personal of all these, as well as the most touching, is Days, the new film by the Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-Liang. Stripped down even further than 2015’s stoic Stray Dogs, it iterates on both Afternoon (2015), a documentary made of a conversation between a loquacious Tsai and the taciturn star of his movies, Lee Kang-sheng, and Your Face (2018), a feature-length gallery work made up only of intensely observed close-ups, many of elderly Taiwanese. Days takes the lessons of documentary impulse, evocative spareness, extreme patience, and extended duration from those films, as well as their focus on the aging, to create a new...
- 2/28/2020
- MUBI
Not a huge amount takes place at the beginning of Days. The opening exchanges are elemental: wind blows; rain patters; grass shivers; a boy in pink shorts plays with fire. But then not a huge amount happens after. The movie is the latest from director Tsai Ming-liang, a Malaysia-born filmmaker and master of slow burns; and a key figure in the second wave of Taiwanese New Cinema. What Tsai does do–and better than most–is long takes; beautiful compositions; urban bustle; gorgeous color; neon light–as well as capture touch, sexuality and the human body.
All of which can be found in Days, his first strictly narrative work since Journey to The West in 2014. West was released as a sort of feature-length installment of Tsai’s Walker series–video art pieces that followed a Buddhist monk (played by his ever-present muse Lee Kang-sheng) as he slowly made his way about.
All of which can be found in Days, his first strictly narrative work since Journey to The West in 2014. West was released as a sort of feature-length installment of Tsai’s Walker series–video art pieces that followed a Buddhist monk (played by his ever-present muse Lee Kang-sheng) as he slowly made his way about.
- 2/27/2020
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
Time moves slowly, as ever, for Malaysian director Tsai Ming-liang’s, as seconds become minutes, minutes become hours, and hours become “Days,” a gentle return to form in which Tsai’s longtime star, Lee Kang-sheng, is shown suffering from some unknown physical ailment, finding short-lived solace in the hands of a stranger (28-year-old Laotian immigrant Anong Houngheuangsy) in Bangkok.
As far back as their first collaboration, on Tsai’s 1992 “Rebels of the Neon God,” Lee has been afflicted by incurable neck pains, which the director incorporated into his movie “The River” five years later. “Days” could be seen as a variation on Pedro Almodóvar’s recent “Pain & Glory,” which dealt with human frailty and tentative homosexual connection in its own way — although that film, Almodóvar’s masterpiece, seemed restrained compared to the rest of his oeuvre, it’s positively exuberant in comparison to Tsai’s brand of minimalism.
“Days” is no masterpiece,...
As far back as their first collaboration, on Tsai’s 1992 “Rebels of the Neon God,” Lee has been afflicted by incurable neck pains, which the director incorporated into his movie “The River” five years later. “Days” could be seen as a variation on Pedro Almodóvar’s recent “Pain & Glory,” which dealt with human frailty and tentative homosexual connection in its own way — although that film, Almodóvar’s masterpiece, seemed restrained compared to the rest of his oeuvre, it’s positively exuberant in comparison to Tsai’s brand of minimalism.
“Days” is no masterpiece,...
- 2/27/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
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