Bu san (2003)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Ming-liang Tsai

Writer:

Ming-liang Tsai (writer)

Release Date:

21 July 2004 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy

Plot:

On a dark, wet night a historic and regal Chinese cinema sees its final film. Together with a small handful of souls they bid "Goodbye, Dragon Inn."

Plot Keywords:

Rain | Japanese Tourist | Very Little Dialogue | Rice | Old Man

Awards:

10 wins & 9 nominations

Cast

Kang-sheng Lee	...	Hsiao-Kang
Shiang-chyi Chen	...	Ticket Woman
Kiyonobu Mitamura	...	Japanese tourist
Tien Miao	...	Himself
Chun Shih	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Chao-jung Chen
Kuei-Mei Yang	...	Peanut Eating Woman

Also Known As:

Bu jian bu san
Good Bye, Dragon Inn (International: English title)
Goodbye, Dragon Inn (USA) (DVD box title)

Runtime:

82 min | Argentina:84 min (Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente)

Country:

Taiwan

Language:

Mandarin | Taiwanese

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Argentina:13

Company:

Homegreen Films

Trivia:

The first line of dialogue appears 40 minutes into the film.

Quotes:

The man: Do you know this theater is haunted?
[pause]
The man: This theater is haunted.
[pause]
The man: Ghosts.
[walks away]
Japanese tourist: [calling out to departing man] I'm Japanese.
The man: Good bye.
Japanese tourist: Good bye.

Movie Connections:

References Impostor (2001)

Soundtrack:

Chong Feng

A film about watching film

It has been nearly two weeks since I saw Bu jian bu san (Goodbye, Dragon Inn) and I still can't get some of the images out of my mind. This is partly due to the fact that the director (Ming- liang Tsai) holds onto an image, a scene, long after, or before any action occurs. In doing so he insists the viewer bear witness to its own self re-presentation in the form of characters in a film they are watching.

Two of the finest moments in the film are moments where the camera is pointed back towards the mostly empty chairs of the cinema itself. In one, an actor who appeared in the original kung-fu film Dragon Inn watches a scene from the original. As the camera settles on his face, we are pulled ever closer, listening to the original's soundtrack while watching the actor as a receptive viewer. We are watching the emotions of time and change develop on his face. Finally, with his face in extreme close-up and the water glistening in his eyes with the film's light reflecting in them a single tear falls down his cheek.

Near the end of the film as the old classic has ended the camera is again pointed to the empty chairs of the cinema. There is no one there, then on the far side of the frame the ticket woman enters with bucket and mop. She walks across, up the stairs, back down and out the left side of the screen, literally walking off the frame as the camera remains motionless. He holds this shot for what many will argue is an interminable time. But he wants you to really take in this shot, consider what you are witness of, think about your own place now, viewing a film.

There is far more to this film than just these two scenes. They just exemplify the kind of artful ways this film explores the nature of action and reaction. What adds to this already complex and studied examination of cinema and the cinema viewing experience is the exquisite cinematography done by Ben-Bong Liao. If you love film, especially film that asks you to fully participate in the moment, then find a screening of this film and get lost in it.