What Time Is It There? (2001)

A watch salesman meets a young woman soon leaving for Paris and becomes infatuated, so he begins to change all the clocks in Taipei to Paris time.

Director:

Ming-liang Tsai

Writers:

Ming-liang Tsai, Pi-ying Yang

Stars:

Kang-sheng Lee, Shiang-chyi Chen, Yi-Ching Lu

11 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview:
Kang-sheng Lee	...	Hsiao-kang
Shiang-chyi Chen	...	Shiang-chyi
Yi-Ching Lu	...	Mother
Tien Miao	...	Father
Cecilia Yip	...	Woman in Paris
Chao-jung Chen	...	Man in Subway Station
Kuei Tsai	...	Prostitute (as Guei Tsai)
Arthur Nauzyciel	...	Man at Phone Booth
David Ganansia	...	Man at Restaurant
Chao-yi Tsai	...	Clock Store Owner
Kuo-Cheng Huang	...	Fat Boy
Jean-Pierre Léaud	...	Jean-Pierre / Man at the Cemetery

Storyline

When a young street vendor with a grim home life meets a woman on her way to Paris, they forge an instant connection. He changes all the clocks in Taipei to French time; as he watches François Truffaut's "Les 400 Coups," she has a strange encounter with its now-aging star, Jean-Pierre Leaud.

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Plot Keywords:

taipei taiwan | urinating into a bottle | watching tv | street vendor | french | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Taiwan France

Language:

Mandarin French Min Nan English

Release Date:

26 September 2001 (France)

Also Known As:

Qi dao si bai ji

Filming Locations:

Taipei Hesien, Taiwan

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$17,142, 13 January 2002, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$193,047, 23 June 2002

Company Credits

Production Co:

Arena Films, Homegreen Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

116 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The sequence in the cinema takes place in the same venue as Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003), and uses some of the same shots.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Father: Hsiao Kang? Hsiao Kang?

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Connections

Features The 400 Blows (1959)

User Reviews

Brilliant, for the most part

Tsai's unique style gives rise to another film about isolation in urbanization. Hsiao-kang's father has just died, and he and his mother must hold together. He doesn't have much problem doing that, but his mother is going insane with loneliness, so much so that she entirely imbues herself in her religious beliefs. Around this time, Hsaio-kang sells his personal watch to a girl about to fly to Paris. Soon after this, Hsiao-kang becomes obsessed with her (or is it the watch?) and decides to set all his watches (he sells them on the street) to Paris time, and then all the clocks in his house, and then all the clocks he can find. The girl gets stranded in Paris, having lost her plane ticket. The film moves slow and it has little dialogue, as is Tsai's style, but it is incredibly beautiful in its composition, editing, everything. The story is quite great, too. Tsai is a wonderful humanist. The film builds up to a silent crescendo, where the three main characters each endure cold acts of love and failed attempts at communication. When the film closes, all three are asleep, two in Taipei and one in Paris, all three alone.

Okay, I should have ended it there, but I do have two problems with the film, go figure. First, Hsiao-kang's clock setting is highly amusing at first, but it does get very old after a while. The sequence that ends in the movie theater bathroom is gold, perfect, so Tsai should have just stopped there with that motif. The scene where he sneaks into a clock store and the scene where he resets the clock tower are superfluous. We got the point, and it should have been moving forward. Secondly, I think it's about time Tsai moved on. I love the three films of his I've seen, including The Hole and Vive L'Amour, but the style is the same in all three, as is the theme. Michelangelo Antonioni, who is obviously Tsai's main inspiration (though this particular film has a lot of references to the Truffaut film The 400 Blows, including a very funny cameo by Jean-Pierre Leaud), had a problem moving on from this material, as well, with everything from L'Avventura to Red Desert being very similar (although his style evolved more than Tsai's has), and even after that his films had comparable themes. As much as I like Tsai (and Antonioni), if his next film is just like this, I'm sure it will hurt my presently high opinion of him. 9/10.