Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003)

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."

Director:

Ming-liang Tsai

Writers:

Sung Hsi (additional narrative), Ming-liang Tsai

Stars:

Kang-sheng Lee, Shiang-chyi Chen, Kiyonobu Mitamura

13 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Credited 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
Yi Cheng Lee
Kuei-Mei Yang	...	Peanut Eating Woman

Storyline

A Japanese tourist takes refuge from a rainstorm inside a once-popular movie theater, a decrepit old barn of a cinema that is screening a martial arts classic, King Hu's 1966 "Dragon Inn." Even with the rain bucketing down outside, it doesn't pull much of an audience -- and some of those who have turned up are less interested in the movie than in the possibility of meeting a stranger in the dark.

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Plot Keywords:

taipei taiwan | tourist | japanese | japanese tourist | rain | 

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Genres:

Drama | Comedy

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Details

Country:

Taiwan

Language:

Mandarin Min Nan Japanese

Release Date:

12 December 2003 (Taiwan)

Also Known As:

Goodbye, Dragon Inn

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$5,322, 19 September 2004

Gross USA:

$35,120

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,029,643

Company Credits

Production Co:

Homegreen Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

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

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

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

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Quotes

Shih Chun: Teacher Miao. Shih-Chun.
[pause]
Shih Chun: Teacher, you came to see the movie?
Tien Miao: I haven't seen a movie in a long time.
Shih Chun: No one goes to the movies anymore, and no one remembers us anymore.

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Connections

References Impostor (2001)

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Soundtracks

Chong Feng
by Ge Lan

User Reviews

Hard work even for the most committed movie-goer

Seeing this as part of the London Film Festival I had few expectations of the movie and was initially pleased to see the large cinema was a almost a sell-out. However, by the end of this 82 minute feature approximately a quarter of the audience had walked out and to be honest I am surprised that so many remained. Bravely, the film appears to ignore most conventions for film-making; dialogue, narrative and character development are rarely in evidence. The long still shots and selective use of sound (focusing primarily on footsteps and 'small' sounds from within the scene) created an eerie atmosphere but the film's content failed to capitalise on this platform to generate further interest in the characters or development of the themes.

Other films and directors (Tarkovsky) have created genuinely unique movies which have required significant commitment from the audience. However, on this occasion the director strays too far, the film demands too much from the viewer and offers scant return for this time. It reminded me of the experience of seeing a Russian film of the early 90s, The Stone (dir Sokurov), both these films require significant concentration and commitment from their viewers yet for me they both signify the excesses of arthouse cinema.