What Time Is It There?

Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating Film for Patient People
Review: This movie is unparalleled in its authentic presentation of life, and its incredibly knack for making the everyday experiences of human beings such as boredom, miscommunication, and ridiculous but painful moments of social awkwardness somehow seem fascinating. The key to this is Tsai Ming-Liang's incredible ability to take the most mundane aspects of life and make them seem both absurdly beautiful and beautifully absurd, all accomplished while utilizing an incredibly sparse arsenal of music (none at all until the closing credits), dialogue (only in a handful of scenes), and plot (not much to speak of, besides an uneventful trip to Paris and a fascination with time zones). As a result, the film is extraordinarily rewarding, but only to those with attention spans long enough to sit through what amounts to 116 minutes of negative space. Think Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise on downers and without the pat resolution (yes, I'm being serious).

Rating:
Summary: Lonely people, lonely worlds
Review: Tsai Ming Lian's new film "what time is it there" is an interesting watch. Once again he focuses on the lives of lonely people. Main character loses his father and meets a girl who leaves for Paris. He starts to set all the watches he has (he is a watch seller on the street) to the Paris time. Later he is obsessed with setting all the watches big and small to the Paris time, including a building watch.
Camera journeys into dark, crowded or stuffy rooms with dirty yellow light. Directors chose of using darkness to present people's loneliness continues with this film in various scenes. After losing a husband, widow mother tries to keep the light out by covering everywhere in the house in order to preserve the husband's soul longer If he wishes to visit her in another form. She always prepare a plate for him, unable to cope with his absence. Main character misses the girl whom he saw twice, and tries to stay close to her by setting the time to Paris, drinking french wine on the top of a building (maybe dreaming eiffel tower) and watching French movies on video. She is also lonely in Paris, and refuses to let people in her life who are also lonely, always thinking someone else, trying to phone to that person but failing every attempt (maybe the watch seller who gave her the number, maybe not)
Film has all these emotions told well by camera, actors and cinephotography . So do not expect much speech between the characters. It is a semi silent film in many senses and story actually does not need conversation. But of course director lighten things up for us, using his sense of humour as showing people on their most humane and defenceless moments like burping. He also uses lots of irony in the religious rituels of mourning.
Tsai Ming Lian's films are not easy nor too energetic. So do not expect Wong Kar Wai or Ang Lee type of work here.You need to sit patiently and enjoy the film as a whole, trying to understand the characters actions.
It may not be an easy film for everyone sometimes but definitely a treat for the appreciators of his work.

Rating:
Summary: You know what time it is
Review: What time is it there is a film which combines sharp dark humor, with an colorful immobile aesthetic to create a film which harmonically resonates like the second hand, on an analog watch, once worn by a lost lover.