Tsai Ming-liang
Tsai Ming-Liang | |
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![]() Tsai at the 2013 Tokyo Filmex | |
Born | |
Alma mater | Chinese Culture University, Taipei |
Occupation(s) | Film director, screenwriter |
Years active | 1989–present |
Awards | Venice Film Festival – Golden Lion 1994 – Vive L'Amour Grand Jury Prize 2013 – Stray Dogs Berlin Film Festival 1994 – Vive L'Amour Best Director 1994 – Vive L'Amour 2013 – Stray Dogs |
Chinese name | |
Chinese | 蔡明亮 |
Hanyu Pinyin | Cài Míngliàng |
Tsai Ming-liang (Chinese: 蔡明亮; born 27 October 1957) is a Malaysian filmmaker based in Taiwan. Tsai has written and directed 11 feature films, many short films, and television films. He is one of the most celebrated "Second New Wave" film directors of Taiwanese cinema. His films have been acclaimed worldwide and have won numerous awards at festivals. In 1994, Tsai won the Golden Lion at the 51st Venice International Film Festival for the film Vive L'Amour.
Early life
[edit]Tsai was born in Malaysia, is of Chinese descent and spent his first 20 years in Kuching, Sarawak, after which he moved to Taipei, Taiwan. This, he said, had "a huge impact on [his] mind and psyche". "Even today", Tsai has said, "I feel I belong neither to Taiwan nor to Malaysia. In a sense, I can go anywhere I want and fit in, but I never feel that sense of belonging."[1]
Tsai graduated from the Drama and Cinema Department of the Chinese Culture University of Taiwan in 1982 and worked as a theatrical producer, screenwriter, and television director in Hong Kong. From 1989 to 1991, he directed several telefilms. One of these, Boys, starred his muse, Lee Kang-sheng.
Career
[edit]1992–1998
[edit]Tsai's first feature film was Rebels of the Neon God (1992). A film about troubled youth in Taipei, it starred Lee as the character Hsiao-Kang. Lee went on to appear in all of Tsai's feature films as of 2023. Tsai's second feature, Vive L'Amour (1994), is about three people who unknowingly share an apartment. The film is slow-paced, has little dialogue, and is about alienation; all of these became Tsai's trademarks. Vive L'Amour was critically acclaimed and won the Golden Horse Awards for best picture and best director.
Tsai's next film was The River (1997), in which a family has to deal with the son's neck pain. The family is similar to one that appears in Rebels of the Neon God and is played by the same three actors. The Hole (1998) is about two neighbors in an apartment. It features several musical numbers.
1999–2009
[edit]In Tsai's next film, What Time Is It There? (2001), a man and a woman meet in Taipei before the woman travels to Paris. This was Tsai's first film to star Chen Shiang-chyi, who starred in his next few films alongside Lee. Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003) is about people inside an old cinema that is closing down. For this film, Tsai included even longer shots and fewer lines of dialogue than in previous films, a trend that continued in his later work. The Wayward Cloud (2005) is a sequel to What Time Is It There? in which Hsiao-Kang and Shiang-chyi meet again and start a relationship while Hsiao-Kang works as a pornographic film actor. This film, like The Hole, features several musical numbers.
Tsai's next film, I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (2006), was his first set in Malaysia and is about two different characters, both played by Lee. In 2007, the Malaysian Censorship Board banned the film based on incidents shown depicting the country "in a bad light" for cultural, ethical, and racial reasons, but later allowed it to be screened in the country after Tsai agreed to censor parts of the film according to the board's requirements.[2] Tsai's next film, Face (2009), is about a Taiwanese director who travels to France to shoot a film.
2010–present
[edit]![](http://178.128.105.246/content-http-upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/34/Asian_Filmmaker_of_the_Year%2C_2010.jpg/300px-Asian_Filmmaker_of_the_Year%2C_2010.jpg)
Tsai's next feature film was Stray Dogs (2013), about a homeless family.
Most of Tsai's output in the 2010s was dedicated to his exhibition films, in particular the Walker series (2012–24), the subject of which was a monk played by Lee who travels by walking slowly, usually surrounded by a busy background.
In 2020, Tsai released Days, which competed for the Golden Bear at the Berlinale film festival.
In 2021, Tsai released Wandering, a short installation film with no dialogue, which follows a woman visiting an exhibition of Tsai's "Walker" series in Taiwan.
Honours
[edit]Tsai's honours include a Golden Lion (best picture) for Vive L'Amour at the 51st Venice International Film Festival; the Silver Bear – Special Jury Prize for The River at the 47th Berlin International Film Festival;[3] the FIPRESCI award for The Hole at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival;[4] and the Alfred Bauer Prize and Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Achievement for The Wayward Cloud at the 55th Berlin International Film Festival; the Grand Jury Prize at the 70th Venice International Film Festival for Stray Dogs. In 1995, he was a member of the jury at the 45th Berlin International Film Festival.[5]
In 2003, The Guardian voted Tsai No. 18 of the 40 best directors in the world.[6] In 2014, he was named an officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the government of France.[7]
Personal life
[edit]Tsai is gay and has incorporated queer themes into his films. Since 2021, he has lived in the mountains near Taipei, where he renovates and lives in abandoned apartments. He shares his living spaces with his long-term collaborator, Lee Kang-sheng, in a platonic relationship.[8]
Filmography
[edit]Feature films
[edit]Year | Title |
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1992 | Rebels of the Neon God |
1994 | Vive L'Amour |
1997 | The River |
1998 | The Hole |
2001 | What Time Is It There? |
2003 | Goodbye, Dragon Inn |
2005 | The Wayward Cloud[9] |
2006 | I Don't Want to Sleep Alone |
2009 | Face[10] |
2013 | Stray Dogs[11][12] |
2020 | Days[13] |
Year | Title |
---|---|
2012 | No Form[15] |
2012 | Walker |
2012 | Diamond Sutra[16][17] |
2012 | Sleepwalk |
2013 | Walking on Water |
2014 | Journey to the West[18] |
2015 | No No Sleep |
2018 | Sand |
2022 | Where |
2024 | Abiding Nowhere |
Other exhibition works
[edit]Year | Title |
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2001 | Fish, Underground (or A Conversation with God) |
2002 | The Skywalk Is Gone |
2008 | Madame Butterfly– part of the Lucca Film Festival project "Twenty Puccini"[19][20][21][22] |
2015 | Xiao Kang[23][24] |
2017 | The Deserted[25] |
2019 | Light |
2021 | Màn bù jīng xīn [Casually] [aka Wandering] |
2021 | Liang ye bu neng liu / The Night |
2021 | The Moon and the Tree[14] |
2022 | Where do you stand, Tsai Ming-Liang?[14] |
Segments
[edit]Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
2004 | Welcome to São Paulo | "Aquarium" |
2007 | To Each His Own Cinema | "It's a Dream" |
2012 | Beautiful 2012 | "Walker"[26][27][28][29] |
2013 | Letters from the South | "Walking on Water"[30][31][32] |
2015 | Beautiful 2015 | "No No Sleep"[33][34] |
Documentaries
[edit]Year | Title |
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2008 | Sleeping on Dark Waters |
2015 | Nà gè xià wu [That Afternoon, aka Afternoon][35][36] |
2018 | Your Face[37] |
Telefilms
[edit]Year | Title |
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1989 | Endless Love |
1989 | The Happy Weaver |
1989 | Far Away |
1989 | All Corners of the World |
1990 | Li Hsiang's Love Line |
1990 | My Name is Mary |
1990 | Ah-Hsiung's First Love |
1991 | Give Me a Home |
1991 | Boys |
1991 | Hsio Yueh's Dowry |
1995 | My New Friends |
Casting
[edit]Tsai frequently recasts actors he has worked with on previous films:
Actor | Rebels of the Neon God (1992) |
Vive L'Amour (1994) |
The River (1997) |
The Hole (1998) |
What Time Is It There? (2001) |
Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003) |
The Wayward Cloud (2005) |
I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (2006) |
Face (2009) |
Stray Dogs (2013) |
Days (2020) |
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Lee Kang-sheng | ![]() |
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Lu Yi-ching | ![]() |
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Yang Kuei-mei | ![]() |
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Chen Shiang-chyi | ![]() |
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Chen Chao-jung | ![]() |
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Miao Tien | ![]() |
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Norman Atun | ![]() |
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References
[edit]- ^ Huang, Andrew (18 February 2005). "Sense and sensuality: Art-house master Tsai Ming-Liang discusses his new movie 'The Wayward Cloud,' and his philosophies in a moody, existential interview". Taiwan News.
- ^ "Cutting for change" Archived 30 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, TheStar Online, 14 May 2007.
- ^ "Berlinale: 1997 Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Archived from the original on 11 November 2013. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: The Hole". festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on 22 August 2011. Retrieved 29 September 2009.
- ^ "45th Berlin International Film Festival". berlinale.de. Archived from the original on 8 May 2005. Retrieved 29 December 2011.
- ^ Bradshaw, Peter; Brooks, Xa; Haskell, Molly; Malcolm, Derek; Pulver, Andrew; Rich, B. Ruby; Rose, Steve (13 November 2003). "The world's 40 best directors". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 1 January 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2017.
- ^ Wang, Jing-yi; Chen, Jay (14 August 2014). "Movie director Tsai Ming-Liang conferred with French order". Archived from the original on 28 October 2019. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
- ^ Zhou, Dennie. "In Taiwan's Mountains, a Director Works to Slow Life Down". newyorker.com. New Yorker. Archived from the original on 4 June 2023. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
- ^ "Berlinale Programme 2005 – Tian bian yi duo yun The Wayward Cloud". berlinale.de. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: Face". festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on 4 July 2009. Retrieved 29 May 2009.
- ^ STRAY DOGS by Tsai Ming Liang | Urban Distribution International Archived 8 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Urbandistrib.com. Retrieved on 29 Jul 2015.
- ^ 70th Venice International Film Festival – Venezia 70 - Jiaoyou (Stray Dogs) Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Labiennale.org. Retrieved on 22 May 2014.
- ^ "2020 Berlinale competition announcement. Berlinale.de. Retrieved on 02 February 2020". Archived from the original on 13 April 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
- ^ a b c "Tsai Ming-Liang | Centre Pompidou Retrospective Brochure" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 November 2022. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
- ^ Festival international de cinéma – International film festival Archived 5 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. FIDMarseille. Retrieved on 22 May 2014.
- ^ "69th Venice International Film Festival – Orizzonti - Jingang jing (Diamond Sutra) – Short Film – Closing Screening". labiennale.org. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
- ^ English – Past Exhibitions – Past Exhibitions Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Ntmofa.gov.tw. Retrieved on 22 May 2014.
- ^ "Berlinale Programme 2014 – Xi You Journey to the West". berlinale.de. Archived from the original on 4 February 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
- ^ Festival international de cinéma – International film festival Archived 5 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. FIDMarseille. Retrieved on 22 May 2014.
- ^ Ming Liang TSAI: Madame Butterfly | Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid | Archived 12 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Art-action.org. Retrieved on 22 May 2014.
- ^ (in German) MADAME BUTTERFLY | Viennale Archived 1 June 2023 at the Wayback Machine. Viennale.at. Retrieved on 22 May 2014.
- ^ Madam Butterfly | Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival Archived 31 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Dokument-festival.com (15 May 2014). Retrieved on 22 May 2014.
- ^ VIENNALE TRAILER 2015 – Tsai Ming-liang: XIAO KANG Archived 4 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine. viennale.at. Retrieved on 25 Oct 2015.
- ^ "Viennale-Trailer 2015: Xiao Kang (by Tsai Ming-Liang)" on YouTube
- ^ Tsai Ming-liang on Confronting Death in ‘The Deserted’ and the Future of Virtual Reality Archived 10 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine. thefilmstage.com. Retrieved on 5 Feb 2018.
- ^ http://www.cphdox.dk/d/film.lasso?e=1&ser=1785&s=2012003,2012012[dead link]
- ^ Beautiful 2012 – Film Details :: The 36th Hong Kong International Film Festival. 36.hkiff.org.hk. Retrieved on 22 May 2014.
- ^ Beautiful 2012 | CAAMFest 2013 Archived 27 February 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Caamfest.com. Retrieved on 22 May 2014.
- ^ Andrade, Fábio (20 December 2013). "Walker, by Tsai Ming-Liang (Hong Kong, 2012)". Cinética. ISSN 1983-0343. Archived from the original on 15 July 2015. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
- ^ "BIFF 2013 Letters From The South". biff.kr. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
- ^ "HKAFF 2013 Film Program Letters From The South". hkaff.asia. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
- ^ "2013 TGHFF Letters From The South". goldenhorse.org.tw. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
- ^ Beautiful 2015 – Film Details :: The 39th Hong Kong International Film Festival Archived 28 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine. 39.hkiff.org.hk. Retrieved on 28 May 2015.
- ^ "The 39th HKIFF collaborates once again with four international filmmakers For the Beautiful 2015 omnibus". hkiff.org.hk. Archived from the original on 28 May 2015. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
- ^ 72nd Venice International Film Festival – Out of Competition - NA RI XIAWU (AFTERNOON) Archived 7 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Labiennale.org. Retrieved on 22 Aug 2015.
- ^ 40th Toronto International Film Festival – Wavelengths - AFTERNOON NA RI XIA WU Archived 6 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine. tiff.net. Retrieved on 22 Aug 2015.
- ^ 75th Venice International Film Festival – Biennale Cinema 2018 | Ni de lian (Your Face) Archived 27 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Labiennale.org. Retrieved on 27 October 2018.
External links
[edit]![](http://178.128.105.246/content-http-upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- 1957 births
- Living people
- Chinese Culture University alumni
- Malaysian people of Chinese descent
- Malaysian film directors
- Taiwanese film directors
- LGBT film directors
- LGBT television directors
- Taiwanese gay men
- Malaysian gay men
- People from Jieyang
- People from Kuching
- Malaysian emigrants to Taiwan
- Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
- Directors of Golden Lion winners
- 20th-century Taiwanese LGBT people
- 20th-century Malaysian LGBT people
- 21st-century Taiwanese LGBT people
- 21st-century Malaysian LGBT people