Its a shame not everyone gets Tsai.
This woman in here, and in 'The hole', Yang Kuei-Mei is so amazing as well.
-mouldyboats
This was my second Tsai film and gave me a better idea what to expect. Little dialogue, long shots, and no real plot to speak of. Perhaps the more movies of his I see, the better I'll like him, but I still wasn't overwhelmed by it. Got plenty more to watch though. Agree about Yang Kuei-Mei.
shareThis was my 3rd favorite of the 4 tsai movies I've seen so far. Better than Rebels of the Neon God but I liked What Time Is It There and The Hole more. The ending was very good. If I didn't dislike the 2nd male character I think I would've liked this more. I liked Kuei-Mei more in The Hole but I think thats mostly because I have a bias against the early-90s look she has in this movie. I liked the actress in What time is it there infinetly more, almost as much as Faye Wong in Wong Kar-Wai's movies.
shareto be honest, i thought it was one of the worse endings i remember watching recently.
i don't mind very long shots and slow films; in fact Antonioni and Tarkovsky are 2 of my favourite directors.
but the final scene of Vive L'Amour just didn't do much for me, and eventually it ended up annoying me. i guess it has an effect on some people that it didn't have on me.
i thought most of the rest of the film was alright though. not great, but alright.
Either I just didn't get ir or else I just really didn't like this movie and specially the ending.
Can you please explain to me why it's one of the best endings ever?
(I apologize for my poor english syntax and spell; I'll appreciate comments in order to improve it)
Just not one for explaining things...what can I say I just react to 'stuff'
even though a native speaker of English I cannot use it to give you an answer.
The last scene uses nothing more than the viewer of the film to wring-out
the utter emptiness of that urban grinder of souls and spirit. THere is no dialogue, just the rythm of her taking steps and the construction and traffic in the background and the anti-melody of her weeping. oh yes and the time....he really made you soak in it. If you had wondered what you were watching and what for, there it was.
-mouldyboats
http://www.ymdb.com/mouldyboats/l34676_ukuk.html
I like that explanation, and it's given me a bit more appreciation for the ending. Still, something about it really annoyed me, and I think I know what it was.
The scenes of her walking through that desolate site were brilliant. I could've watched that for another 10 minutes. But the actual ending--the crying scene--totally lost me, because it seemed contrived.
I say that because she cries 3 times. Each time you think it's over she launches back into it, and it becomes almost comedic. Once she even lights up a new cigarette before resuming her sobs. To me, that was a little ...what's the word... schmaltzy? It took us out of the overall "desolation of the human condition" and instead focused on one individual's melodramatic reaction.
I think the movie would've been much better punctuated by the long, wide shot of the decay she walks through, especially when the camera loses her for a while. That really hit me. The crying was a bit too much, imo.
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Yes, especially when the camera temporarily 'loses track' of Yang and slowly pans over city, and there's a shot of a church with a big cross...very cool.
i also liked how the benches in the park/amphitheater looked like movie seats - a great metacinematic reflection there (harkening back to the second scene of the film when Lee stares at himself/us in the surveillance mirror).
this being my 3rd favorite of Tsai's films (#1 being Goodbye Dragon Inn, #2 WTIIT), and i have seen all of them, they all have, in a sense, very (absurdly) happy endings.