What Time Is it There?
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Movie Reviews of What Time Is it There?
Movie Review: A modern classic of architecture in film
Summary: 5 Stars
I've never reviewed before, but I just had to make a point against some of the negative reviews. To those reviewers who claim that What Time is it There? is full of long, boring shots, I emphatically suggest that you rethink the reason you like to watch movies. If you're into movies for action, gags, gimmicks, and stars, then yes, stay away from this one. But to watch this movie with a focus on its fantastically constructed shots, moving portraits of the human soul, and powerful images of modern city life is to understand why sometimes the architecture of a shot can speak volumes more than catchy dialogue and special effects.I actually got a chance to hear Tsai-Ming a few months ago, where he joked with the audience before a screening of this film, speaking through an interpreter and saying: "Other people ask me why I use such little dialogue. I ask them, 'Why do you use so much?'" He made a similar comment about the lack of recognizable musical soundtracks in his film. What the director is trying to explain here is that there are other ways of capturing attention and making a point, and this movie is incredibly effective at that. What Time is it There? is not only a powerful story about loneliness, familial isolation, and cultural identity, but shot so marvelously that nearly every shot took my breath away. I highly, highly recommend this film to anyone interested in the construction of a shot, and how the way that a character interacting with his or her space can be even more effective than dialogue in conveying their emotional relationships to themselves and the people around them.
As far as this DVD specfically, I can tell you that this movie is one to be seen on the big screen. So if you have an enormous television, you're in for a treat. However, the beautiful simplicity of the bare shots and the architectural construction both interior and exterior shines through no matter what format you're watching it on.
Movie Review: Wounding and unforgettable
Summary: 5 Stars
Many have griped of its laconic pace (to put it nicely), but I barely noticed the length of Ming-liang Tsai's elegiac masterpiece - quite the contrary, his concept of "time" is central to the movie. You'll notice there's not a single camera movement in the movie, everything is staged within a particular confined space, and that's because there's not a second of the movie that's not particularly planned out. It tells the story of three characters aching for anything else in their lives, and it does so with unobtrusive observation, a full creation and specification of every nuance of their actions. That makes every action - the restrained ones, the quirky ones, and the sexual ones - a quiet declaration of longing. That is to say the events of the movie are ordinary, for some, too painstakingly ordinary. For those that sign onto its stark stule, though, it'll be an ordinariness that, with nearly silent gestures, moves to the transcendent.Movie Review: Astonishing and truly unique
Summary: 5 Stars
The emotional impact of this film and the means by which it achieves its portrayal of three lives in their search for meaning and how we assign meaning within spaces of time is nothing short of beautiful. Its a dramatic contrast to Western films with loaded dialogue, camera gimmicks, and superfluous music scores. Using the humble film technique of restraint., director Tsai Ming Liang presents a narrative (and an homage to 'The 400 Blows') that unfolds over simple 5 minute or so shots with a camera fixed into position. Perfect timing and stunning compositions contribute to making this film very aware of itself and the sequential nature of both time and film.
Movie Review: A solid film all around
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is great. There is a quality to how it is filmed that really just reaches out and grabs you. The movie is well paced (some might call it slow) with lots of meticulously constructed long shots. The composition of these long shots is incredible, each detail in the background, every bit of lighting has been so carefully crafted to put you right there. It's an incredibly lonely film, but beautiful. If you liked "Down By Law" you'll probably enjoy this for many of the same reasons.Movie Review: A Warm tribute to Truffaut's "400 Blows".
Summary: 5 Stars
"What Time is it There?",a new film by Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-Liang, is a warm tribute to Francois Truffaut,Jean-Pierre Leaud,and "400 Blows".The original title of this film is "7 to 400 blows".Jean-Pierre Leaud also play a role in this film.It's a very beautiful and quiet film with a lot of deep emotion in it.One of the best film from "Taiwanese New Cinema".