Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003): One last movie before closing
2003 • Tsai Ming-liang • 1.85:1 • Jump to Gallery ↓
Directed by Tsai Ming-liang, Goodbye, Dragon Inn is set during the final screening at an almost deserted cinema. There, a handful of individuals, from the last remaining members of the staff to the very few spectators, move through the space with minimal interaction.
Set in early 2000s Taiwan, the film reflects concerns about the decline of traditional cinemas. It depicts the cinema as a large, mostly empty auditorium with long, desolate corridors, a crumbling projection booth, and hidden corners and passageways. It is a space marked by decay and memory, and the use of long takes highlights the stillness and emptiness of the place.
The film is built around a screening of King Hu’s Dragon Inn, with the actors from this classic commenting on the nearly forgotten, glorious cinematic era themselves. Goodbye, Dragon Inn is a defining work of slow cinema and minimalist filmmaking, standing as both a reflection on cinema’s past and a formal exploration of its potential as pure observation.
Technical Specs:
- The Story: On a rainy night in Taipei, a nearly empty movie theater screens Dragon Inn for the last time, while its few remaining patrons—ghosts of the past, both literal and figurative—wander silently through the decaying hallways. Read my review of Goodbye, Dragon Inn.
- Actors: Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Shiang-chyi, Kiyonobu Mitamura, Chun Shih, Miao Tien.
- Director: Tsai Ming-liang
- Year: 2003
- Cinematographer: Liao Pen-jung
- Origin: Taiwanese Cinema
- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Genre: Drama
