Goodbye, Dragon Inn

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Goodbye, Dragon Inn
GDI Poster Medium1.jpg
A film poster for Goodbye, Dragon Inn
Chinese不散
MandarinBú sàn
Literallyno leaving
Directed byTsai Ming-liang
Written byTsai Ming-liang
Produced byHung-Chih Liang
Vincent Wang
StarringLee Kang-sheng
Chen Shiang-chyi
Kiyonobu Mitamura
Edited byChen Sheng-chang
Distributed byWellspring Media (USA)
Release dates
December 12, 2003 (Taiwan)
September 17, 2004 (USA)
Running time
82 minutes
CountryTaiwan
LanguagesMandarin, Taiwanese

Goodbye, Dragon Inn is a 2003 Taiwanese film directed by Tsai Ming-liang about the last screening of Dragon Inn at an old movie theater about to close down.

Plot[]

During the last 90 minutes of a screening of Dragon Inn at an old Taipei cinema about to close down, the hobbled ticket woman tries to find the projectionist to give him a steamed bun. A Japanese tourist seeks a homosexual encounter; Chen Chao-jung brushes off his advance and tells him the place is haunted. Jun Shi, an actor in Dragon Inn, watches the film with tears in his eyes. Outside, he meets Miao Tien, who also acted in the film and attended the screening with his grandson.

Cast[]

Production[]

In his prior film, What Time is it There?, Tsai set a scene in the old Fu-Ho theater at the edge of Taipei. Reminded of the super-cinemas and the poetic King Hu films of his youth, he shot a scene in the theater and premiered the film there. After the premiere, Tsai approached the owner to shoot an entire film there, fearing the soon-to-close theater would be lost forever. What was envisioned as a long short soon turned into a feature due to the long takes.[1]

Release[]

A 4K restoration was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Second Run on November 23, 2020, and digitally by Metrograph on December 18, 2020.[2][3]

Reception[]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Goodbye, Dragon Inn has an approval rating of 80% based on 44 reviews, with an average rating of 7.30/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Deliberately paced yet absorbing, Goodbye, Dragon Inn offers an affectionate—and refreshingly unique—look at a fading theater that should strike a chord with cineastes."[4] A. O. Scott of The New York Times praised the film, writing, "Goodbye, Dragon Inn has a quiet, cumulative magic, whose source is hard to identify. Its simple, meticulously composed frames are full of mystery and feeling; it's an action movie that stands perfectly still."[5] J. Hoberman of The Village Voice also liked the film: "And because Tsai is the director, Goodbye, Dragon Inn is also a movie of elegant understatement and considerable formal intelligence."[6]

Tsai considers it one of his best films and chose it as one of his entries of the 10 greatest films of all time in the 2012 Sight & Sound Directors' Poll. Directors Monte Hellman and Apichatpong Weerasethakul also voted for it in that poll.[7] On November 6, 2020, Weerasethakul tweeted, "THE best film of the last 125 years: Goodbye, Dragon Inn."[8] The film won several awards, including the FIPRESCI Prize at the 60th Venice International Film Festival and the Best Feature Gold Plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival.[9]

References[]

  1. ^ Ming-Liang, Tsai. Goodbye, Dragon Inn. Taiwan: Second Run DVD, 2020. Blu-Ray.
  2. ^ @SecondRunDVD (October 20, 2020). "NEW RELEASE NEWS!! Tsai Ming-Liang's GOODBYE, DRAGON INN on region-free Blu-ray and DVD editions Nov 23rd. Presented from a brand new 4K restoration - pre-order now" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  3. ^ @MetrographNYC (October 27, 2020). "Happy Birthday, Tsai Ming-liang! @MetrographPics will be releasing the new 4K restoration of GOODBYE, DRAGON INN digitally starting 12/18. Stay tuned" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  4. ^ "Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2004)". www.rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
  5. ^ "Inside a Dying Movie House Filled With Lonely Phantoms". The New York Times. 2004-09-17. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-08-20.
  6. ^ "The Last Picture Show | Village Voice". 7 September 2004. Retrieved 2017-08-20.
  7. ^ "Votes for BU SAN (2003) | BFI". www.bfi.org.uk. Retrieved 2017-08-18.
  8. ^ @kickthemachine (6 November 2020). "THE best film of the past 125 years: Goodbye, Dragon Inn. Get it, project big, and immerse (and cry, sleep, dream,…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  9. ^ IMDb, Bu san, retrieved 2017-08-18

External links[]

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