Tsai Ming-liang/Taiwan/1994; R1
Fox Lorber, US$14.95 | Reviewed by Tim Wong

A CINEMA of silences, Tsai Ming-liang's Vive L'Amour takes high modernism to atmospheric, almost existential extremes in its long pauses and titillating moments of nothingness. Dreamy, serene, and charged with a slow burning eroticism, it ponders three dislocated souls – a real estate agent, a street merchant and a timid homosexual man – weaving in and out of time, place, and the urban sprawl of contemporary Taiwan.

Anchored on a single, sterile location, the film's rendezvous point – an empty, high-rise apartment – registers as a vacant portal for casual sex and uninvited squatting. Having first acquired a discarded key, Hsiao-Kang (Lee Kang-sheng) moves in, and is later joined by Ah-Jung (Chen Chao-jung); his sexual encounters with May Lin (Yang Kuei-Mei) only serving to amplify an already pervading sense of alienation. Despite frequenting the same spaces, interaction between the trio exists in only the most primitive form; the spoken word replaced by shared glances and fleeting, physical exchanges in the absence of something more "real".

As with Tsai's later films – What Time is it There? and more recently, Goodbye Dragon Inn – there's a suggestion of a passing or deep longing for "something", articulated through quiet stares, enduring loneliness and a perpetual sense of contemplation. Nearly bereft of dialogue, it's a film that also unravels like the ages of peeling wallpaper, revealing new and old layers with each repeated, seductive viewing.


FOX LORBER present the image in a soft transfer, matted at 1.66:1 and is non-anamorphic. The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is in Mandarin with optional English subtitles. The non-existent extras include fairly useless production notes, filmographies and award info.

I was late discovering Tsai Ming-liang, and haven't seen nearly enough of his work to regard myself a fan. I am an admirer though, and found there were moments in Vive L'Amour – particularly the final, sustained shot of May Lin – where the earth itself, seemed to stand still. As such, actual fans and fellow admirers should consider this well worth tracking down.