Waste of time

How sad is this?

Crappy film

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Somewhere in the world, in some run down town, you can bet there's a cinema that's on its final reel, not just of the night, but of its existence. It's a sad fact of life that everything must come to an end at some point, and one that cinema itself has taken upon itself to dwell within too many times. Yet when taken into the context of film and the cinema-going experience itself, very little has been discussed or expressed up on the big screen in regards. In what is undoubtedly one of the most original experiences you'll never have in a theatre (but rather on your TV set, because nowhere will play this ever again, at least this side of the Pacific), Goodbye Dragon Inn is a somber and reflective piece of film that takes its ever-sweet time at documenting the final breaths of a small neglected film-house somewhere in China through long, documentive shots that linger on long after the projector dims. Filmed on location at a cinema that would, ironically, close its doors less than a year later, Ming-liang Tsai delivers a piece of art that mimics life which in turn mimics art—it's daring, and it's bold, in just about all the least daring and bold ways imaginable.Set over the course of eighty minutes whilst classic Kung-Fu action flick Dragon Inn plays out its final screening, Goodbye Dragon Inn serves as something of an elegy or funeral for the dying experience that is going to see a movie. Make no mistake, Ming-liang Tsai doesn't coat anything here in obtuse shades of rose-tinted romance, nor does he make light of the spectacle either. Instead, the director manages to fuse the movie's distinctly reflective mood with that of humour and little minute observations that many cinephiles will be sure to get a kick out of. Indeed, amongst some of the film's most endearing moments is a simple sequence which sees one member of the audience trapped in between a pair of feet over the headrest next to him, and a weird guy obviously trying to make a pass; and this is after moving away from two obnoxious face- stuffers. Even in a half-dead cinema, it would seem, you can't escape its inevitable drawbacks.Even with these brief moments of humour however, the vast majority of the movie remains static and elongated to the point where much sense of reality is lost. Again echoing the experience of going to see a movie and getting lost in the un-reality of that glow coming at you from the surrounding darkness, Ming-liang Tsai embodies his subject matter with a thorough sense of commitment. Characters, rather than feature as living, breathing, a-list stars and personas, come across more as b-lister background characters—neglected to speaking only forty minutes into the feature, and then even after that, speaking just a few more some twenty minutes later. Scenes, which can sometimes last for minutes on end with next to no movement on the screen whatsoever, drag time and yet manage to keep you there, watching and waiting to see what magic perhaps lies somewhere in that mysterious room. Putting a sharp restraint on dialogue and plot or action, the director forces the viewer to move at his pace, which is a slow burning funeral march—mournful yet charming at the same time.No matter how you approach Ming-liang Tsai's work here however, there remains an unmitigated feeling that what you do experience over the course of these eighty minutes is something special. Not just in what it says, or how it says it, but in how Goodbye Dragon Inn manages to take these otherwise off-putting and easily disgruntling methods of minimalist film-making and in turn fashion them into something really quite captivating and unique; the methodology is simple, yet the results are not. Striking a firm balance between art-house and sentimental naval-gazing upon the medium in which it itself exists, Goodbye Dragon Inn is an original and thought-provoking piece of cinema that signals the final curtain call of a cinematic era with a humble and resolute grin of affection.

I just watched this film in my World Cinema film class. It was very interesting I must say, but I appeared to be the only person in the class to have enjoyed it. Others said the movie was too slow, had no plot, and was boring.I understand where they're coming from, this type of film has a specific target audience. It reminded me of a couple of Gus Van Sant's films, "Elephant" and "Gerry". They were slow-paced and very quiet, nothing really went on, but i love these kinds of movies. Would I recommend watching it? Yes. Would I recommend buying it? No. It's not the type of movie you'll watch more than once or twice. It does get sort of monotonous towards the end, with the extremely long cuts that never moved.But there were some good qualities. For me, the movie was hilarious. It was definitely my kind of humor. There's the gimp girl that works at the theater who we are forced to watch walk up the stairs, limping all along the way. And then, my favorite, was the awkward Japanese boy who watched everybody in the theater. the uncomfortable situations he's put in our hilarious. We think something is going to happen each time, but nothing ever does. But still, that's why it's so hilarious. Definitely not the type of humor for everyone though. If you're the kind that gets bored easily then you'll be too frustrated to appreciate the humor, b/c chances are you'll turn the film off. There was some beautiful composition and cinematography. the different camera angles and distances are interesting for the most part. but again, this is probably something more for film students than the average viewer.So, overall I think this movie is worth a look. Depending on who you are, you may find it funny, but you may find it sad b/c of how lonely the characters are, esp. the Japanese boy and the gimp. This film will make you uncomfortable and you may squirm at times. If you like that in a film then I'd recommend this.

I can certainly understand others comments about this film being dull and uninteresting. However, I find it refreshing that a director has taken the risk in creating a film as neutral as this. At a glance, the plot is extremely simple. But I find each of the characters to be intriguing as they each have so many tells. I also enjoyed the parallels between the film in progress and the interaction between viewers in the theater. All sense of emotion has been left at the door in the creation of this film, and the soundtrack is barely existent. The photography was phenomenal, and the transitions between scenes were fantastic. I suggest you not think of this as a movie at all, but rather a work of art.

Tsai Ming-liang's "Goodbye Dragon Inn" is a spectacularly dull movie, a limp ode to the bygone days of cinema-going. A film smitten with its own stasis, "Goodbye" culminates in a shot held for an obscene amount of time of an empty movie theater. Tsai's known for holding his shots way past the point most directors yell cut, and the result can be strikingly effective in the right context (the brilliant final shot of "Vive L'Amour") but "Goodbye" is almost an art film parody in its studied minimalism. The money shot in particular is a groan-inducer that makes you long for a fast-forward button. "Goodbye Dragon Inn" sounds like it ought to appeal: a homage to the glory days of cinema by a great director, but Tsai seems to be resting on the assumption that anything he cranks out these days is destined for acclaim (which is true). However, ever since "The Hole" Tsai's inspiration appears to be running out; what in the earlier films seems innovative comes off as mannered in the later ones. "What Time is it There?" is a good flick but hardly feels like anything new from the filmmaker, "The Skywalk is Gone" is a short-film punchline for "What Time?," and "Goodbye" is just grinding. Tsai's probably incapable of making a thoroughly awful movie and there are spots of greatness in "Goodbye Dragon Inn," but hardly enough to justify a feature-length film. You can almost feel the director yawning behind the camera as he's filming, telling his actress to just continue sitting for an interminable amount of time so he can pad it just a little more (though the movie is only 80 minutes long it feels much, much longer). The director's always threatened to deadend his limited stylistic resources and "Goodbye Dragon Inn" is the wall he's always threatened to hit. I like Tsai and think he has some worthwhile things to say, but he's said the same things over and over again and the point's been made. People these days have trouble connecting, the values of the old days have become buried under the industrial rubble of progress, yes yes. Tsai fixates on the same themes in the same way he fixates on an empty theater or a woman hobbling slowly across the screen. Since there isn't too terribly much variety thematically or stylistically in the his films, familiarity with his past work leads to a feeling of having repeatedly tread the same path. It takes a true master to be able to be as stubbornly dwell on the same ideas in the same manner over the course of a career and pull it off, and Tsai is hardly a Bresson or Ozu. Flashes of brilliance and invention are certainly to be found in Tsai's movies, but "Goodbye" just uses minimalism to mask its lack of substance. Slow movies don't have to be tedious and unrewarding, as a few Tsai Ming-liang films have demonstrated, but often the tendency among art film devotees is to equivocate slow and good. "Goodbye Dragon Inn" isn't very good. The ideas are slight, the homage curiously lacks feeling, and the whole thing just drags along way past the point of interest like Tsai's lead actress down the corridor.