GOODBYE, DRAGON INN

A dilapidated Taiwanese movie theater shows its final movie – an old kung-fu classic DRAGON INN by King Hu. The action-packed frenetic camerawork of the martial arts movies strikingly contrasts with the calm mise-en-scene shots of the modernist Tsai Ming-liang. Two old actors from the original movie come in to see their glory days on the screen which is about to fade to black. There is romance and sexual fumbling in the theater itself as the “ticket girl” tries to seduce the projectionist before it’s forever too late and as a Japanese tourist looks for a match for his cigarette and perhaps something more. An old theater would not be complete without a ghost, so one dutifully appears/disappears. Loneliness, inevitable change and decay, and quite abound in this masterful director’s intriguing film about the joys and sadness of movie theaters.