A touching film about a watch vendor in Tapei who meets the woman of his dreams, who is about to leave for Paris. To maintain a connection with her, he tries to set every watch he sees to Paris time.
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A touching film about a watch vendor in Tapei who meets the woman of his dreams, who is about to leave for Paris. To maintain a connection with her, he tries to set every watch he sees to Paris time.
Hsiao-Kang sells watches in the streets of Taipei. One evening, shortly after his father's death, he encounters a young woman, Hsiang-Chyi. She leaves for Paris the following day. Weighed down by his mother's strange behaviour - she awaits the return of her defunct husband's spirit - Hsiao-Kang takes refuge in the memory of the young woman and tries to get closer to her by setting all of Taipei's watches and clocks to Paris time.
Key cast / credits: Dir: Ming-liang Tsai
Cast: Lee Kang-Sheng, Chen Shiang-Chyi, Lu Yi-Ching
Running time: 116 mins
Release date: August 2001 (UK)
Country: Taiwan / France
Language: Mandarin, French, Taiwanese, English
Format available: 35mm
Grand Prix Technique, Cannes 2001
NETPAC Award, Brisbane 2001
Official Selection: Edinburgh, Toronto, New York, Pusan 2001
"one of the enigmas about Tsai's work is that it is always funny and always sad, never just one or the other."
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times
"[this] film boasts great photography, inspired moments of absurd, surreal humour and the most brilliantly subtle ending of any film you're likely to see this year."
Empire Magazine
"It feels more contemporary, at least from a global perspective, than any other new movie in town, and central to it is an examination of separateness and togetherness, unity and disparity in two separate countries in two separate parts of the world. This is a movie deeply interested not only in what it means to be lonely, but also in what it means to perceive connection and similarity in the midst of that isolation." Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader