Tsai Ming-liang | |
|---|---|
| 蔡明亮 | |
 Tsai in 2025 | |
| Born | (1957-10-27)27 October 1957 (age 68) |
| Alma mater | Chinese Culture University (BA) |
| Occupation(s) | Film director,screenwriter |
| Years active | 1989–present |
| Awards | Venice Film Festival –Golden Lion 1994 –Vive L'Amour Grand Jury Prize 2013 –Stray Dogs Berlin Film Festival 1994 –Vive L'Amour Best Director 1994 –Vive L'Amour 2013 –Stray Dogs |
| Chinese name | |
| Chinese | 蔡明亮 |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Cài Míngliàng |
Tsai Ming-liang (Chinese:蔡明亮; born 27 October 1957) is a Malaysian filmmaker based in Taiwan and one of the most celebrated directors in theSlow Cinema genre and the "Second New Wave" ofTaiwanese cinema.
Tsai has written and directed 11feature films and manyshort films andtelevision films. The best-known areVive L'Amour (1994, for which he won theGolden Lion),The River (1997),Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003), andStray Dogs (2013).
Tsai was born inMalaysia. He is ofChinese descent and spent his first 20 years inKuching,Sarawak, after which he moved toTaipei, Taiwan. This, he said, had "a huge impact on [his] mind and psyche". "Even today", Tsai has said, "I feel I belong neither to Taiwan nor to Malaysia. In a sense, I can go anywhere I want and fit in, but I never feel that sense of belonging."[1]
Tsai graduated from the Drama and Cinema Department of theChinese Culture University of Taiwan in 1982 and worked as a theatrical producer, screenwriter, and television director in Hong Kong. From 1989 to 1991, he directed several telefilms. One of these,Boys, starred his muse,Lee Kang-sheng.
Tsai's first feature film wasRebels of the Neon God (1992). A film about troubled youth in Taipei, it starred Lee as the character Hsiao-Kang. Lee went on to appear in all of Tsai's feature films as of 2023. Tsai's second feature,Vive L'Amour (1994), is about three people who unknowingly share an apartment. The film is slow-paced, has little dialogue, and is about alienation; all of these became Tsai's trademarks.Vive L'Amour was critically acclaimed and won theGolden Horse Awards for best picture and best director.
Tsai's next film wasThe River (1997), in which a family has to deal with the son's neck pain. The family is similar to one that appears inRebels of the Neon God and is played by the same three actors.The Hole (1998) is about two neighbors in an apartment. It features several musical numbers.
In Tsai's next film,What Time Is It There? (2001), a man and a woman meet in Taipei before the woman travels to Paris. This was Tsai's first film to starChen Shiang-chyi, who starred in his next few films alongside Lee.Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003) is about people inside an old cinema that is closing down. For this film, Tsai included even longer shots and fewer lines of dialogue than in previous films, a trend that continued in his later work.The Wayward Cloud (2005) is a sequel toWhat Time Is It There? in which Hsiao-Kang and Shiang-chyi meet again and start a relationship while Hsiao-Kang works as a pornographic film actor. This film, likeThe Hole, features several musical numbers.
Tsai's next film,I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (2006), was his first set in Malaysia and is about two different characters, both played by Lee. In 2007, the Malaysian Censorship Board banned the film based on incidents shown depicting the country "in a bad light" for cultural, ethical, and racial reasons, but later allowed it to be screened in the country after Tsai agreed to censor parts of the film according to the board's requirements.[2] Tsai's next film,Face (2009), is about a Taiwanese director who travels to France to shoot a film.
Tsai's next feature film wasStray Dogs (2013), about a homeless family.
Most of Tsai's output in the 2010s was dedicated to his exhibition films, in particular theWalker series (2012–24), the subject of which was a monk played by Lee who travels by walking slowly, usually surrounded by a busy background.
In 2020, Tsai releasedDays, which competed for the Golden Bear at the Berlinale film festival.
In 2021, Tsai releasedWandering, a short installation film with no dialogue, which follows a woman visiting an exhibition of Tsai's "Walker" series in Taiwan.
In December 2024, Tsai is scheduled to make his Australian in-person debut at an "In Conversation" event at theAustralian Cinémathèque,Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) inBrisbane.[3] This event coincides with a special retrospective of Tsai's work as part ofQAGOMA'sAsia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art.[4]
Tsai's honours include aGolden Lion (best picture) forVive L'Amour at the51st Venice International Film Festival; theSilver Bear – Special Jury Prize forThe River at the47th Berlin International Film Festival;[5] theFIPRESCI award forThe Hole at the1998 Cannes Film Festival;[6] and theAlfred Bauer Prize and Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Achievement forThe Wayward Cloud at the55th Berlin International Film Festival; theGrand Jury Prize at the70th Venice International Film Festival forStray Dogs. In 1995, he was a member of the jury at the45th Berlin International Film Festival.[7]
In 2003,The Guardian voted Tsai No. 18 of the 40 best directors in the world.[8] In 2014, he was named an officer of theOrder of Arts and Letters by the government of France.[9]
Tsai is gay and has incorporated queer themes into his films. Since 2021, he has lived in the mountains near Taipei, where he renovates and lives in abandoned apartments. He shares his living spaces with his long-term collaborator,Lee Kang-sheng, in a platonic relationship.[10]
| Year | English title | Original title | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Rebels of the Neon God | 青少年哪吒 | |
| 1994 | Vive l'amour | 愛情萬歲 | Golden Lion winner |
| 1997 | The River | 河流 | |
| 1998 | The Hole | 洞 | |
| 2001 | What Time Is It There? | 你那邊幾點 | |
| 2003 | Goodbye, Dragon Inn | 不散 | |
| 2005 | The Wayward Cloud | 天邊一朵雲 | [11] |
| 2006 | I Don't Want to Sleep Alone | 黑眼圈 | |
| 2009 | Face | 臉 | [12] |
| 2013 | Stray Dogs | 郊遊 | [13][14] |
| 2020 | Days | 日子 | [15] |
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 2008 | Sleeping on Dark Waters |
| 2015 | Nà gè xià wu [That Afternoon, aka Afternoon][16][17] |
| 2018 | Your Face[18] |
| 2025 | Back Home |
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 2012 | No Form[20] |
| Walker | |
| Diamond Sutra[21][22] | |
| Sleepwalk | |
| 2013 | Walking on Water |
| 2014 | Journey to the West[23] |
| 2015 | No No Sleep |
| 2018 | Sand |
| 2022 | Where |
| 2024 | Abiding Nowhere |
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 2001 | Fish, Underground (orA Conversation with God) |
| 2002 | The Skywalk Is Gone |
| 2008 | Madame Butterfly– part of theLucca Film Festival project "TwentyPuccini"[24][25][26][27] |
| 2015 | Xiao Kang[28][29] |
| 2017 | The Deserted[30] |
| 2019 | Light |
| Màn bù jīng xīn [Casually] [aka Wandering] |
| Liang ye bu neng liu / The Night | |
| The Moon and the Tree[19] | |
| 2022 | Where do you stand, Tsai Ming-Liang?[19] |
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Welcome to São Paulo | "Aquarium" |
| 2007 | To Each His Own Cinema | "It's a Dream" |
| 2012 | Beautiful 2012 | "Walker"[31][32][33][34] |
| 2013 | Letters from the South | "Walking on Water"[35][36][37] |
| 2015 | Beautiful 2015 | "No No Sleep"[38][39] |
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 1989 | Endless Love |
| The Happy Weaver | |
| Far Away | |
| All Corners of the World | |
| 1990 | Li Hsiang's Love Line |
| My Name is Mary | |
| Ah-Hsiung's First Love | |
| 1991 | Give Me a Home |
| Boys | |
| Hsio Yueh's Dowry | |
| 1995 | My New Friends |
Tsai frequently recasts actors he has worked with on previous films:
| Actor | Rebels of the Neon God (1992) | Vive L'Amour (1994) | The River (1997) | The Hole (1998) | What Time Is It There? (2001) | Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003) | The Wayward Cloud (2005) | I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (2006) | Face (2009) | Stray Dogs (2013) | Days (2020) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lee Kang-sheng |  Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Lu Yi-ching | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | ||||
| Yang Kuei-mei | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | ||||
| Chen Shiang-chyi | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | ||||
| Chen Chao-jung | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | |||||
| Miao Tien | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | ||||||
| Norman Atun | Y | Y |
