Hei yan quan (2006)

Director:

Ming-liang Tsai

Writer:

Ming-liang Tsai (writer)

Release Date:

2 December 2006 (Serbia)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

Forest fires burn in Sumatra; a smoke covers Kuala Lumpur. Grifters beat an immigrant day laborer and leave him on the streets...

Plot Keywords:

Water | Mattress | Kuala Lumpur | Homeless Man | Very Little Dialogue

Awards:

1 win & 4 nominations

Cast

Kang-sheng Lee	...	Hsiao-Kang
Shiang-chyi Chen	...	Coffee-shop Waitress
Norman Atun	...	Rawang
Pearlly Chua	...	Coffee-Shop Boss
Lee-Lin Liew	...	Coffee-Shop Tea Maker
Leonard Tee	...	Light Seller
Su-Yee Toh	...	Boss's Second Son (as Samantha Toh Su-Yee)
Kok-Fai Chiew	...	Boss's Grandson
Rong-Sin Chan	...	Estate Agent
Kok-Choy Loh	...	Financier
Shiva	...	Indian worker
Mohammad Rani Bin Baker	...	Magician
Rusli Bin Abdul Rahim	...	Hooligan
Azman Hassan	...	Hooligan (as Azman Bin Muhammad Hasan)
Hariry Jalil	...	Hooligan (as Muhammad Hariry Abdul Jalil)

Also Known As:

Dark Circle (International: English title) (working title)
Hei yan cyuan (Taiwan)
I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (International: English title)

Runtime:

115 min | Canada:115 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

Malaysia | China | Taiwan | France | Austria

Language:

Taiwanese | Malay | Mandarin | Bengali

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Netherlands:6 | Singapore:M18 | UK:15 | Sweden:11 | Portugal:M/12

Filming Locations:

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Company:

Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC)

Trivia:

Chosen by "Les Cahiers du cinéma" (France) as one of the 10 best pictures of 2007 (#10, tied with "Ne touchez pas à la hache" and "Sang sattawat")

Movie Connections:

References Últimas imágenes del naufragio (1989)

tedious, dull art film

Tsai Ming Liang's "I Don't Want to Sleep Alone" is yet another of those Spartan-like, minimalist Asian films (this one happens to be Chinese) that is composed almost entirely of single-take medium and long shots (this movie would have made Andre Bazin and his fellow theorists at Cahiers du Cinema jump for joy, or, at the very least, purr with contentment). The problem with such a style, beyond testing the patience of the audience, is that it distances us so much from what is happening on screen that we soon become dispassionate observers rather than the engaged participants we need to be if we are to become fully enveloped in the story. In fact, most of the time we can't figure out who anybody is or why we should be interested in anything that is going on in their lives. If this movie proves anything, it is just how essential close-ups and inter-scene cutting can be in helping us to identify with and care about a character and the situation he's going through.

As far as I can tell, the theme is about a handful of urban youth who feel isolated and alienated from one another and the world around them, but who are taking some faltering steps towards reaching out and bridging that gap, mainly through touching. But the almost total lack of dialogue and the chillingly clinical style of film-making make it frankly impossible for us to tell WHAT the movie makers' intentions might be.

There are a few erotically-charged moments in the film, but overall "I Don't Want to Sleep Alone" is an excursion into tedium that gives "art films" a bad name.