Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003)

November 10, 2024 7:07 PM

[TRAILER] On a dark, wet night, a movie palace in Taipei is closing, but not before one final film is shown -- Dragon Inn a 1967 actioner and a source of nostalgia for the moviegoers and employees in the old, decrepit and possibly haunted building. As the film plays, the lives of the theater’s various employees and patrons intersect, and two aging actors arrive to mourn the passing of an era. A critically acclaimed slow cinema comedy/drama from Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang.

Starring Chen Shiang-chyi, Lee Kang-sheng, Kiyonobu Mitamura, Jun Shih, Miao Tien, Chen Chao-jung, Yang Kuei-mei.

Written and directed by Tsai Ming-liang, with additional narrative prrovided by Sung Hsi. Produced by Hung-Chih Liang, Vincent Wang. Cinematography by Pen-Jung Liao. Edited by Chen Sheng-chang.

81% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. The website's critical consensus reads, "Deliberately paced yet absorbing, Goodbye, Dragon Inn offers an affectionate—and refreshingly unique—look at a fading theater that should strike a chord with cineastes." A. O. Scott of The New York Times praised the film, writing, "Goodbye, Dragon Inn has a quiet, cumulative magic, whose source is hard to identify. Its simple, meticulously composed frames are full of mystery and feeling; it's an action movie that stands perfectly still." J. Hoberman of The Village Voice also liked the film: "And because Tsai is the director, Goodbye, Dragon Inn is also a movie of elegant understatement and considerable formal intelligence."

The film won several awards, including the FIPRESCI Prize at the 60th Venice International Film Festival and the Best Feature Gold Plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival.

According to They Shoot Pictures, Don't They, a website which statistically calculates the most well-received movies, it is the 16th most acclaimed movie of the 21st century.

Currently streaming in the US on Metrograph. Also available for digital rental/purchase. JustWatch listing.v

posted by DirtyOldTown (4 comments total)

Maybe it's the week I'm having, but while this had some laughs, it mostly read as sad. The movie theater was once grand and filled with people. At its peak, it showed the wuxia epic to an appreciative crowd, the film's grandiosity reflecting optimism and big promises. Now, the theater is falling apart, closing even. The same film plays while the ceiling leaks, the crowd is tiny, and the lonely patrons and staff search futilely for connection.

There's the manager with the leg brace and the pronounced limp who nevertheless keeps making the long, painful trip up to the projectionist's booth, hoping to speak to him. There's the Japanese tourist, constantly cruising for a gay hookup. There are the two aging stars of the film, watching it today with tears in their eyes.

I don't know how many people want to see a mostly wordless movie with endless long takes of things like a woman slowly pulling herself up staircases or a young gay man hoping to sidle up to the right person. But it was elegiac and bittersweet and I kinda loved it.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:14 PM on November 10, 2024 [3 favorites]

About two weeks ago my 6yo found a stack of VHS tapes on the sidewalk. He'd never seen one before, so he demanded we take one home.

Anyway, I have a VHS tape labeled "Dragon Inn" kicking around now. Could be this, could be the original. Going to have to find a player and find out.
posted by phooky at 7:20 PM on November 10, 2024

The original Dragon Inn (its on the Criterion Channel) is one of the great classic Hong Kong films from the legendary director King Hu. Later remade by Tsui Hark. As critic Matt Lynch says in his Letterboxd review

"Elementally perfect. enough to make you want to work at a movie theater where it's all they ever show."

He's not wrong.

but while this had some laughs, it mostly read as sad.

This is totally a melancholy film.

Going to have to find a player and find out.

As much as I like a VHS, the film was remastered in recent years and has an aspect ratio of 2.35 : 1 (which may not be carried over in that VHS).
posted by Ashwagandha at 10:50 AM on November 11, 2024 [2 favorites]

A film that lands in this ballpark is Cinema Paradiso

This is the better film

Among other deficiencies, Cinema Paradiso's score was unbearably present. I'd be into the film and the score would swell and try to push me to an emotional response, it was so unnecessarily extra
posted by ginger.beef at 5:41 PM on November 11, 2024 [1 favorite]