Perhaps the most idiosyncratic of the filmmakers to emerge from the various new Asian cinemas of the mid-1990s, Malaysia-born and Taiwan-based director Tsai Ming-liang has found significant critical acclaim for his spare postmodern allegories of contemporary life. His recurrent subject is thehuman condition, the solitary nature of individual lives, the rituals that engender survival, and the restorative powers of love.

What Time is it There?
Thursday, October 9, 2003 / 6:30PM
Isla Vista Theater, 960 embarcadero del norte, Isla Vista
University of California, Santa Barbara

Introduced by Professor Bhaskar Sarkar (Film Studies) A cinematic meditation on the new millenium, What Time is it There? creates a sublime, gently humorous, and affectionate examination of transience, connection, and coincidence, set in Taipei and Paris. Using recurrent, allusive, and dualistic imagery that figuratively link the disconnected lives of Hsiao Kang, his mother, and an attractive young woman named Shiang-chyi, Tsai visually unites their grief and longing into a universal existential portrait of contemporary alienation. Through comedic, yet achingly bittersweet episodes of near encounters, duality, and coincidence, What Time is it There? transcends the bounds of geographical, cultural, and personal isolation to map the elusive metaphysical plane of human interconnectedness.

8:30PM - The Skywalk is Gone
The short The Skywalk is Gone, which can be considered an epilogue to What Time is it There? continues the journey of Shiangchyi and Hsiao Kang. In the process, Tsai Ming-liang also further
develops his own cinematic exploration of disconnect, alientation, and loneliness.

9:00 p.m. Roundtable and Q & A with Tsai Ming-liang
Featuring Director Tsai with Prof. Michael Berry (East Asian Studies) and Prof. Claire Conceison (Dramatic Art), introduced by Prof. K. C. Tu (East Asian Studies)

Seating is limited -- free and open to the public --intended for mature audiences

Organizers:
The Council for Cultural Affairs, Taiwan, R.O.C., Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles

Co-sponsors:
University of California, Santa Barbara, The Center for Taiwan Studies, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies, Department of Film Studies, Department of Dramatic Art, The Interdisciplinary Humanities Center