Though the film's deliberate pace is sometimes frustrating, it casts a quietly powerful spell and the memory of its images lingers provocatively long after they've flickered into darkness.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The New York Times by Dana Stevens
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.
This feels like short film material stretched exasperatingly thin but nonetheless casts a certain sad spell, graced by moments of droll observational humor.
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
This is a funny, sad, stunningly smart movie about the end of movies, made in Tsai's inimitable, unblinking style. No movie lover should miss it.
A movie of elegant understatement and considerable formal intelligence.
New York Daily News by Jami Bernard
A droll gem that celebrates movie love with feeling and deadpan humor.
Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum
For all its minimalism, Tsai Ming-liang's 81-minute masterpiece manages to be many things at once.
It could all be done much more efficiently, but any other approach would lose Tsai's unique mix of stone-faced comedy and dewy-eyed lyricism.
A loving tribute to cinema by Tsai Ming-liang, one of Taiwan's most accomplished and popular directors.