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Goodbye Dragon Inn

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Mon 6 December 2004 // 21:00

GOODBYE, DRAGON INN (Bu san)
Fri 3rd-Sat 4th at 7pm + Mon 6th Dec at 9pm / £4/3)
(Ming-liang Tsai / 2003 / Taiwan (English subtitles) / 82mins / 35mm / no cert)
Past, present and future come together in this melancholic yet humorous ode to the bygone age of cinema-going. Set in a run down communist show-house in Taiwan on it's last night of opening, a handful of punters come to see the Chinese classic DRAGON INN. The huge auditorium appears almost totally desolate. The only employees are the operator and a crippled box-office girl. A Japanese man runs in from the rain and meets two old men who look strangely familiar.
Using uncompromisingly long takes and silent sequences, writer/director Ming-liang Tsai immerses us in a nostalgic, refective piece where Cinefiles, wierdos and ghosts meet at the end of an era. They turn out to be a perverse lot who are often forced to go out of their way to find the movies they want to see - and begin to consider as virtues what most rational people would regard as flaws... Remind you of somewhere?