In collaboration with Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, the Asia Society presents “Faces of Tsai Ming-Liang,” a film series devoted to one of the most unique auteurs in world cinema, from November 13-21, as part of its CITI Series on Asian Arts and Culture.
Malaysian-born and Taiwan-based director Tsai Ming-Liang is deemed the key figure of Taiwanese cinema’s “Second New Wave.” His work is less political and historically freighted than that of forerunners like Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang, but often offers “unblinking portraits of rootlessness in post-boom Taiwan [that] double as trenchant anatomies of desire” (Dennis Lim, Village Voice). Called a “poet of urban anomie” (Leslie Camhi, New York Times), Tsai has created a uniquely coherent oeuvre and film language to express ideas of desire, alienation, loss, and emotional bankruptcy, punctuated by moments of absurdist humor and based on deep humanist concern.
