In his first feature-length venture into digital filmmaking, Tsai expands upon the durational extremes of his monk-led Walker series to observe a different kind of stasis within the frantic modern world.
In his first feature-length venture into digital filmmaking, Tsai expands upon the durational extremes of his monk-led Walker series to observe a different kind of stasis within the frantic modern world: that of a homeless sign holder and his two starving children. Played by Lee Kang-sheng in a performance of hauntingly composed agony, Tsai’s protagonist plies his demeaning trade for a luxury high-rise development, enduring wind, rain and the indifferent masses for a measly pittance that falls short of putting food on the table for his family. For its first half, Stray Dogs offers an embittered slice of social realism as it intercuts between this man’s thankless toil and his children’s desperate wanderings through the alternately sterile and decrepit heart of contemporary Taipei, only periodically benefiting from the generosity of strangers. In its final stretch, however, the film’s seemingly linear timeline disintegrates, and the story relocates to a decomposing underground bunker where a surreal portrait of domesticity and family intimacy emerges. Is it the future, the past, or the imagination? A radically contemplative finale suggests such a question is beside the point, as the longing for another, more just world is as timeless as destitution.
$10 / $8 student or senior / Harvard students free
Phone: 617-496-3211
Email: bgravely@fas.harvard.edu
2022/09/30 - 2022/09/30
Harvard Film Archive
Harvard Film Archive Cinematheque, Cambridge, MA 02138
Although parking in Cambridge is difficult (most of the surrounding streets have restricted parking for Cambridge residents only), metered parking on Broadway and Harvard Streets, as well as the rest of Harvard Square, is free after 8pm. Film-goers are encouraged to use public transportation, particularly the MBTA Red Line.
This film is subtitled