Film detail

Asian Panorama

Two parallel minimalist stories based on people searching for their nearest and dearest. An old woman in a park spends the whole day hopelessly looking for her grandchildren. A growing boy spends the whole day after school in an internet café, and in the evening finds out that his grandfather has died. Lee Kang-Sheng aims at a thorough and precise capturing of the loneliness and impotence of the characters, the indifferent atmosphere of the city streets and the futility of interpersonal relationships.

Film appreciations:
Pusan IFF (2003) - New Currents winner Rotterdam IFF (2004) - Tiger Award

Direction: Lee Kang-Sheng(1968)

Director's remarks: Until his debut as a director Lee Kang-Sheng was the muse of the director Tsai Ming-liang, who ?discovered? him when in 1991 he took him off the street for his TV film Boys. Lee Kang-Sheng became Tsai?s court actor, and his first work as a director could not but be influenced by the work and poetic of Tsai Ming-liang. The film The Missing was originally intended to be only one half of a two-part film. However, Tsai?s part, Good-bye, Dragon Inn, grew to the point it reached feature-film length, and Lee Kang-Sheng decided to expand his own theme about searching and loneliness.

Starring: Lu Yi-Ching, Miao Tien, Chang Chea

Screenplay: Lee Kang-Sheng
Director of photography: Liao Pen-jung
Editor: Chen Sheng-chang
Music: Du Tuu-chih
Production: Home Green Films