The Skywalk Is Gone (2002) User Reviews

This short can now be found on the new Winstar DVD of Goodbye, Dragon Inn

[zetes · 8/10 · 20 February 2005]

Perhaps this is best described as a curio. It's an addendum to What Time Is It There?, Tsai's previous feature. The girl in that film (Shiang-chyi Chen) has returned to Taipei from Paris (with no indication of how long she's been gone or how long she's been back), and she is searching for the man who sold her a watch on a skywalk (Kang-sheng Lee). But, as the title states, the skywalk is gone. She never finds Lee, but Tsai eventually turns his focus to him. He lost his job because there is no more skywalk (though, as I recall, though I haven't seen it in a couple of years, that the suitcase full of watches was stolen by a hooker). Now he is reduced to prostituting himself to men (or starring in porn videos made for gay men). The film has little reason to exist, but any Tsai, I think, is worth watching. At 25 minutes, this short contains about five times as much dialogue as Goodbye, Dragon Inn.

Tsai in short film format

[mikpii · 8/10 · 1 October 2007]

The Skywalk Is Gone short film is the second part of a film series about Hsiao-kang and Shiang-chyi. Having returned from Paris she was visiting in What Time Is It There, she is looking for him, but can't find him because the overpass at which he used to sell watches is gone. The blue sky, clouds and bright light feature prominently in the film, symbolising Shiang-chyi's, who is appropriately enough dressed in earthy brown, elusive search.

The film features most Tsai trademarks such as urban life, water shortage, stationary camera and retro Chinese pop music. One marked difference from his other films is that there are no extremely long and slow shots. The mood of the film is also lighter than usually.

All in all an enjoyable snack for fans of Tsai's peculiar films.

don't know how this was so much of what i love in less than half an hour, but it was

[mehobulls · 8/10 · 21 September 2020]

Tsai-Ming Liang catches the ordered chaos of a Taiwanese city where love is lost and needs to be found again. It's a short film with long shots letting you immerse in the fine composition of the images and the feeling of the city. The film is basically a prologue to "The Wayward Cloud". I'm not sure how well the story works if you haven't seen the latter (but then you can wonder the buzzing city for 20+ minutes).

Yet another masterpiece from Ming-Liang

[world2you · 10/10 · 11 December 2003]

Having seen this before the flawless masterpiece "Goodbye, Dragon Inn" and actually coming out of them both with this still in my mind (after all the power and beauty of GDI), clearly shows the brilliance and vision of Ming-Liang's later films.

I must admit - I didn't like his films before. The long takes seemed unnecessary and most of his films felt plain and boring. Most notably "The River", which was incredibly overrated.

But now, the difference !

His dogma hasn't changed - Ming-Liang still uses the same visual concepts of long planes and minimalism, but he takes it to a never before seen level of freshness and beauty. Forget "The River"'s boring tone. This and "GDI" share a lyricism and an underlying humor that few films have managed to capture.

Make no mistake about it - he is most creative and honest film maker today. This small comedic masterpiece is not only interesting on a visual level, it's brilliant in a hopeless, urban way.

If you have the privilege to see both this and "Goodbye, Dragon Inn", don't waste it.

You'll be seeing the best there is Cinema today.

Forget Von Trier, Lynch, the Andersons.

Ming-Liang is where it's at.

Made by Tsai Ming Liang for International Film Festival Rotterdam

[FilmCriticLalitRao · 8/10 · 27 July 2007]

Most of the film makers are deeply in love with the cities where they reside,where they satisfy their creative instincts.To pay their homage to their respective cities they sometimes make short films about them. This film is also an attempt by Tsai Ming Liang to understand his city better. He has chosen to film a river which passes through the ever growing,bustling metropolis of Taipei.The focus is on the dryness of the river due to the ill effects of heat.In the background there is a dog.Tsai decided to make this film after he got an invitation from Simon Field who is the former director of International Film Festival of Rotterdam.I saw this film at FEMIS, Paris which is a famous film school.This film has not been released on DVD and lucky ones can watch it along with a complete retrospective of Tsai Ming Liang's works.

Lost in translation?

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 22 May 2016]

"Tian qiao bu jian le" or "The Skywalk Is Gone" is a 22-minute live action short film from almost 15 years ago. As the title already tells us, it is a Taiwanese film, so you will need subtitles unless you are fluent in Mandarin. The writer and director of this little award-winning film is Ming-liang Tsai and he made this between two feature films, to which it refers chronologically according to IMDb. I have to admit that I have seen neither of these two feature films and maybe this was the reason why I did not get to appreciate this short film at all. Then again, no matter how long or short, a film should never rely on the audience watching another film in order to understand the basic action or care for the characters. And I did not really care for any of them here and I found the story very uninteresting. Consequently, I give this one a thumbs-down. Not recommended.