Dull, slow moving and tedious. Shot in a series of long takes, this minimalist film from Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-Liang (Stray Dogs, etc) will surely test the patience of many in the audience, even with its mercifully brief running time of 56 minutes. A monk (Lee Kang-sheng) slowly makes his way across the streets of Marseilles, moving in very slow and deliberate style. His painfully slow and measured pace is meant to offer a marked contrast to the fast pace of contemporary life with busy people rushing to get nowhere fast. In one sequence he painstakingly walks down the steps to a subway station while people hurry by. In another long sequence, the monk's slow pace is imitated by French actor Denis Lavant (a regular in the films of Leos Carax). Others watch the monk's glacially paced journey with bemusement. The opening sequence itself lasts for five minutes and consists of a close up of Lavant's face as he contemplates the day ahead. There is no dialogue in the film, but the sound scape consists of ambient noise and the hum of traffic. Cinematographer Antoine Heberle (Paradise Now, Under The Sand, etc) keeps the camera still, and characters walk from one edge of the frame to the other, and the monk often enters the frame from an unexpected angle. Journey To The West is more experimental and artistic than anything else and is of limited appeal.
Review of Journey to the West
