Vive L'amour

I used the final day of Tsai Ming-liang's retrospective on Mubi to watch Vive L'Amour (愛情萬歲, Àiqíng wànsuì translated to Long live love).

I confess that before that, I struggled a bit to watch Stray dogs (郊遊, jiāoyóu translated to Excursion), which was a bit too slow for the state I was in; I also find harder to watch films like it in a setting that's not a cinema. I decided to pick a different one and went for Vive L'Amour: while the style was very similar (long shots, silence and not much dialogue) I was much more engaged with it. Given that these two are much more recent than Rebels of the neon God, I reckon this is closer to the defining style of Tsai Ming-liang.

In a nutshell, I'd say the film is about love, sex, loneliness and depression in a contemporary setting (1990's in Taipei). I found it funny, moving, sad, sombre and joyful all at once. It's hard to describe masterpieces like these and make them justice, one can discuss at length and seemingly never conclude; one just has to experience them.