Abstract
This chapter intends to generate a dialogue between Tsai Ming-liang’s films and Gilles Deleuze’s theories of “the cinema of the body” and “time-image” to undertake a metaphysical and aesthetic contemplation of the dialectics between cinema, body, and time. In The Wayward Cloud (2003), the pornographic film-within-the-film through “mediated-body” and “framed perception” turns the body into the pure opsigns and sonsigns, exposing the phantasmatic status of body. In What Time Is It There (2001), with filmic strategies of dechronologization and deterritorialization, as well as the metonymy between body and time, Tsai presents the Taipei-Paris everyday bodies and Tsai Ming-liang-François Truffaut cinematic memory. In I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone (2006), Tsai transforms the ruin in Kuala Lumpur to any-space-whatevers to make palpable the infinite virtual conjunctions of affection-images.
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Notes
- 1.
For Tsai Ming-liang’s films and award records, see Appendix D.
- 2.
In this chapter, the citations of Gilles Deleuze are from his monographs, Cinema 1: The Movement Image and Cinema 2: The Time-Image , which will be, respectively, referred as 1 or 2.
- 3.
Deleuze’s concept of “false narrative ” seeks recourse to Nietzsche’s notion of “the power of false” paralleled with the power of creation. Nietzsche formulates a chain of forgers including politicians, religious, guardian… All of them are related to “the power of false.” Of the chain of the forgers, the first one is “the truthful man” who has to rely on others, while the last one is the artist who is a forger and creator, the ultimate of the power of false. Nietzsche also relates these forgers to the will-to-power. He notes that the will-to-power can be seen in two extreme forms of life: On the one end, it is will-to-take-over and the will-to-dominate; on the other end, it is the will-to-becoming and metamorphosis. What the artist pursues is not the fixed form of the ontological truth or goodness, but becoming and metamorphosis. With the will-to-power, the artist could be the creator of the truth. See Nietzsche , Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 160–90.
- 4.
Tsai Ming-liang was invited by the author to give a lecture on Wayward Cloud at National Chiao Tung University , Hsinchu, on March 23, 2005. He addressed the issues of porn in his talk.
- 5.
Chris Berry uses the term “hyperbolic realism ” to describe Tsai’s film. In Berry’s opinion, Tsai’s realism is characteristic of self-reflexivity which excessively equips Tsai’s film with his strong personal style, but it also limits the representation of Tsai’s film to a certain extent. See Berry, “Where is the Love? Hyperbolic Realism and Indulgence in Vive L’Amour ,” 91.
- 6.
In Deleuze’s term, what we see in the crystal is time. The crystalline seed is the smallest bit and the entrance of time. Time in crystal is differentiated into two movements : one is to launch itself towards a future, creating this future and bursting into life. Another one is falling back to the past and going to death. See Deleuze (2: 88–93). The double movements depend on the success or failure of the crystalline seed . There is a homogeneity of seed and crystal. The Whole of the crystal is no more than a greater seed in the process of growth. But other differences are introduced, in so far as the crystal is an ordered set, some seeds abort and others are successful; certain entrances close again and others open. See Deleuze (2: 90).
- 7.
In 1998, Malaysian Vice Premiere Anwar Ibrahim was dismissed by Prime Minister Mahathir during their political struggle. He was later arrested with the charge of bribery and sodomy. During the trial, the inspector beaten Anwar, causing his bruised eye . The mattress used as an evidence of Anwar’s sodomy was moved in and out of the court. As a result, Anwar’s bruised eye and the mattress became a laughing stock in international news, inspiring Tsai to write the story for his film. See (Chi-chung Yung and Jo-yun Lee 28).
- 8.
In 2006, in the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birthday, New Crowned Hope Foundation was established in Austria. In memory of Mozart, it granted six films related to Mozart in different countries, including Taiwan , Thailand, Indonesia, Iran, Tchad, and Paraguay, among which is Sleep Alone. See (Yung and Lee 49).
- 9.
A Chinese philosopher, Chuang Chou, dreamed of himself becoming a butterfly. After he woke up, he found himself remain the same person. Then he asks himself, “Which one is real me? Am I Chuang Chou who dream of becoming a butterfly, or am I a butterfly becoming Chuang Chou in a dream?”
- 10.
In Deleuze’s term, the “affection-image ” is related to “affect ” instead of “affection.” Deleuze exemplifies “affection-image” with the close-up , but it is not limited by the close-up. He distinguishes “affection-image ” from “movement-image” (or “action-image), as the former is related to the states of the things expressed for themselves, outside spatiotemporal coordinates, with the things’ ideal singularities and virtual conjunction while the latter connects with a particular space-time, particular characters, particular objects . See Deleuze (1: 102–103).
- 11.
Influenced by French New Wave Cinema, Tsai minimizes background music in his films in order not to involve the spectators in the structure of feeling pre-set by the director. See Chang, Ivy I-chu , Global Time-Space, Bodies and Memory: Taiwan New Cinema and Its Influence, 153.
- 12.
The songs dubbing Sleep Alone include Mozart’s Magic Flute ; Malaysian song, “Lagu Tiga Kupang”; Indian songs, “Gunddu Malli” and “Oru Vaarthai Ketka”; Cantonese song, “The Ecstatic Monk in the Blue Ocean,” Mandarin Song, “New Peach Blossom River,” “If Only We Met Before I Married,” and “Heart song.” See (Chi-chung Yung and Jo-yun Lee 35–36).
Works Cited
English
Babuscio, Jack. “Camp and the Gay Sensibility.” Queer Cinema: The Film Reader. Eds. Harry Benshoff and Sean Griffin. New York: Routledge, 2004. 121–36. Print.
Berry, Chris. “Where Is the Love? Hyperbolic Realism and Indulgence in Vive L’Amour.” Island on the Edge: Taiwan New Cinema and After. Eds. Chris Berry and Feii Lu. Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong Press, 2005. 89–100. Print.
Biró, Yvette. “Perhaps the Flood the Fiery Torrent of Tsai Ming-Liang’s Films.” Performing Arts Journal 78 (2004): 78–86. Print.
Bloom, Michelle E. “Contemporary Franco-Chinese Cinema: Translation, Citation and Imitation in Dai Sijie’s Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamtress and Tsai Ming-Liang’s What Time Is It There?” Quarterly Review of Film and Video 22 (2005): 311–25. Print.
Butler, Judith. Bodies That Matters: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”. New York: Routledge, 1993. Print.
Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 1: The Movement-Image. Trans. Hugh Tomlinson and Barbara Habberjam. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986. Print.
———. Cinema 2: The Time-Image. Trans. Hugh Tomlinson and Barbara Habberjam. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989. Print.
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Lee, Vivian. “Pornography, Musical, Drag, and the Art Film: Performing ‘Queer’ in Tsai Ming-Liang’s The Wayward Cloud.” Journal of Chinese Cinema 1.2 (2007): 117–37.
Nietzsche, Freidrich Wihelm. Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None. Trans. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Penguin Books, 1978. Print.
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Tsai, Ming-liang. “Director’s Note.” Promotional Pamphlet of I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone. 2006. No page number.
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Chinese
Chang, Hsiao-hung (張小虹). “Taipei in Slow Motion: The Temporal Magnification of the Body-City” (台北慢動作: 身體—城市的時間顯微). Chung Wai Literary Quarterly (中外文學) 36.2 (2007): 121–54. Print.
Chang, Ivy I-chu (張靄珠). “Imagining Queer Bodies: The Erotic Site/Sight of Tsai Ming-liang’s Films” (漂泊的載體: 蔡明亮電影中的身體劇場與欲望場域). Chung Wai Literary Quarterly (中外文學) 30.10 (2002): 75–98. Print.
Li, Chi-she (李紀舍). “The Representation of Global Space in Yi Yi and What Time Is It There?” (台北電影再現的全球化空間政治:楊德昌的《一一》和蔡明亮的《你那邊幾點?》). Chung Wai Literary Quarterly (中外文學) 33.3 (2004): 81–99. Print.
Lim, Kien-ket (林建國). “To Build a House” (蓋一座房子). Chung Wai Literary Quarterly (中外文學) 30.10 (2002): 42–74. Print.
Liu, Kate Chi-wen (劉紀雯). “Family in the Postmodern ‘Non-places’ in the Films by Atom Egoyan and Ming-Liang Tsai” (艾騰‧伊格言和蔡明亮電影中後現代「非地方」中的家庭). Chung Wai Literary Quarterly (中外文學) 31.12 (2003): 117–52. Print.
Sing, Song-yong (孫松榮). “Xuánfú zhī Chéng, Báowù zhī Guāng: Jièyú (Fēi) Xùshìxìng yǔ Yǐngxiàngxìng de Hēiyǎnquān” (懸浮之城‧薄霧之光:介於(非)敘事性與影像性的黑眼圈 The City in Suspense and The Light in the Mist: The Non-Diegesis and Visual Imagery in I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone). 《電影欣賞學刊》(Film Appreciation Academic Section) 25.2 (March 2007): 47–53. Print.
“Tsai Ming-liang”. Promotional Pamphlet of I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone. 2006. Print.
Yung, Chi-chung and Lee, Jo-yun (雍志中、李若韻). “Huānyíng Guānglín Cài Míngliàng Bówùguǎn: Lùn Cài Míngliàng Diànyǐng Hēiyǎnquān zhōng de Cánpiàn Zhǎnshì Měixué” (歡迎光臨蔡明亮博物館:論蔡明亮電影《黑眼圈》中的殘片展示美學 Welcome to the Museum of Tsai Ming-liang: The Aesthetics of Fragments in Tsai Ming-liang’s I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone). Paper Presented in the Annual Conference of Chinese Communication Society. Taipei: Tamkang University, July 4–5, 2008.
Filmography
I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone (黑眼圈). Dir. Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮). Perf. Lee Kang-sheng (李康生), Norman Atun (諾曼奧圖), and Pearlly Chua (蔡寶珠). Home Green Films, 2006. DVD.
The Wayward Cloud (天邊一朵雲). Dir. Tsai Ming-liang. Perf. Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Shiang-chyi (陳湘琪), Yang Kuei-mei (楊貴媚), Lu Yi-ching (陸弈靜), and Sumomo Yozakura (夜櫻李子). Home Green Films, 2005. DVD.
What Time Is It There? (你那邊幾點). Dir. Tsai Ming-liang. Perf. Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Shiang-chyi, and Lu Yi-ching. Home Green Films, 2001. DVD.
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Chang, I.Ic. (2019). The Ruin, Body, and Time-Image in Tsai Ming-liang’s Films: The Wayward Cloud, What Time Is It There, and I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone. In: Taiwan Cinema, Memory, and Modernity. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3567-9_3
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