“What Time Is It There?,” by the brilliant Taiwanese filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang, is a work of great physical beauty and quietly desperate sadness. But “What Time Is It There?” is also mordantly funny, and the off-balance humor grounds the film emotionally.
One of the major figures of Taiwanese cinema, the Malaysian-born Tsai has made some extraordinary works (“Rebels of the Neon God,” “The River,” “The Hole”), but this is his finest achievement. That Tsai avoids both ordinary narrative and transitions is apparent from the opening moments of “Time,” where a gaunt, inexpressive man (Miao Tien) moves into the fixed frame, settles into a chair and stares into space. Seconds later, the man’s son, the movie’s restless protagonist, Hsiao-kang (Lee Kang-sheng), is viewed in the back of a taxi, carrying his father’s ashes to a crematorium.
Hsiao-kang works as a watch vendor in the Taipei commercial district. His own dual-time watch captures the imagination of Shiang-chyi (Chen Shiang-chyi), an attractive, flirtatious young woman who notifies him that she is scheduled to leave soon for Paris. With her prodding, he sells her the watch.
Unhinged by the obsessive mourning of his grief-stricken mother (Lu Yi-ching), Hsiao-kang becomes fixated on the mysterious young woman, imagining the tales of mystery and adventure she is experiencing in Paris. In Taipei, the beguiling Shiang-chyi wears long hair and displays a reckless energy; from the moment she is shown in a Paris cafe, she turns inert and alienated, cut off from human connection. Paris is a place of disorientation and confusion, with Tsai continually isolating her in cramped and restricted spaces such as phone booths, subway stations and metro cars. Unable to speak French, she is a prisoner, denied the simple fragmentary pleasures of translating a menu, making a phone call or understanding the commands of a train operator. The purpose of her trip remains shadowy. Shiang-chyi claims to be a tourist, though she makes no effort to see the city.
For the balance of the movie, the action alternates between Paris and Taipei, where the two characters share an intense sexual longing, loneliness and need for emotional gratification. Haunted by his memory of the young woman, Hsiao-kang casts about the city, resetting the clocks to Paris time.
The movie has an extraordinary visual texture. Working with talented French cinematographer Benoit Delhomme, Tsai imbues every frame with a vivid sense of character, time and place. The melancholy, somber light of Paris has never been so chillingly evoked, while Tsai’s brilliantly spare dialogue, extended takes and stationary camera placement create a spellbinding and moody rhythm. By the movie’s transcendent end, a shot full of meaning and implication, “What Time Is It There?” finds salvation and hope.
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“What Time Is It There?” ((star)(star)(star)(star)) opens Friday at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave.; 773-871-6604. Running time: 1:56. No MPAA rating (adult: language, sexuality, adult themes).
