M+ Cinema brings filmmaker Tsai Ming-Liang’s Where Do You Stand?, commissioned by Centre Pompidou in France in 2022, to the Grand Stair. The screening will be followed by a post-screening talk in Mandarin. Hear from Tsai in person as well as from Days actor Lee Kang-Sheng. The talk will be moderated by M+ Curator-at-large of Hong Kong Film and Media Li Cheuk-to. Simultaneous interpretation in English will be available.

Where Do You Stand, Tsai Ming-Liang?

In this dialogue with time, memory, and self, Tsai Ming-Liang’s quiet contemplation allows for indelible moments of connection with old chairs—from the one he sits on every day to the worn-out ones arranged at different corners of an abandoned house. The distinct characteristics of these old chairs have become the inspiration for his paintings, alongside his portraits of Days protagonists Lee Kang-Sheng and Anong Houngheuangsy. Bleak yet achingly beautiful, the silent imagery and paintings embody a poignant sense of nostalgia and yearning under the pandemic. In Where Do You Stand?, Tsai’s home becomes the backdrop of his film once again. In each of Tsai’s shots, he masters the poetic rhythm around the cinematic use of time.

Tsai Ming-liang (b. 1957, Malaysia) is a Malaysian-Taiwanese filmmaker, theatrical producer and TV director who has written and directed several feature films, short films, and television films. A graduate from the Drama and Cinema Department of the Chinese Cultural University of Taiwan, his extensive oeuvre of work has received numerous awards and worldwide recognition. His second feature Vive L’Amour (1994) won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, followed by two Silver Bear awards for The River (1997) and The Wayward Cloud (2005), and the Grand Special Jury Prize for Stray Dogs (2013).