Tsai Ming-Liang

Acclaimed Taiwan-based filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang is renowned for creating some of the most nihilistic and erotic films of the 90s. His films include Rebels of the Neon God (1992); Vive l'amour (1994); The River (1997); and his 1998 Cannes golden palme-nominee, The Hole, His films often use water in its multiple capacities – cleansing, raining, nourishing, flooding – to sumbolize his character’s emotions. Depicting the human body as a mysterious, malleable machine consuming and excreting on its own volition, bodily functions become metaphors for loneliness, desire, decay, and escape. His obsessive and isolated characters give his films a bleak outlook, but they also embody a wry sense of absurdist humor. This is the first book devoted to Ming-liang’s work, and is an important addition to contemporary film studies.