After films such as I don’t want to sleep alone, The Wayward Cloud, and What Time is it there? [I apologise for this trailer, it’s the only one I could find and it’s Hollywoodian advertising of a slow film…outch!], Malay filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang produced a beautiful short film, commissioned by the Hong Kong International Film Festival. If I was to write a review for Walker (2012), I would write only one sentence: This short is a powerful reminder to slow down!
Tsai Ming-liang is the only slow-film director I’m aware of whose films are not set in rural areas; a characteristic that is predominant regarding the films I study at the moment. Instead, he juxtaposes the vast, bustling urban space with lonely, isolated, depressed, and empty characters. Just the type of character we often come across in slow films. What is different in Tsai Ming-liang’s films is that he makes a direct connection between the urban space and its knock-down effects on individuals.
Walker illustrates this dichotomy of fast vs slow in a striking way. Do take half an hour, and watch this beautiful film.
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