Jia Zhang-ke and Tsai Ming-liang in Europe

For three decades now, Jia Zhang-ke and Tsai Ming-liang have been amongst the foremost directors in the world, influencing a generation of international filmmakers with their innovations in performance, shot duration, and depictions of urban life. Their international reputation is largely of European origin. Both have won the Venice Film Festival and are regulars at the Berlin and Cannes film festivals. While they are associated with China and Taiwan respectively, their works are often French co-productions.

Cinematic cosmopolitans, Jia and Tsai travel the world by way of international master classes and jury invitations. Recently, both worked in conjunction with storied European film institutions – Jia with the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Italy and Tsai with the FAMU film school in the Czech Republic—to produce mid-length works set in Torino and Jihlava. The resulting works are, perhaps a testament to their specific brand of filmic flânerie, reflections on global cinema itself: comparative film histories, movies without words, audiences across borders.

The San Diego Asian Film Festival presents both as a double mini-feature, two shadows in the night, crossing paths in Europe.

– Brian Hu

In this program

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