• Days is cinematic minimalism from auteur Ming-liang Tsai.
  • Like all of Ming-liang Tsai’s previous efforts, Days features the Taiwanese actor Kang-sheng Lee
  • There is a note before the film that the film will be intentionally unsubtitled. After all, this is the artist behind Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003) and Stray Dogs (2013).
  • The first shot is just a man (Kang-sheng Lee) in a white t-shirt (even that is minimal) watching the rain. It lasts just over four minutes.
  • Ming-liang Tsai is preoccupied with the idea of isolation contrasted with communal living. Themes that are relevant in any times- but particularly in the 2020s. There are characters drowning in their own loneliness.
  • There is no score- this is realism. Ming-liang Tsai holds patiently on the mundane, the routine, like washing lettuce.
  • These are fixed cameras for the most part- Ozu is the lineage. Hou Hsiao-Hsien is a contemporary -or perhaps an influence as well- Ming-liang Tsai broke onto the scene in the early 1990s with Rebels of the Neon God (1992) after Hou Hsiao-Hsien. The catch with Days at least, is there is not a strong composition for the first thirty minutes.
  • To further limit the artistic accomplishment, Days breaks form at the 40-minute mark with a handheld, cinema verité Dardenne realism like shot down the street as Kang-sheng Lee moves wearing a neck brace.
  • At the 58-minute mark, shattered. distressed glass and power lines are the frame with the rusted lamp post. This is a splendid composition—the first in the film. Oddly enough, this is the first shot without a human subject.
  • Kang-sheng Lee gets a massage for a least ten minutes – Ming-liang Tsai uses duration as a tool to touch on deep themes of separateness- the need for human connection and interaction. This is auteur cinema- but there is a sizeable gap between Days and say A Time to Live, a Time to Die, Roy Andersson or say We Need to Talk About Kevin as far as composition. I hear the voice of Lisa Simpson in my head saying “you have to listen to the notes he’s not playing”- but explicit genius will always trump implicit genius.
  • At the 105-minute mark there is a strong frame as Ming-liang Tsai captures the curved road at night with the lone man walking.
  • The music box ending is simple, minimal but potent.
  • Recommend but not in the top 10 of 2020