Critic's Grade: B+

Directed by Tsai Ming-Liang (What Time is it There?, The River) sets his sites on a crumbling, and eerie movie house where he tells his haunting tale. Based almost entirely on its final night of showing the classic martial arts 1967 epic Dragon Inn from director King Hu. It crafts the theater in a scary, and petrifying way as it quietly disturbs your inner demons.

He demonstrates in an elegant, sophisticated, and tender to the pleasures of the movie going audience. This old rundown theater is set for its last evening showing feature films to now a virtually empty theater. To one unsuspected moviegoer this theater has a dark story to tell and one long evening awaits him-which will drive the most daring of people into insanity. When a young tourist (Mitamura Kiyonobu) spends a few hours at the movies he feels its hollow wrath. During the cinematic flick he encounters the strange creatures that just seem to appear. The film has virtually no dialogue it totally realize on this young man and the other strange folk who wander the darkened hallways. It moves quietly, unlike films-which someone gets savagely beaten or killed this brings something new to the filmmaking table. It gets to the point where the young man becomes frightened of his surroundings then vanishes.

It has all of the elements of a truly bloodthirsty horror film but it attacks even that genre silently. It sets its sights on a twilight zone flashback-which transports you to an alternative dimension of bizarre occurrences. If you believe that there is a realm of the supernatural where an old prospector comes from out of the dark shadows this had me even convinced of that notion.

The tourist gives a walking tour of this massive movie house making his way to the restroom area. Even he their remains in a state of panic-his nerves are on end ready to run at a drop of a dime. As he slowly makes his way back to an unsettling theater seat more freakish unexplained wickedness continues to shred his every emotion. Another patron is sitting a few rows above where his is seated making loud noises with her food as she eats her concession stand snack. Intentionally, drops her high heel shoe in one of the lower seats where this innocent visitor is trying to enjoy his theatrical experience. Disturbingly, crawls between the theater rows making her way right behind him so she can continue to haunt him with her loud crackling food.

Overall, Tsai Ming-Liang creates a world of loneliness, depression, and isolation in Goodbye, Dragon Inn where he hands over a brutally brow beating film. It's exquisite and bewitching truly a cinematic ballad of haunting proportions.

Dan's Review *** star(s)

All Reviews by Dan Berman
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