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無無眠 (No No Sleep) 2015

Following the success of Walker 2012, Tsai Ming-liang was again commissioned by the Hong Kong International Film Festival to make their opening short film. Here, he chose to film in and around Shibuya Station in Tokyo.

Set during the early hours of the morning, No No Sleep follows Lee Kang-sheng as a wandering monk as he moves around the station and on board the trains of the sleeping city. In a departure from other films in the ‘Walker’ series, this iteration develops a subtle narrative about longing, with the monk, resting from his eternal movement, joined on screen by the Japanese actor Masanobu Ando. The pair encounter each other in the bathhouse of a station capsule hotel, before they retire to their hermetic sleeping chambers.

34 minutes | Ages 15+ | Nudity

良夜不能留 (The Night) 2021

Shot in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay in November 2019, this short film is a wordless study of a city-state at a political and cultural crossroads. After the daytime protestors have returned home, the film captures the mood and tempo of the nocturnal streets with Tsai’s characteristic formal invention. The title is drawn from the lyrics of a 1940s Chinese pop song that plays over the final minutes of the film, which pointedly declare “The beautiful night is slipping away.”

20 minutes | All Ages