Goodbye, Dragon Inn

Plot

Goodbye, Dragon Inn is set in the approximately ninety minutes of the last feature at an old Taipei cinema that is closing down, showing King Hu's 1967 sword-fighting classic Dragon Inn. Only a few people are present in the cinema, and a variety of subplots are developed around them. Throughout the film, the ticket woman tries to find the projectionist, searching for him in order to present him with a steamed bun. She wears an iron brace on her leg. She walks around the theater throughout the film, struggling up and down stairs. A young Japanese tourist wanders around the cinema in search of a homosexual encounter. Chen Chao-jung brushes off his advance and tells him that the cinema is haunted. Jun Shi, who was one of the actors who appeared in the original Dragon Inn, watches the film with tears in his eyes. Outside the theater, he encounters Miao Tien who had been watching the film with his grandson; Miao also starred in the original film.

The film is shot with almost no camera movement, most shots lasting well over thirty seconds. There are only about a dozen lines of dialogue.

Cast

Release

The film receives 80% of positive rating from critics, with 85% positive rating from top critics. A. O. Scott of New York Times praised the film, saying ""Goodbye Dragon Inn" has a quiet, cumulative magic, whose source is hard to identify. Its simple, meticulously composed frames are full of mystery and feeling; it's an action movie that stands perfectly still." J. Hoberman of Village Voice also liked the film, "And because Tsai is the director, Goodbye Dragon Inn is also a movie of elegant understatement and considerable formal intelligence."