TIFF Review: Tsai Ming-liang's 'Afternoon' Is Filled With Smart, Rewarding Treasures

Leave it to Tsai Ming-liang to make something special out of a two-hour-and-ten-minute documentary of two people talking. "Afternoon" sees the filmmaker in conversation with his biggest muse, closest confidant, and lead actor for over 20 years, Lee Kang-sheng. It takes place in a derelict building (naturally), with a window behind either side of the two interlocutors. Through those windows; the world. Luscious greenery, a beautifully blue sky, and an intruding wind whispering in from time to time, are the supporting characters to what turns out to be a profoundly touching and revelatory discussion. Shot in a single composition, as if frozen in time, Tsai's prodigious talent for framing — witnessed since "Rebels of the Neon God" in 1992 all the way to his last masterpiece, "Stray Dogs" — is on full-on display and worthy of the world's most prestigious art galleries.

Angled so as to have the corner of the room slightly off-kilter from the centre of the...