Past Present

Tsai Ming-liang was brought up by grandparents who took him to the cinema every day. His childhood helped shape who he has become, he thinks, while the martial arts films he loved as a child are not much like the artistic productions that have turned him into one of the most important contemporary filmmakers in Asia.
Documentary maker Saw Tiong Guan visits the film theatres of Tsai’s childhood with him. He sets up a stream of monologues about the essence of film, the effect of memory and Tsai's creative process, in which dreams often pay a major role. The filmmaker, who thinks we all live in a consumer era, reveals himself to be deeply nostalgic. Famous colleagues like Ang Lee and Apichatpong Weerasethakul fill out the background. Past Present is not only important as the first full-length documentary on Tsai. It could also be the last. After he won the Jury Prize in Venice for Stray Dogs, he indicated he wanted to stop making films.