A dog fails at carnival rides. Tsai Ming-liang makes it cinema. You will weep.
Tsai Ming-liang's new film, Back Home, depicts Anong Houngheuangsy and the daily life of his home village in Laos. We witness buildings in varying states of habitation and disrepair, farm animals, rice fields, religious sites, domestic scenes, a sun-dappled food market, and a dog adorably trying (and failing) to escape a carnival ride.
Direction
Tsai's static long shots turn a village into cathedral.
Cinematography
Sunlight through rice fields: nature's own cinematographer.
Director
Tsai Ming-liang
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Anong Houngheuangsy has become Tsai's muse across multiple films; this marks their first return to his actual homeland together, blurring decades of fictional collaboration with documentary reality.
The 65-minute runtime is almost rebellious for slow cinema—Tsai usually demands 2+ hours. This brevity suggests an intimacy too fragile to sustain longer exposure.
No ratings yet
Sign in to join the discussion — comments are spoiler-gated to your watch progress.
Discussion starters
TW
