[Ruby Hornet will be attending the 49th Chicago International Film Festival from 10/10 – 10/24. Be sure to follow along as we bring you coverage from the longest-running competitive international film festival in the country. You can find all of our coverage from this year’s CIFF here.]
Stray Dogs (Jiao You)
Director: Tsai Ming-Liang
Country: Taiwan
CIFF Screenings: October 11, 2013 (8:30pm), October 13, 2013 (12:30pm)
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I wasn’t familiar with Tsai Ming-Liang’s previous works, but the allure of a film described as “one of his most emotionally powerful films” reeled me in. Unfortunately, the power of these emotions is lost amidst the overuse of long shots and lack of a narrative. Stray Dogs is about a father who makes his living as a human billboard while his two children skip school and make do with what they can to kill time during the day. The family has fallen into this routine of doing nothing, then squatting in abandoned apartments at night. However, Stray Dogs doesn’t worry itself or the audience about what it’s about. Rather, the focus of the film is on what’s seen.
Stray Dogs is mostly made up of long shots consisting of the slightest bits of movement to ensure audiences that the film hasn’t become frozen or paused. The camera lingers on as main actor, Lee Kang-sheng, eats his food or smokes a cigarette. There are scenes of actual movement and motion, but the bulk of Stray Dogs prefers to let the audience play voyeur as they examine the family. Much has been said about the film’s penultimate scene, a 14-minute long shot where Lee Kang-sheng stands behind a woman as they look off-screen. The gravitas of the scene is displayed on the actors’ facial expressions with the occasional sip of liquor or shed tear contextualizing the scene.
Stray Dogs is poetic in its oftentimes silent scenes, yet boring and plodding because of them. On a technical side, it’s visually-arresting with every long shot composed and framed to near-perfection. Overall, however, you’ll find yourself feeling arrested with nowhere to go because of its two-hour duration with no escape in sight. Even the most ardent fans of avant-garde, art-house films might find Stray Dogs too empty.