Taipei in Slow Motion: The Temporal Magnification of the Body-City

The “slow motion” film discussed in this paper refers not to the special effects created by the manipulation of different shooting and screening speeds, but to the film permeated largely with an aura of slowness. This kind of “slow motion” film has not only become the prizewinner of major international film festivals, but also been regarded as one of the representative styles of the New Asia Wave. Thus, the major concern of this paper is to explore this “slow motion” film of zero action, minimum dialogue and lagging visual images. How could this “slow motion” film be produced? What would be its aesthetic style and its cultural ideology? What kind of temporal sensibility would it arouse? What connections would it develop between different bodily gestures and urban spaces? And, to what extent could this “slow motion” film help us to understand the positioning and re-positioning of “Taiwan Cinema” and “New Asia Wave” in the era of glocalization? This paper will take these questions as points of departure to explore the possible theorization of “slow motion” as the (re)presentation of the real on the one hand and its historical and ideological critique on the other. The films by Taiwan director Tsai Ming-liang will serve as the major text to foreground how the successful use of the minimum plot, dialogue, and mise-en-sc?ne, the sluggish body movement, the motionless camera and the uncut long take helps to create the body-city of Taipei as the “pure optical and sound situation,” to make possible the real time, real body and real space as the “slow motion” of the dur?e on the screen.