Journey to the West

Director: Tsai Ming-liang

2014 / 56min / DCP

A key entry in Tsai’s “Walker” series of films, inspired by the 16th-century classic of Chinese literature of the same name and the long overland journey that it describes, Journey to the West—like all of the “Walker” films—features Tsai’s muse and longtime collaborator Lee Kang-sheng as a Buddhist monk in a saffron robe walking at an almost imperceptibly slow pace against the backdrop of a busy cityscape. Here the city is Marseilles, where Lee will be joined by a traveling companion of sorts, the great French actor (and trained mime) Denis Lavant. A meditative, curiously absorbing, and quietly glorious work.