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I’m glad I was able to spend some time with Edward when he came to Chicago for a retrospective of his films at the Film Center (before it was the Gene Siskel Film Center) in late 1997–one of the few such retrospectives he had anywhere, to the best of my knowledge. Reflecting on why so many of his films should remain out of reach, I’m reminded of the little-known fact that a surprisingly large amount of the art cinema of both Taiwan and Hong Kong is financed by gangsters–or so it would appear, according to some of my more knowledgeable friends–which may or may not help to explain such anomalies as his films remaining inaccessible. It’s also worth noting that with a few notable exceptions (e.g., Hou’s City of Sadness), most Taiwanese art films, including those of Tsai Ming-liang, barely have commercial runs of any kind in Taiwan. If I’m not mistaken, Tsai’s What Time Is It There? ran in Taipei for less than a week.
