What Time Is It There?
A lonely Taipei vendor synchronizes the city's clocks with Paris while an unexpected cinematic connection bridges two lives divided by distance.
Overview
A poignant exploration of connection and longing across time zones and cultures.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Glacial
- Intensity
- Moderate
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- None
- melancholic
- haunting
- contemplative
- quiet evening
- reflective viewing
What critics said
Critics broadly regard the film as an elegant, haunting, and formally patient exploration of loneliness and disconnection.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Hsiao-Kang remains in Taipei while Shiang-Chyi travels to Paris, with their separated experiences intercut and linked through time and cinema.
Hsiao-Kang changes Taipei clocks to French time, turning ordinary clocks into expressions of longing and displacement.
Les 400 Coups and Jean-Pierre Léaud connect Taipei and Paris while reflecting the characters' estrangement from their immediate worlds.
The film's patient pacing and extended attention to Taipei spaces transform waiting, routine, and distance into its central atmosphere.
Films like What Time Is It There?, and why
Vive L'Amour
patient urban loneliness, minimalist storytelling, and emotionally distant characters
Goodbye, Dragon Inn
slow cinema attention to duration, alienation, and fragmented human connection
Yi Yi
contemplative Taiwanese urban drama centered on disconnection and modern life
The Green Ray
European art-cinema influence, quiet melancholy, and elusive interpersonal bonds
Movie Details
- Director
- Tsai Ming-liang
- Release Date
- 2001-09-26
- Runtime
- 116 min
- Rating
- 7.0 / 10 (123)
Cast
- Lee Kang-sheng
- Chen Shiang-Chyi
- Lu Yi-ching
- Miao Tian
- Liao Ching-Kuo
- Tsai Chao-yi
- Chen Hsi-Fei
- Java Sparrow Youth-Leigh
- Hsu Yue-Yin
- Huang Kuo-Cheng
Common questions
- What is What Time Is It There? about?
- A lonely Taipei vendor synchronizes the city's clocks with Paris while an unexpected cinematic connection bridges two lives divided by distance.
- What is What Time Is It There? like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of What Time Is It There? as glacial, its intensity as moderate and its storytelling as layered.
- Is What Time Is It There? violent?
- No — Ember's analysis finds no violence in What Time Is It There?.
- What did critics think of What Time Is It There??
- Critics broadly regard the film as an elegant, haunting, and formally patient exploration of loneliness and disconnection.
- Which films are like What Time Is It There??
- Films with a similar feel include Vive L'Amour, Goodbye, Dragon Inn, Yi Yi, and The Green Ray.
- How long is What Time Is It There??
- What Time Is It There? runs 116 minutes.
