An absorbing, affectionate addition to the sub-genre of elegies for cinemas that are closing down or are freighted with a director's fond memories (e.g. Cinema Paradiso, The Last Picture Show etc).
The colour palate and the lingering takes are trademark Ming-Liang Tsai, though it is not quite in the same class as his other great films.
The emphasis is on melancholic, deftly humorous observation rather than full narrative, but there are still several memorable set-piece scenes.
A quiet, hypnotic goodbye to old cinemas and the people who haunt them. Goodbye, Dragon Inn barely has a plot, but that’s the point—it’s all mood, memory and missed chances. Slow, strange, and oddly moving. Like watching a dream fade just as you realise you’re in it.
Totally incomprehensible and required great willpower to see it through to the end. I would need a lens to find a glimmer of humour and it could only be suitable for world cinema festival buffs...