Initially Tsaï Ming-liang had planned to make a period feature film which,
inspired from an ancient writing, would have recounted a 6th century
Chinese Buddhist monk’s journey West, in this case to India. Then the project
gradually changed into a series of fragments – No Form is the first, and
Walker the second one to have been shot so far. They are due to be put
together as an installation later on. Lee Kang-sheng, as the long-time
accomplice, actor, and doppelganger of the director like Doinel for Truffaut,
wears the scarlet red outfit of the monk. He moves through a dual space: in
the midst of a crowd in Taiwan, as an anonymous individual amongst others,
walking in slow motion; as well as in the abstract maze of an all-white space,
on the way to his image.
Although this film is reminiscent of the spiritual quest in A Conversation with
God (FID 2002), where the triviality of the urban environment still guaranteed
the presence of a god for each and everyone, No Form focuses on the slow
journey of this pilgrim monk toward a new, rejuvenated and perhaps
redeemed form. Undoubtedly related to the artist, the film does not keep
this unhurried Buddhist from a finale both wonderful and funny. (JPR)