
What Time Is It There? 2001. Taiwan. Directed by Tsai Ming-Liang. With Lee Kang-Sheng, Lu Yi-Ching, Tien Miao, Chen Shiang-Chyi, Cecilia Yip, Jean-Pierre Léaud. 35mm. In Mandarin, French; English subtitles. 116 min.
Street vendor Hsiao Kang sells a dual-time-zone watch to a woman on her way to Paris. While she aimlessly roams the streets of the French capital, he remains in Taipei and obsessively and comically sets all watches and clocks to Paris time. In search for a connection, Hsiao Kang repeatedly watches Truffaut’s The 400 Blows. Meanwhile, the real-life star of the 1959 French New Wave classic, Jean-Pierre Léaud, makes an uncanny appearance in front of the lone traveler in a cemetery.