As part of our ongoing Rio Forever celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the cinema, we’re over the moon to welcome local resident, film enthusiast and one of the world’s finest living actors, Ben Whishaw, to introduce one of his own favourite films: Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang’s tender tribute to cinema spaces, GOODBYE, DRAGON INN (2003).

In a crumbling movie house in downtown Taipei, the last two staff members are hosting a screening of wuxia legend King Hu’s 1967 action classic Dragon Inn. In the near-deserted auditorium, a Japanese tourist attempts to pick up young men while a woman noisily eats sunflower seeds. Two stars of the original film witness its final performance, as around them the cinema gradually closes down.

Described by director Apichatpong Weerasethakul as ‘THE best film of the last 125 years’, GOODBYE, DRAGON INN is a masterpiece of slow cinema, a deceptively simple and cumulatively overwhelming film about nothing and everything. We can’t wait to have Ben Whishaw on hand to introduce a film he personally hand-picked for the Rio Forever season.

GOODBYE, DRAGON INN is shown in Mandarin and Southern Min, with English subtitles.