Creative advertising freshman Anna Williams has enjoyed the experience of FLM 200 and getting to know other students opinions on films.

“I love listening to the super smart people reflect on the movie at the end,” Williams said. “Seeing new perspectives as someone who doesn’t know a whole lot about film is very interesting.”

Goodbye, Dragon Inn is a Taiwanese film written and directed by Tsai Ming-Liang in Dec. 2003. It falls under the category of slow cinema. Slow cinema emphasizes a more minimalistic style with drawn out scenes. Despite the exceptionally slow pace the movie itself is 84 minutes. This style of film set a new expectation for Ming-Liang’s films.

Goodbye, Dragon Inn is more deliberate compared to any of Ming-Liang's other films in terms of movement. The film had almost no dialogue, and when there was some, it was clustered, not spread throughout the scenes. The film features liminal spaces and characters moving within tight spaces — often they were bumping into each other, passing each other, or in close proximity, all without hardly ever saying a word. 

Goodbye, Dragon Inn serves as an ode to the dying practice of watching cinema in theaters. It makes reference to a 1967 film directed by King Hu titled Dragon Inn. 

Students voiced mixed opinions on the film regarding the style and and overall message, one of these students was journalism junior Neil Thiry.

“Very captivating, but simultaneously very very boring,” Thiry said. “I really loved how it represented the power of cinema and movie theaters in general.”

Psychology sophomore Gavin Yeager shared a different sentiment than Thiry.

“I’ve never seen a movie that gives a greater sense of closure. It lingers at the end in an empty room and forces you to search for anything when there’s nothing there," Yeager said. "It’s sad, but it’s also inspiring as they are humans moving forwards in their lives.”

The film collective meets once weekly, in the Wells classroom (Wells B122) to watch cinema and welcome visitors. Sticking true to their inspirations from French New Wave directors and film critics from past generations, they believe being a good film writer and a good filmmaker starts with the practice of watching reputable films.