{ "id": "epjgzxer7j", "slug": "what-time-is-it-there", "title": "What Time Is It There? (你那边几点)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s", "label": "Drama films 2000s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s.biographical-and-historical-drama-films", "label": "Biographical and historical drama films 2000s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s.biographical-and-historical-drama-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s.biographical-and-historical-drama-films.yr-2000-2005", "label": "Released 2000 to 2005", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s.biographical-and-historical-drama-films.yr-2000-2005" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "China · 2001 to 2020: Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "path": [ { "id": "geo.chn", "label": "China", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001", "label": "China · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" } ] } ], "excerpt": "What Time Is It There? (你那邊幾點) is Tsai Ming-liang's 2001 Taiwan-France drama, Cannes Palme d'Or nominee, about a Taipei watch seller who resets clocks to Paris time after selling his dual-time watch to a woman leaving for France.", "snippet": "What Time Is It There? (你那邊幾點) is Tsai Ming-liang's 2001 Taiwan-France drama, Cannes Palme d'Or nominee, about a Taipei watch seller who resets clocks to Paris time after selling his dual-time watch to a woman leaving for France.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s.biographical-and-historical-drama-films.yr-2000-2005", "markdown": "# What Time Is It There? (你那边几点)\n\n**What Time Is It There?** (你那边几点; also released as *What Time Is It Over There?*) is a 2001 drama film directed by [Tsai Ming-liang](https://www.edgepedia.org/tsai-ming-liang), a co-production of Taiwan and France about a Taipei watch vendor who, after selling his dual-time watch to a woman leaving for Paris, sets every clock he can find to Parisian time.[1](https://movie.douban.com/subject/1294540//) • [2](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/1874/) It premiered in competition at the 54th Cannes Film Festival on 15 May 2001 and was nominated for the [Palme d'Or](https://www.edgepedia.org/palme-dor).[3](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E4%BD%A0%E9%82%A3%E8%BE%B9%E5%87%A0%E7%82%B9/266196) • [1](https://movie.douban.com/subject/1294540//)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / writers | Tsai Ming-liang, written with Yang Pi-ying[4](https://web.library.yale.edu/film/notes/fn00115) |\n| Production | Taiwan–France co-production; Homegreen Films (Taiwan) and Arena Films (France); 116 minutes[4](https://web.library.yale.edu/film/notes/fn00115) • [2](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/1874/) • [1](https://movie.douban.com/subject/1294540//) |\n| Languages | Mandarin Chinese, French, Taiwanese (Min Nan), English[1](https://movie.douban.com/subject/1294540//) |\n| Premiere | 15 May 2001, 54th Cannes Film Festival, competition; French release 26 September 2001[3](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E4%BD%A0%E9%82%A3%E8%BE%B9%E5%87%A0%E7%82%B9/266196) • [2](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/1874/) |\n| Principal cast | Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Shiang-chyi, Lu Yi-Ching, Miao Tien, Jean-Pierre Léaud[4](https://web.library.yale.edu/film/notes/fn00115) |\n| Major honors | Cannes Palme d'Or nomination; Cannes Technical Grand Prize (sound, Du Du-zhi); Chicago jury special prize and best director; Asia-Pacific Film Festival best film and director[1](https://movie.douban.com/subject/1294540//) • [5](https://taiwancinema.bamid.gov.tw/Staff/PrintFrameContent?ContentUrl=12436) |\n| Taiwan box office | Over NT$1.6 million in Taipei in its first week, NT$2.65 million island-wide, fourth among 2001 domestic films[6](https://www.gvm.com.tw/article/8860) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story\n\nThe film tells three parallel stories. Hsiao-kang (Lee Kang-sheng) sells watches on a skywalk near Taipei's bustling train station. His mother (Lu Yi-Ching) has recently lost her husband and searches for signs of his presence after death. A young woman, Shiang-chyi (Chen Shiang-chyi), buys a watch from Hsiao-kang, in fact his own dual-time watch, before departing for Paris. After selling it, Hsiao-kang becomes obsessed with the woman now in Paris and tries to change every clock he sees in Taipei to Paris time.[4](https://web.library.yale.edu/film/notes/fn00115)\n\nThe title's question carries several meanings at once. As the film critic Lin Wen-chi explained in a commentary recorded for the film's Taiwanese public-screening edition, asking \"what time is it there?\" expresses the wish to know what time it is, and what someone is doing, in the place where a person from whom one is separated now lives; wanting to know your time is a way of wanting to be with you.[7](https://funscreen.tfai.org.tw/article/5901) The seven-hour time difference between Taipei and Paris becomes the axis of the story: Hsiao-kang resets quartz clocks, electronic watches, and alarm clocks to Paris time, while his mother, believing her husband's spirit may return, shifts the household's dinner hour to the middle of the night after seeing the wall clock display an odd time.[8](https://weibo.com/2/detail/5340996880830272) • [9](https://vocus.cc/article/6394990bfd897800019c7446)\n\n## Truffaut, Léaud, and French cinema\n\nThe film is built around [François Truffaut](https://www.edgepedia.org/francois-truffaut)'s debut *The 400 Blows* (1959). Hsiao-kang watches the film in his darkened room, and in one of the picture's many parallels Shiang-chyi, sitting on a bench in Paris, finds herself in conversation with [Jean-Pierre Léaud](https://www.edgepedia.org/jean-pierre-leaud), who played Antoine Doinel in Truffaut's film, while Hsiao-kang in Taipei watches the young Léaud on screen.[4](https://web.library.yale.edu/film/notes/fn00115) Léaud appears in the cast as himself in this episode.[1](https://movie.douban.com/subject/1294540//)\n\nSecuring the rights to use more than three minutes of *The 400 Blows* footage and its music raised the production's costs. On 11 May 2001 the film became the first Taiwanese production financed by letter of credit (LC), with the Taipei International Commercial Bank agreeing to accept the film itself as collateral after assistance from the Council for Cultural Affairs deputy head Lo Wen-chia.[10](https://yule.sohu.com/20090511/n263883032.shtml)\n\nThe critic Jonathan Rosenbaum pointed to two other French filmmakers as influences: Jacques Rivette, whose works are constructed as elaborate two-part inventions oscillating back and forth, and [Jacques Tati](https://www.edgepedia.org/jacques-tati), whose playful way of coping with [sensory overload](https://www.edgepedia.org/sensory-overload) Tsai shares.[4](https://web.library.yale.edu/film/notes/fn00115) The film's cinematographer, Benoît Delhomme, had also shot Tran Anh Hung's *[The Scent of Green Papaya](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-scent-of-green-papaya)*.[4](https://web.library.yale.edu/film/notes/fn00115)\n\n## Style and themes\n\nTsai's films are marked by long, static shots that highlight nearly imperceptible changes within the frame and express melancholy and emptiness, and this film continues that method.[4](https://web.library.yale.edu/film/notes/fn00115) The Eye Filmmuseum describes it as a lightly absurdist, tragi-comic reflection on love, mourning, and cinema's function as a time machine.[11](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/what-time-is-it-there/1597530) The critic Kevin Thomas called it Tsai's lightest work, with an open ending offering a ray of hope and stronger dark absurdist humor than any of his previous pictures.[4](https://web.library.yale.edu/film/notes/fn00115)\n\n**Mourning and time.** The father's death organizes the household's relationship to time. The mother follows a spirit medium's instructions, observes taboos against killing living things for forty-nine days, and treats the white fish in the living-room aquarium as a possible vessel of the dead husband's spirit; Hsiao-kang, fearful since the death, urinates in plastic bags rather than leave his room at night.[9](https://vocus.cc/article/6394990bfd897800019c7446) The commentary tradition around the film reads the clock-resetting as both an attempt to synchronize with the absent person and an escape from present reality: just as resetting clocks does not put Hsiao-kang in Paris, his mother's rearranged hours do not bring her closer to the dead.[7](https://funscreen.tfai.org.tw/article/5901) • [9](https://vocus.cc/article/6394990bfd897800019c7446)\n\n**Place and memory.** The film is set partly around real Taipei landmarks that have since disappeared, including the train station skywalk where Hsiao-kang works and the Star Coffee House where Shiang-chyi makes her phone call, spaces that carried shared memory for many Taipei residents.[7](https://funscreen.tfai.org.tw/article/5901) A scholar of the film describes its disjointed layers of passing time as refracting a Taiwanese culture \"out of joint\" at the dawn of the new millennium, after the island's first direct presidential election in 1996 and the change of governing party in 2000.[12](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2023/cteq/what-time-is-it-there-tsai-ming-liang-2001/)\n\n## Production and release\n\nThe film was Tsai's fifth feature and his first to receive regular release in the United States.[11](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/what-time-is-it-there/1597530) • [4](https://web.library.yale.edu/film/notes/fn00115) Because earlier Tsai films distributed by the Central Motion Picture Corporation had been poorly marketed, his own company organized from this film onward the largest campus touring screening and discussion program in Taiwanese film history, and the resulting publicity helped its theatrical run.[7](https://funscreen.tfai.org.tw/article/5901) After Cannes, it received a French release on 26 September 2001, followed by the Netherlands (7 March 2002), Italy (14 June 2002), Belgium (17 July 2002), and Germany (12 June 2003).[2](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/1874/)\n\n## Reception and awards\n\nAt the 54th Cannes Film Festival the film competed for the Palme d'Or and won the Technical Grand Prize for sound, awarded to Du Du-zhi.[1](https://movie.douban.com/subject/1294540//) • [5](https://taiwancinema.bamid.gov.tw/Staff/PrintFrameContent?ContentUrl=12436) At the 38th Golden Horse Awards it received the jury's special film award and a special individual jury prize, with nominations for best feature film and best director.[5](https://taiwancinema.bamid.gov.tw/Staff/PrintFrameContent?ContentUrl=12436) • [1](https://movie.douban.com/subject/1294540//) The 37th Chicago International Film Festival gave it the jury special prize, best director, and a special jury cinematography prize, and the Asia-Pacific Film Festival awarded it best film, best director, and best supporting actress (Lu Yi-Ching).[5](https://taiwancinema.bamid.gov.tw/Staff/PrintFrameContent?ContentUrl=12436) On Douban it holds a rating of 8.0 from 18,931 users.[1](https://movie.douban.com/subject/1294540//)\n\nThe characters continued into Tsai's later work. Lee Kang-sheng and Chen Shiang-chyi reprise their roles in the 2002 short *The Skywalk Is Gone*, in which Shiang-chyi returns from Paris to find the skywalk demolished, and in *[The Wayward Cloud](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-wayward-cloud)* (2005), where the two form a relationship during a water shortage.[4](https://web.library.yale.edu/film/notes/fn00115)\n\n## References\n\n1. [你那边几点 (豆瓣), Douban](https://movie.douban.com/subject/1294540//)\n2. [What Time Is It Over There? (Ni na bian ji dian), Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/1874/)\n3. [你那边几点（2001年蔡明亮执导的电影）, 百度百科](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E4%BD%A0%E9%82%A3%E8%BE%B9%E5%87%A0%E7%82%B9/266196)\n4. [Film Notes: WHAT TIME IS IT THERE?, Yale Film Archive, Yale University Library](https://web.library.yale.edu/film/notes/fn00115)\n5. [蔡明亮, 台灣電影網 Taiwan Cinema](https://taiwancinema.bamid.gov.tw/Staff/PrintFrameContent?ContentUrl=12436)\n6. [蔡明亮戲說「不散」, 遠見雜誌](https://www.gvm.com.tw/article/8860)\n7. [大師影片評析：蔡明亮的《你那邊幾點》（上）, 放映週報](https://funscreen.tfai.org.tw/article/5901)\n8. [蔡明亮《你那边几点》影评, Weibo](https://weibo.com/2/detail/5340996880830272)\n9. [時間的失落與哀悼——蔡明亮《你那邊幾點》與《天橋不見了》, Vocus](https://vocus.cc/article/6394990bfd897800019c7446)\n10. [影史今日：蔡明亮《你那边几点》首次抵押拍片, 搜狐娱乐](https://yule.sohu.com/20090511/n263883032.shtml)\n11. [What Time Is It There?, Eye Filmmuseum](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/what-time-is-it-there/1597530)\n12. [What Time is it There? (Tsai Ming-liang, 2001), Senses of Cinema](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2023/cteq/what-time-is-it-there-tsai-ming-liang-2001/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2000s › Biographical and historical drama films 2000s › Released 2000 to 2005*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/what-time-is-it-there", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/what-time-is-it-there.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"What Time Is It There? (你那边几点)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/what-time-is-it-there. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[What Time Is It There? (你那边几点)](https://www.edgepedia.org/what-time-is-it-there)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/what-time-is-it-there](https://www.edgepedia.org/what-time-is-it-there). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"What Time Is It There? (你那边几点)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/what-time-is-it-there. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "What Time Is It There? is Tsai Ming-liang's 2001 Taiwan-France drama, Cannes Palme d'Or nominee, about a Taipei watch seller who resets clocks to Paris time after selling his dual-time watch to a woman leaving for France." }