# I Don't Want to Sleep Alone
**I Don't Want to Sleep Alone** (黑眼圈, *Hei yan quan*) is a 2006 drama film written and directed by [Tsai Ming-liang](https://www.edgepedia.org/tsai-ming-liang), his first feature set in Malaysia, the country of his birth. Shot in [Kuala Lumpur](https://www.edgepedia.org/kuala-lumpur), it follows a homeless Chinese man who, after being beaten and robbed, is nursed back to health by a Bangladeshi migrant worker, and it was selected in the Official Competition of the 2006 Venice International Film Festival.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/66261/) • [2](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone-film-review-by-anton-bitel) • [3](https://file.moc.gov.tw/001/Upload/OldFiles/AdminUploads/contenthistory/2007TaiwanCinemaPDF.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | 黑眼圈 (*Hei yan quan*); international title I Don't Want to Sleep Alone[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/66261/) |
| Year and director | 2006, written and directed by Tsai Ming-liang[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/66261/) |
| Runtime | 115 minutes per Cineuropa and the Festival des 3 Continents; 118 minutes per Taiwan Cinema's 2007 yearbook[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/66261/) • [4](https://www.3continents.com/en/film/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone/) • [3](https://file.moc.gov.tw/001/Upload/OldFiles/AdminUploads/contenthistory/2007TaiwanCinemaPDF.pdf) |
| Setting | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Tsai's first feature set in his birth country[2](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone-film-review-by-anton-bitel) |
| Cast | Lee Kang-sheng (in two roles), Chen Shiang-chyi, Norman Atun, Pearlly Chua[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/66261/) |
| Languages | Taiwanese, Malay, Mandarin, and Bengali[5](https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/idontwanttosleepalone/) |
| Festivals | Venice 2006 Official Competition; 11th Busan International Film Festival invitation; Gijón special jury prize[3](https://file.moc.gov.tw/001/Upload/OldFiles/AdminUploads/contenthistory/2007TaiwanCinemaPDF.pdf) • [6](https://ficunam.unam.mx/pelicula/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone/) |
| Production | Soudaine Compagnie, New Crowned Hope, Homegreen Films; producers Bruno Pésery and Vincent Wang[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/66261/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
One night in Kuala Lumpur, Hsiao-kang, a Chinese man without a home, is robbed and assaulted; a group of Bangladeshi laborers then comes to his aid and gives him shelter. One of them, Rawang, lets him sleep beside him on an old mattress he had found on the street.[4](https://www.3continents.com/en/film/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone/)
As Hsiao-kang recovers, he meets Chyi, a waitress at a nearby coffee shop who also cares for the paralyzed son of the shop's lady boss. A triangle forms around him: Rawang's feelings for his patient may or may not be sexual, while Chyi shows desire for the recovering man, and Rawang falls into despair as the two grow close.[6](https://ficunam.unam.mx/pelicula/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone/) Meanwhile, a heavy, noxious haze descends on the city, and everyone has trouble breathing.[4](https://www.3continents.com/en/film/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone/) • [6](https://ficunam.unam.mx/pelicula/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone/)
Lee Kang-sheng plays two characters: the newcomer beaten by street conmen, and a doppelgänger who spends most of the film in a coma, tended by a nurse.[7](https://www.timeout.com/movies/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone) The film's plot moves largely through the conveyance of the mattress to different locations, Hsiao-kang's gradual return to health, and the arias and love songs playing on the comatose patient's bedside radio.[2](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone-film-review-by-anton-bitel)
## Commission and production
The film was commissioned for the New Crowned Hope project, staged in Vienna for the 250th anniversary of the birth of [Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart](https://www.edgepedia.org/wolfgang-amadeus-mozart) in 2006, which funded it as part of a package of films.[7](https://www.timeout.com/movies/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone) • [8](https://www.adrianmartinfilmcritic.com/reviews/i/i_dont_want_to_sleep_alone.html) Tsai took members of his long-term repertory company to film in Malaysia, his birth country.[7](https://www.timeout.com/movies/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone)
The credited crew includes Liao Pen-jung on cinematography, Chen Sheng-chang on editing, and Tu Duu-chih and Tang Shiang-chu on sound; production companies were Soudaine Compagnie, New Crowned Hope, and Homegreen Films, with international sales handled by Fortissimo Films.[6](https://ficunam.unam.mx/pelicula/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone/) • [1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/66261/) The Taiwan Cinema yearbook lists the format as 35mm color drama.[3](https://file.moc.gov.tw/001/Upload/OldFiles/AdminUploads/contenthistory/2007TaiwanCinemaPDF.pdf)
## Style
The film carries even fewer lines of dialogue than Tsai's previous features, which one reviewer put in the single digits, and it relies on his signature long takes with no mood music.[9](https://international.ucla.edu/institute/article/57800) Reviewers describe a cinema of the body, in which touching, restraint, and wordless gesture carry emotions of caring for the sick and the desire of the lonely, connected to specific spaces such as abandoned buildings, work spaces, and multi-story apartment buildings.[9](https://international.ucla.edu/institute/article/57800) • [7](https://www.timeout.com/movies/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone)
The opening shot shows the comatose man in bed, fed through a tube and serenaded by a recorded aria from Mozart's *The Magic Flute*.[10](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone) Recurring images include Kang fishing in a vast lake that has formed inside a cavernous building site, a moth perched on his shoulder, and fiber-optic lamps glowing on a pavement; the final image, held in a very long take, shows the three main characters in a bed bobbing like a cork on an unknown blue sea.[11](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/i-don-t-want-to-sleep-alone-15-the-wayward-cloud-15-400874.html) • [5](https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/idontwanttosleepalone/)
## Reception and censorship
At Venice 2006 the film played in Official Competition, and it later received a special jury prize at the Gijón Film Festival.[3](https://file.moc.gov.tw/001/Upload/OldFiles/AdminUploads/contenthistory/2007TaiwanCinemaPDF.pdf) • [6](https://ficunam.unam.mx/pelicula/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone/) It was also invited to the 11th Busan International Film Festival and screened in the Special Screenings section of the 7th TOKYO FILMeX in November 2006.[12](https://biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=11020&pyear=2006) • [13](https://asianwiki.com/I_Don%27t_Want_to_Sleep_Alone) On Rotten Tomatoes it holds an 87% Tomatometer from 39 reviews, with the critics consensus describing a powerful journey of loneliness and longing carried with little dialogue.[14](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_dont_want_to_sleep_alone)
In Malaysia, where the film was shot, it was heavily censored, and Tsai Ming-liang said he was disappointed by the censored version; a Malaysiakini report in April 2007 noted that the film deals with sexuality.[15](https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/66609) A Harvard Film Archive program notes that the Malaysian Censorship Board outlawed the film.[16](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/public/upload/print/63371ae84cfd2.pdf)
Commercially, the film received a French theatrical release on 6 June 2007 and a US DVD release on 6 November 2007, with a reported US gross of $19.1K.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/66261/) • [14](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_dont_want_to_sleep_alone)
## Place in Tsai's career
*I Don't Want to Sleep Alone* was Tsai Ming-liang's eighth feature and marked a turn from Taipei to Kuala Lumpur as his metropolis of choice, with many critics reading a more explicit tenderness in his treatment of a new community of outsiders, the pan-Asian guest workers left stranded by the burst bubble of Malaysia's economic boom.[2](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone-film-review-by-anton-bitel) • [7](https://www.timeout.com/movies/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone) Tsai, born in Malaysia in 1957, moved to Taiwan in 1977 and graduated from the drama department of Chinese Cultural University; his earlier features, including *Vive L'amour* (1994), *The River* (1997), *[The Hole](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-hole-1998-film)* (1998), *What Time Is It There?* (2001), *[Goodbye, Dragon Inn](https://www.edgepedia.org/goodbye-dragon-inn)* (2003), and *[The Wayward Cloud](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-wayward-cloud)* (2005), were invited to festivals including Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Busan.[12](https://biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=11020&pyear=2006)
## References
1. [I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (Hei yan quan), Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/66261/)
2. [I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (2006), Eye For Film review by Anton Bitel](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone-film-review-by-anton-bitel)
3. [I Don't Want to Sleep Alone 黑眼圈, The Blooming of Taiwan Cinema (2007), Ministry of Culture, Taiwan](https://file.moc.gov.tw/001/Upload/OldFiles/AdminUploads/contenthistory/2007TaiwanCinemaPDF.pdf)
4. [I Don't Want To Sleep Alone, Festival des 3 Continents](https://www.3continents.com/en/film/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone/)
5. [I Don't Want to Sleep Alone, Dennis Schwartz Reviews](https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/idontwanttosleepalone/)
6. [I Don't Want to Sleep Alone, FICUNAM](https://ficunam.unam.mx/pelicula/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone/)
7. [I Don't Want to Sleep Alone, Time Out review by Wally Hammond](https://www.timeout.com/movies/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone)
8. [I Don't Want to Sleep Alone, Adrian Martin film review](https://www.adrianmartinfilmcritic.com/reviews/i/i_dont_want_to_sleep_alone.html)
9. [AFM 2006: Capsule Reviews, UCLA International Institute](https://international.ucla.edu/institute/article/57800)
10. [I Don't Want to Sleep Alone, The New Yorker, Richard Brody (2015)](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone)
11. [I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (15) / The Wayward Cloud (15), The Independent, Jonathan Romney (2007)](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/i-don-t-want-to-sleep-alone-15-the-wayward-cloud-15-400874.html)
12. [Busan International Film Festival history, 2006](https://biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=11020&pyear=2006)
13. [I Don't Want to Sleep Alone, AsianWiki](https://asianwiki.com/I_Don%27t_Want_to_Sleep_Alone)
14. [I Don't Want to Sleep Alone, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_dont_want_to_sleep_alone)
15. [Movie director unhappy with censored version, Malaysiakini (2007)](https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/66609)
16. [Harvard Film Archive program, Tsai Ming-liang](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/public/upload/print/63371ae84cfd2.pdf)
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*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 › Romantic drama films 2000s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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