My New Friends

Overview

Tsai interrupted his pre-production for The River to make this pioneering documentary for Taiwan's nascent AIDS-awareness campaign. Ignoring instructions to 'play down the gay angle', he centres the film on his own very candid conversations with two HIV+ young men. Sadly the identities of the interviewees have to be concealed, and so the freewheeling camerawork focuses most often on Tsai himself; but the sense of rapport between the director and his 'new friends' is palpable and very moving, even to Western viewers already only too familiar with these issues.

Details

Status

Released

Release date

January 1, 1995

Original language

Chinese

Spoken languages

Chinese

Countries

Taiwan

Cast

Pearlly Chua,Lee Kang-Sheng,Tsai Ming-liang

Director

Tsai Ming-liang

Budget

Not recorded

Revenue

Not recorded

IMDb

tt0275794