Staring Contest

STRAY DOGS (C) - There is rarely anything like a Tsai Ming-liang film. Usually that's a good thing.

There was nothing quite like his magical run of films a little over a decade ago: "What Time Is It There?," "Goodbye, Dragon Inn," "I Don't Want to Sleep Alone." They were visually arresting, with slow-paced, arch story lines. They were hard to forget.

But the few features from the Taiwan master since have slowly trickled into the United States. You can see why expectations would be high for "Stray Dogs," which turns out to be a challenge for even the most devoted art-house junkie. It doesn't really have a narrative, but it's apparently about an alcoholic man in Taipei living on the streets with his young son and daughter. They may or may not find a home with a grocery store clerk, apparently played by three different women, for no explained reason.

Shooting on crisp digital, Tsai brings vibrant colors and sharp detail to the usual grubby visuals of homeless life -- sleeping on old mattresses, washing up in a men's room sink. These vignettes run in no particular order. The kids are not very interesting. The father drowns in pathos while he's drowning in booze. Tsai's perennial male lead, Kang-sheng Lee, lends the character a wistful heaviness.

There are few payoffs. Tsai's camera just sits and stares, and too often what we're watching (the family brushing its teeth, a grocery store worker stocking shelves, a woman feeding her dogs) is dreadfully boring. Nothing interesting happens. Even if that's intentional, it doesn't make for a fun 138 minutes.

This aim for high art becomes a crashing bore. However, the final two shots -- clocking in at about 20 minutes -- are for the ages. If you have to fast-forward, stop at the 1:52:00 mark and sit back and watch the history of a couple unfold in stony silence.

It is scenes such as those that made Tsai one of last decade's most riveting storytellers. If he really is giving up on making films, maybe it's because he just has no more stories to tell.

We'll always have Taipei.