At age 20, he moves to Taïwan. He wrote scripts for theater, telefilms and realized 5 lenght films for cinema.

In 1983, Tsaï Ming-liang wrote, directed, and starred in Wardrobe in the Room, a play in which contained all of themes which would later appear in his films. His talent and his deadpan humor quickly seduced the public. For ten years he worked for television, making telefilms and writing scripts, then he gave acting lessons. On the occasion of one of his telefilms (The Kid), he met Lee Kangsheng in a video arcade. Tsaï Ming-liang wrote Rebels of the Neon God for him, and from that point on he became Xiao-kang, the major character in all of his films. Tsaï Ming-liang is a film-maker of universal feeling.

He speaks of isolation, solitude, the difficulty of communication. He places his camera in buildings and apartments in Taiwan, but the stories and sentiments he provokes are universal and felt with the same force and evidence in New York, Paris, Tokyo, or Berlin. Everywhere people are alone, and seek not to be.

Filmography:

1992: Ching shao nien na cha (Rebels of the Neon God) 1994: Aiqing wansui (Long Live Love) 1996: He-Liu (The River) 1998: The Hole 2001: Ni nei pien chi tien (And, what time is it over there?)