Watch The Missing For Free

The Worst Film Ever

Fantastic!

Brilliant and touching

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

While attending film festivals, I make it a point to watch as many good,sensible,meaningful films possible.However there are certain occasions when I inadvertently end up watching bad films. My personal belief is that there are bad films and there are absolutely bad films which are eye sore. In a way bad films are not so bad because if all films were good than who in the world would go on to make a bad film. Watching an absolutely bad film is bad for a healthy mind as the ill effects of a bad film remain for a longer time.Missing directed by Lee Kang Sheng is such an absolutely bad film. It did not captivate the entire Makhmalbaf family who was also watching it with me. As a matter of fact mister Mohsen Makhmalbaf was seated in a row before mine. I can only make a wild guess at how much he must have suffered while watching this piece of nonsense.It is a different thing to act in a film and different thing to direct a film. Lee Kang Sheng got it wrong as his film is a bizarre attempt at garnering sympathy by portraying an old grand mother searching her young grand son. Makes no sense at all.

Hi folks,It seems to me that the guy who commented before me either hasn't understood anything about the movie's message or left before the end. I say that because in the very end the until-then rather slow and irritating story suddenly makes sense in a most stunning scene when the lost (dead) grandfather and grandson appear hand in hand outside of the symbolic circle that stands for life or the living. At this point it dawns upon the viewer that the grandmother was looking for her dead grandson all the time because she couldn't accept the loss.A great film for those who get the meaning!RegardsR.F.

I agree with my Czech buddy: this is a total waste of time---an inept, pretentious, boring, ugly distortion of life. A wretched exploitation film.What does it exploit? To name a few: (1) the wretchedness of old-age loneliness; (2) our guilt at finding the characters somewhat annoying and ourselves less than full-heartedly sympathetic; (3) the tolerance of art-house audience for inadequate narrative and threadbare characterization.You would think that out of the extraordinary tedium and pointlessness, something unusual may be found; originality of any kind can nevertheless be the last saving-grace. But none is to be found. The bag of tricks is pretty flat: oh yes, Lee did see his Kieslowski alright. There is a scattering of visual clues that re-emerge from time to time, as in "Red", and we may pick up as glue to tie the nondescript narrative together. The painted canvas, the shreds of newspapers, the rear mirror view from a motor cycle, etc. And in case you think Lee is not well-versed in Brunuel, the deliberate voyeurism of the camera placement is supposed to make us roll over and extol the virtue of a new auteur. But art is not the sum of trickery. Punishing one's audience does not warrant worship. Not all of us are masochistic.

It's hard to watch 'The Missing' without thinking about Tsai Ming Liang, particularly as it is directed by the actor that Tsai "fetishises" in his films, Lee Kang Sheng. On the face of it, Lee's film is similar to many of Tsai's films - long, slow shots, a somewhat alienated camera aspect, and some familiar faces (for example Tien Miao, who plays the father figure in Tsai's films).But 'The Missing' deals with the emotional predicaments of the characters in a very different way to say 'Bu San' (released at the same time). Here, the unrelenting long takes give the character's emotions a rawness, yet we are left with a feeling of loneliness, rather than intimacy. Lee also opts for a more conventional, even "Western", story pattern.While it lacks the cinematic genius of Tsai Ming Liang's work, it is a fine debut, emotive and sensitively explored, and Lee's experience as an actor has well equipped him to produce some excellent performances from his cast, particularly from his lead actress.