Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
49
2012
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
70
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
52
Blind Side
47
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
41
G-Force
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
28
Pandorum
58
Pirate Radio
39
Planet 51
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
46
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
39
Adventures of Power
66
Afterschool
73
Amreeka
49
Antichrist
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
71
Big Fan
65
Black Dynamite
76
Bliss
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
76
Broken Embraces
70
Bronson
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
60
Collapse
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
53
Dare
50
Defamation
67
Departures
70
Earth Days
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
88
Fantastic Mr. Fox![]()
31
Fix
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
xx
From Mexico with Love
28
Gentlemen Broncos
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
63
Horse Boy, The
74
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
43
Little Traitor, The
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
46
Love Hurts
84
Maid, The![]()
45
Mammoth
75
Messenger, The
55
Missing Person, The
59
More Than a Game
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
48
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
26
Oh My God
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Red Cliff
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
65
Skin
41
Splinterheads
42
Staten Island
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
58
Storm
82
Sun, The![]()
49
Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73
That Evening Sun
61
Trucker
49
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
45
Uncertainty
67
Visual Acoustics
32
War on Kids
67
Way We Get By, The
65
Wedding Song, The
xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
Woman in Berlin, A
43
Women in Trouble
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
What Time Is It There?

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 20 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 5 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Romance
Written by:
Tsai Ming-liang
Yang Pi-ying
Directed by: Tsai Ming-liang
Release Date:
Theatrical: January 11, 2002
DVD: August 20, 2002
Running Time: 116 minutes, Color
Origin: France / Taiwan
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Kang-sheng Lee, Shiang-chyi Chen, Yi-ching Lu, Tien Miao, Chao-jung Chen, Cecilia Yip, and Jean-Pierre Léaud
A young Taipei watch vendor (Lee) falls in love with a girl (Chen) just as she leaves to go to Paris, inspiring him to set all the clocks in the city to French time.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Goodbye Dragon Inn The River The Wayward Cloud
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Tsai builds this shimmering story with deft, deadpan wit and a warm, understated love of the absurd, both in life and afterlife.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Tsai's cinematic style is unique: He unfolds his stories in long, static shots that let you discover their surprises and mysteries on your own. And that's great fun. What Time Is It There? is perky, entertaining, and one of a kind.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
Tsai not only gives the audience a chance to breathe but also lets us luxuriate in the mood of deadpan melancholy his movie evokes so beautifully.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Tsai's latest, What Time Is It There?, runs his usual themes and obsessions through a whimsical premise worthy of Wong Kar-Wai, striking such an exquisite balance between humor and despair that the moods comfortably coexist, just as they do in real life.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
This wonderful, one-of-a-kind movie hops from Taiwan to France, from tragedy to deadpan comedy and, in its mysterious conclusion, from the worldly to the otherworldly.
Chicago Reader Staff (Not Credited)
Tsai Ming-liang's most exciting and original to date.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It haunts you, you can't forget it, you admire its conception and are able to resolve some of the confusions you had while watching it.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
While its careful pace and seemingly opaque story may not satisfy every moviegoer's appetite, the film's final scene is soaringly, transparently moving.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
Filled with purposeful, if absurd, activity rendered gravely hilarious through Tsai's deadpan, distanced representation of extreme behavior.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
The story that emerges has elements of romance, tragedy and even silent-movie comedy.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Manohla Dargis
Takes raw grief as its point of departure only to play out as a comedy of deadpan heartbreak.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
More of the same from Taiwanese auteur Tsai Ming-liang, which is good news to anyone who's fallen under the sweet, melancholy spell of this unique director's previous films.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
The result is a film of surprise and wonder, lyrically attuned to the ticking intensity of romance.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Charles Taylor
Tsai Ming-Liang's new movie about urban isolation reinvents the delicate, poetic shadow play of silent movies.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Very slowly builds to an emotional payoff in a devastating scene where the three main characters simultaneously seek relief in sex.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
This movie is not of a style that will speak to general audiences. It is nearly wordless, spare to a fare-thee-well.
New Times (L.A.) Andy Klein
Those with an interest in new or singular sorts of film experiences will find What Time Is It There? well worth the time.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
Is nothing if not foreign, but not in the sense of national demarcations of language and custom. It speaks a different cinematic language, one that tosses off the usual rules of camerawork and narrative structure.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Peter Rainer
An art piece in which everything seems to be a metaphor for something else, and as pleasing as it is to watch, it's too pretentious by half.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.2 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Mark L. gave it a10:
One of the best films of the last 10 years, easily.
