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Tsai Ming-liang (c=蔡明亮; born 27 October 1957) is a Malaysian filmmaker based in Taiwan and one of the most celebrated directors in the Slow cinema genre and the "Second New Wave" of Taiwanese cinema.
Tsai has written and directed 11 and many and . The best-known are Vive L'Amour (1994, for which he won the Golden Lion), The River (1997), Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003), and Stray Dogs (2013).
Tsai graduated from the Drama and Cinema Department of the Chinese Culture University of Taiwan in 1982 and worked as a theatrical producer, screenwriter, and television director in Hong Kong. From 1989 to 1991, he directed several telefilms. One of these, Boys, starred his muse, Lee Kang-sheng.
Tsai's next film was The River (1997), in which a family has to deal with the son's neck pain. The family is similar to one that appears in Rebels of the Neon God and is played by the same three actors. The Hole (1998) is about two neighbors in an apartment. It features several musical numbers.
Tsai's next film, I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (2006), was his first set in Malaysia and is about two different characters, both played by Lee. In 2007, the Malaysian Censorship Board banned the film based on incidents shown depicting the country "in a bad light" for cultural, ethical, and racial reasons, but later allowed it to be screened in the country after Tsai agreed to censor parts of the film according to the board's requirements. "Cutting for change" , TheStar Online, 14 May 2007. Tsai's next film, Face (2009), is about a Taiwanese director who travels to France to shoot a film.
Most of Tsai's output in the 2010s was dedicated to his exhibition films, in particular the Walker series (2012–24), the subject of which was a monk played by Lee who travels by walking slowly, usually surrounded by a busy background.
In 2020, Tsai released Days, which competed for the Golden Bear at the Berlinale film festival.
In 2021, Tsai released Wandering, a short installation film with no dialogue, which follows a woman visiting an exhibition of Tsai's "Walker" series in Taiwan.
In December 2024, Tsai is scheduled to make his Australian in-person debut at an "In Conversation" event at the Australian Cinémathèque, Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) in Brisbane. This event coincides with a special retrospective of Tsai's work as part of QAGOMA's Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art.
In 2003, The Guardian voted Tsai No. 18 of the 40 best directors in the world. In 2014, he was named an officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the government of France.
| 1992 | Rebels of the Neon God | 青少年哪吒 | |
| 1994 | Vive l'amour | 愛情萬歲 | Golden Lion winner |
| 1997 | The River | 河流 | |
| 1998 | The Hole | 洞 | |
| 2001 | What Time Is It There? | 你那邊幾點 | |
| 2003 | Goodbye, Dragon Inn | 不散 | |
| 2005 | The Wayward Cloud | 天邊一朵雲 | |
| 2006 | I Don't Want to Sleep Alone | 黑眼圈 | |
| 2009 | Face | 臉 | |
| 2013 | Stray Dogs | 郊遊 | STRAY DOGS by Tsai Ming Liang >Urban Distribution International . Urbandistrib.com. Retrieved on 29 Jul 2015. 70th Venice International Film Festival – Venezia 70 - Jiaoyou (Stray Dogs) . Labiennale.org. Retrieved on 22 May 2014. |
| 2020 | Days | 日子 |
| 1989 | Endless Love |
| The Happy Weaver | |
| Far Away | |
| All Corners of the World | |
| 1990 | Li Hsiang's Love Line |
| My Name is Mary | |
| Ah-Hsiung's First Love | |
| 1991 | Give Me a Home |
| Boys | |
| Hsio Yueh's Dowry | |
| 1995 | My New Friends |
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