Chinese director Tsai says Venice film 'Stray Dogs' could be last

Actors Lee Yi-Cheng (L-R), Lu Yi-ching, Lee Yi-chieh, director Tsai Ming-Liang and actor Lee Kang-sheng pose during a photocall for the movie "Stray Dogs" during the 70th Venice Film Festival in Venice September 5, 2013. The movie debuts at the festival.[Photo/Agencies]

Tsai Ming-Liang's 'Stray Dogs' debuts in Venice

Taipei-based director Tsai Ming-liang said on Thursday at the Venice Film Festival, where his "Stray Dogs" is in competition, that the portrayal of a family subsisting on the streets of Taipei could well be his last movie.

In the production notes, the director says he has become tired of cinema and that the mechanisms of the market, the "so-called entertainment value of films in recent years and the constant pandering to popular taste", disgust him.

"I hope this is my last film. This statement is for real, that is my hope," Tsai, 55, said at a news conference before the official premiere of the film.

He also says in the notes that during the making of the film, which is called "Jiaoyou" in Chinese, he was struck by an unspecified illness that made him feel "sick enough that I felt I might die at any moment".

Tsai said that while "Stray Dogs" could well be his final film, he could not predict what would happen.

"I also believe in fate and destiny so I don't know what awaits me," he said in Venice.

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