Fridae

Renowned director Tsai Ming-Liang was born in Malaysia but had moved to Taiwan when he was 20 to study. When he finished school, he worked in Taiwanese theatre and TV for many years before embarking on a long film career that has produced extraordinary cinematic gems such as Vive L'Amour and The Wayward Cloud set in Taipei.

Now for the first time in his career, Tsai has returned to his homeland of Malaysia to make a film. It is called I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (the direct English translation of its Chinese title is "Dark Circles Around the Eyes"). And it is so spare, poetic and tender that it easily ranks among his best works.

The delicate tale begins when a homeless Chinese man Hsiao Kang (played by Tsai's muse Lee Kang-Sheng) is beaten and robbed in Kuala Lumpur. A handsome construction worker named Rawang (played by Malay actor Norman Atun) takes him in and gently nurses him back to health. Sharing the same bed every night, the two men start to have feelings for each other.

However, when Hsiao Kang is strong enough to leave Rawang's quarters, he meets a pretty coffee-shop assistant (Chen Shiang-Chyi) and has an affair with her. A love triangle soon develops. Meanwhile, a haze has enveloped the country, making it impossible for everyone to breathe properly...

I Don't Want to Sleep Alone is clearly one of the best works in Tsai Ming-Liang's oeuvre. It is a spare masterpiece of heartbreaking beauty. What makes it especially resonant for viewers here is its Kuala Lumpur setting, and the use of the haze and the mattress which the men share (alluding to the mattress used in the case against former Deputy PM Anwar Ibrahim, who was allegedly bisexual) to reflect on Malaysia's complex social politics.

It is this week's must-see movie.