This one had been high atop my must-see list, ever since Scorsese dubbed it his favorite film of the ‘90s. (Though made in 1985, it took some time for it to wash up on American shores.) And for years, it was available only in botched pan-and-scan video transfers. According to festival programmer Brian Hu, this is the “ultra-rare Tibetan-language version that was just restored.” Also for years, I’ve belly-ached over directors who prefer an overabundance of closeups to pulling the camera back and allowing audiences to observe the way that characters relate to their surroundings. Tian Zhuangzhuang’s distanced widescreen compositions are all the storytelling one needs to compensate for the paucity of plot and dialogue. And lest one think this might mean it falls into the category of what Pauline Kael once called “a coffee table movie,” there’s a visually sumptuous extended montage, with slow and steady forward-moving superimpositions that unfold like flower petals. Fine print: don’t trust your first viewing to a video copy. If ever a film demanded the big screen treatment, it’s this. (1986) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.