If you think back to your first memory connected to cinema, the moment which may have been the starting point for your passion for movies, a lot of its has to do probably with family and the theatre itself. While streaming services have been taking over and the theatre experience is more or less dying, as many cinemas are forced to close their doors, this memory some of us hold so dearly is unreachable to the next generation. In his short feature “Keep in Mind: Father's Cinema” Taiwanese director Shih-Han Tsao wishes to commemorate all the movie theatres of Kaohsiung which are now closed and demolished, as well as his father, and as both memories are closely connected they come together in this melancholic short.
Keep in Mind: Father's Cinema is screening at Busan Short Film Festival
The movie opens with the sight of an abandoned theatre, which has been reclaimed by nature to some extent. A young man (Mason Lee) with a backpack approaches the derelict building and eventually enters it, making his way through the rubble and the dirt. He inspects the projection booth and also the screen, before he unpacks his backpack. The insides are a beamer and an urn, as well as one final movie which will be screened tonight, for him and his father alone.
As mentioned before, “Keep in Mind: Father's Cinema” is a story about memory. The director sticks to a simple, yet multi-layered narrative, which is already indicated in the title. Is the man re-living the memory of going to the cinema with his father? Or did the cinema itself at one point belong to his father and he had to close it down, presumably before he became sick? Either way, the notion of going through a special memory, an emotional experience is what makes this short feature quite touching.
At the same time, it is interesting how Shih-Han Tsao sticks to the principles of the format when it comes to telling his story. His short feature is quite similar to a silent movie, with no dialogue being spoken, and the focus being entirely on the images, as well as the face of actor Mason Lee. There is also a hint of a memory being lost, with the feature relying on the power of the images, which is somehow forgotten in modern cinema.
In the end, “Keep in Mind: Father's Cinema” is a melancholic feature about memory and cinema. Shih-Han Tsao relies on the power of the images and the acting to tell his story, making his feature quite touching and powerful.
