I Don't Want to Sleep Alone

2006

1h 55m

Comedy

Drama

List

88%

40 Reviews

Tomatometer

74%

2,500+ Ratings

Audience Score

Rawang finds injured people on the streets and brings them to his home.

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Critics Consensus

With little dialogue, Tsai Ming-liang takes the viewer through a powerful journey of loneliness and longing.

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Chuck Stephens

Film Comment Magazine

I Don't Want to Sleep Alone-which ends with a vision of fragile and drifting bliss as oneiric as anything in the swamp-moss-pherics of Andrei Tarkovsky-is nothing short of a dream

Nov 14, 2013

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Wally Hammond

Time Out

Rated: 5/5

Nov 18, 2011

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Anthony Quinn

Independent (UK)

Music interlaces the action, which proceeds mostly without words, expression or, regrettably, interest.

Rated: 2/5

Nov 16, 2007

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Ard Vijn

ScreenAnarchy

A beautiful movie with a glacial pace, this is definitely NOT one for the impatient. If you can take the pace (in which case this film is VERY much recommended) you will be rewarded with lots of memorable images.

Jan 23, 2020

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Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

A gorgeous film that won't disappoint.

Rated: B+

Feb 8, 2008

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Jeremy Heilman

MovieMartyr.com

Tsai's style is essentially written in stone at this point, and [this] hardly challenges it. [He] is as visually adept here as ever, right up to the film's peaceful final shot.

Rated: 53/100

Jan 8, 2008

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Audience Member

Laconic and achingly gorgeous. Tarkovskian long-shots with almost no dialogue and a mostly inscrutable plot. This isn't a film meant to be understood but to be experienced through the emotions. Erotic and tender. One of the most stunning final shots in cinema.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

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Audience Member

It is interesting to read all the different comments about the movie. Their description of the plot does not overlap, which is easy to understand after you watch the movie. There is very little dialogue among the characters, practically inexistent between the main characters. Most of the plot is inferred; parts of the plot are even impossible to discern, including the relationship between some of the characters. Nonetheless, and challenging our normal use of language, the movie captures the best and the worst of humankind without words. Whereas some characters show cruelty, others are compassionate. Most of all, this is the story of how three people come together in their loneliness and longing for company. .

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

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Audience Member

Ming-liang Tsai's films are something different. They may be slow, they may be flat but they are very observerable. This time we follow a man that takes care of another man that is found injured in the streets. He let him sleep at his place and he cares for him. Some other people are involved, often people lying in bed, sleeping. There is also a man in comatose played by the same man that are rescued. Minimalistic and utterly slow. It's easy to fall asleep as the viewer here, so like many other of his films you are hoping for a powerful ending after a slow build up. The ending is solid, but first of all it's pretty. A couple of lovely scenes - static, slow but beautifully shot are the highlights here. So, not a very easy film, it's demanding. I felt I was left unawarded since it's anything but entertaining - especially after the first 20 minutes or so. Almost free for words and dialogue but filled with realism. A quite calming experience - it's biggest feature. 5.5 out of 10 adult diapers.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

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Audience Member

A poignant film of stunning, Tarkovskian beauty, but Tsai seems a bit too interested in playing with the structure of his works now, given how after a strong first hour it seems to drift away without direction only to finally make up for its flaws with a heartfelt, beautiful ending.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

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Audience Member

I Don't Want to Sleep Alone follows a group of people as they attempt to make connections with the people around them in a desperate plea for companionship in the context of a lonely world. The mattress motif is brilliant, a perfect metaphor for what it means to build something with another person, allowing for a finale that stands with the absolute best of his work (it's incredible how he's so consistently able to end his films in ways that feel absolutely perfect). The last twenty minutes or so are absolutely breathtaking, some sequences in a staircase that resembles M.C. Escher's Relativity seeming legitimately otherworldly, and the cruel, depressive darkness that looms over the entire experience has an incredible payoff during this period. I've never given credence to the theory that Tsai is in love with his straight leading man as I've found it to be moderately belittling to reduce a masterful director's personal life to an old gay stereotype, but if there was ever a film to make the case that this was actually true, it would be I Don't Want to Sleep Alone.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/10/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Another example of Tsai Ming-Liang's self-absorption.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/04/23

Full Review

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Ming-liang Tsai

Director

Norman Atun

Rawang

Lee Kang-sheng

Hsiao-Kang

Shiang-chyi Chen

Actor

Pearlly Chua

Actor

Lee-Lin Liew

Actor

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Critical Consensus: "28 Weeks" Is Bloody Good, "Georgia" Doesn’t Rule, "Ex" is Axed, Guess "Delta" Tomatometer!

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Synopsis

Rawang finds injured people on the streets and brings them to his home.

Director: Ming-liang Tsai
Producer: Wouter Barendrecht, Simon Field, Keith Griffiths, Michael J. Werner
Screenwriter: Ming-liang Tsai
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: Chinese
Release Date (DVD): Nov 6, 2007
Box Office (Gross USA): $19.1K
Runtime: 1h 55m