Tsai's newest feature expands the definition of cinéphilia to encompass the act of cinemagoing itself: Goodbye Dragon Inn is an act of tribute to the film medium, to cinematic exhibition spaces, and to the many activities of the theatergoer, of which film spectatorship is just one. As King Hu's Dragon Gate Inn (1966) plays on the night of a Taipei theater's closing, a series of nearly dialogue-free encounters plays out among the audience and the staff of the theater. Tsai's film and Dragon Gate Inn are subtly intertwined: Tsai takes some editing cues from the action and soundtrack of the film onscreen, and dialogue from the screen occasionally seems to be commenting on the action in the theater. Actors from Dragon Gate Inn, now nearly forty years older, appear among the audience, the meaning of their presence uncertain. What emerges is an affectionate, nuanced look at the act of cinema-going, the culmination of Tsai's recent investigations into the presence that popular media has in our lives.

This small-scale urban story takes up where What Time Is It There? left off - as the Parisian traveler from the earlier film returns to Taipei and searches for the skywalk where she had purchased her watch from the grieving vendor. It is no longer there. She is forced to cross the busy city street instead, a metaphor for the disconnectedness of contemporary urban life. The absent skywalk is a symbol both for the longing of the characters and a figurative bridge between their first story and what promises to be director Tsai's next feature.