Tsai Ming-Liang's 'Stray Dogs' debuts in Venice

"Stray Dogs" shows a father and his two children struggling to survive on what he makes from menial jobs and by getting his son and daughter to visit supermarkets to eat food samples.

The slow-paced effort is the director's first since his Cannes competition entry "Face" four years ago. His second feature film, "Vive L'Amour", won the Golden Lion best picture award in Venice in 1994.

Tsai said he probably wouldn't have made "Stray Dogs" had it not been for a theatre performance of Lee Hsiao-kang, his go-to actor for more than two decades.

His leading man, meanwhile, described their collaboration as a form of torture.

"Making films with director Tsai is very tough," Lee said.

"Working with him is kind of torture, you have to endure a lot and in the process I really experience living like the character and feel the heaviness of his life. So, these roles have allowed me to improve my acting," he said.

The concluding shot of "Stray Dogs" shows the father and a woman who has befriended the outcast family standing one behind the other almost motionless and staring at a wall in a derelict building during a rainstorm for 20 minutes.

The film features Lee's nephew and niece, Tsai's godson and goddaughter, Lee Yi-cheng and Lee Yi-chieh, as the children.

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