Abstract
The film of Tsai Ming-liang represents the bleak landscape of urban life, but his use of props, the design of space and the unfolding of plot and its seemingly ＂happy ending＂ all contribute to a sense of humor that intrigues and amazes the audience. Employing Herbert Marcuse's theory of Eros and utopia, this article intends to analyze Tsai's I Don't Want to Sleep Alone and other related films, explicating their erotic utopia and comic vision. First, I Don't Want to Sleep Alone creates a comic world where the segmentation of space entails intimate relationships, the public space enables chance encounters, and the objects, liberated from their regular functions, designate alternative possibilities. Second, the film is themed on the sexual and emotional desires, the need of care, and the longing for a place of one's own. These themes, along with the use of popular songs that speak of love, are the implicit manifestation of Eros and serve to negate the waste land of capitalism. In an advanced capitalist society where alienation is total and complete, Tsai responds with a secondary, artistic alienation, and thus his work of art enables the negation and refute of the established order as well as the transcendence of the one-dimensional society. Putting Tsai Ming-liang into dialogue with Marcuse, this article hopes to illuminate the complexity and nuances of the text while at the same time concretizing the abstract and obscure philosophical aesthetics.