The first of a loose trilogy consisting of the short film The Skywalk Is Gone and the feature-length The Wayward Cloud, this is, in a way, Tsai's most intense film. Two members of a family – a mother and son selling watches on a footbridge – are stricken by the death of his father; they find consolation in Buddhist rituals, complemented by rituals of their own. A young woman, heading to Paris to escape her loneliness, desperately needs a watch that displays multiple time zones. Life, death, time, grief and humour mingle and intertwine, resulting in a hypnotic piece of cinema.