[...] These architectural manifestations of hypermodern existence, liminal sites through which one passes in transit, include shopping malls, supermarkets, hotels and motels, airports, superhighways, food courts and convenience stores - all backdrops, it should be noted, against which a goodly portion of Tsai's films are seen to play out. Taipei and Hong Kong, modern cities grown overnight to metropolis-size at mid-century by an influx of refugees, are perhaps the definitive non-place cities of the twentieth century, and as such ideal bellwethers to understanding the changing cultural constructions of public space in a world increasingly given over to non-spaces. [...]