Paul Elliott’s review published on Letterboxd:
Taiwanese auteur Tsai Ming-Liang has crafted a sublimely meditative film with Days, the 11th film from the immersive Goodbye, Dragon Inn director. Its sequences are shimmering with moments of daily life which enigmatically convene to form a collective narrative. The film simultaneously follows two lonely middle-aged men through minimalist long takes named Kang (Lee Kang-sheng) and Non (Anong Houngheuangsy).
The film's inaugurating shot featuring Kang gazing out of the window silently during a rainstorm for a pacesetting five minutes establishes the tone for everything that follows; during which time, the men eventually come together then part company. While there are minimal formal narrative events; the stillness of the static camera, presented in long takes of medium and long shots, conveys the characters' tangible experiences: existences defined by isolation and forlornness.
Tsai's shots proficiently establish a conceptual classicism, where virtually every take exists as a subliminal framework harmonised with delicate and thoughtfully designed ambient sound. Béla Tarr's work is a touchstone; so are the poems of German–American Charles Bukowski, and the decompressed pace creates an almost stereopsis-like nature to the narrative. Patience becomes continually rewarded with the film revealing itself to be a beautifully composed look at the necessity for human connection. Rain dropping on leaves contrasts with city disturbances with award-winning sound designer Dennis Tsao assembling the noises wonderfully; together with the cinematography of Chang Jhong-Yuan, to attain high-quality results.
After the film's first hour cutting between the two characters and establishing the commonplaceness of solitude, the two strands eventually converge to the film's centrepiece: Kang and Non's hotel room encounter. A thirty minutes scene, involving an extended shot of them listening to a music box. This moment assumes a profound resonance once they become once again immersed within the monotony of their lives, as the music box becomes an emblem of the continual expectation and appetite for human connection. Days maintains its gentle rhythm throughout, yielding a poignant and intensely moving experience.