I Don't Want to Sleep Alone was one of seven films made for the New Crowned Hope festival, an artistic initiative guided by theater director Peter Sellars and financed by the city of Vienna to commemorate 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth. (The other films were Paz Encina's Paraguayan Hammock, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's Dry Season, Garin Nugroho's Opera Jawa, Bahman Ghobadi's Half Moon, Teboho Mahlatsi's Meokgo and the Stickfighter [short], and Apichatpong Weearasethakul's Syndromes and a Century [which, along with Zodiac, is the best new and distributed film I've seen this year].)

Sellars has stated that he wanted films to reflect the late-Mozartian themes of "magic and transformation, truth and reconciliation, and ceremonies for the dead." The master's three key late works -- The Magic Flute, Requiem, and La clemenza di Tito -- were meant to serve as an inspiration. Along with The Magic Flute's "Tamino" and "The Queen of the Night" arias, Tsai's effort also features Malay and Kollywood pop, not to mention strands of Cantonese opera.

Tsai went to Malaysia (the country of his birth) back in 1999 and stayed there for about a year. He has said that during this time a sex/political scandal involving the nation's deputy prime minister caught his eye. During the trial, a mattress was brought into the court as evidence and the defendant showed up while sporting a black eye. The Chinese title of the film, Hei yan quan, reportedly means eyes circled in black or shadows under the eyes or black eye. The film was initially banned in Malaysia.

*Now available on DVD in the U.S. (Strand Releasing). No extra features.