(The River)
We're some way into Tsai Ming-Liang's shattering new film before we discover how the three protagonists are related. First there's the young man wandering aimlessly in central Taipei who gets sweet-talked into appearing as an extra in a movie; the director (Ann Hui) has him play a corpse floating in the heavily polluted Tanshui River. Then there's the elderly man, obviously retired, who makes frequent visits to the city's gay saunas in search of anonymous hand-jobs. And the middle-aged woman with a nothing job as an elevator attendant and a nothing 'lover' who pirates porno tapes and can barely stir from the sofa to greet her. Tsai cross-cuts between these three going about their business for some time before revealing that they're members of the same family: son, father and mother.
The River starts from some fairly bleak assumptions about dysfunctional families, urban loneliness and loveless sex, but - as we know from Rebels of the Neon God and Vive l'amour - Tsai is not the kind of director to wallow in easy pessimism. Here, even more daringly than in his previous films, he illuminates his characters' inner problems by putting them through physical ordeals which strip them literally and metaphorically naked. One day after his ill-advised immersion in the river, the son develops a pain in his neck and shoulder; it defeats diagnosis, and eventually makes the boy think of killing himself. Meanwhile, the father faces a crisis when water starts cascading into his room from the seemingly empty apartment above. We learn almost all there is to know about these people from their reactions to these problems.
Working with sensationally good actors, Tsai achieves the kind of emotional impact that the average 'feel-good' movie can only dream of. The River looks like a future classic. Tony Rayns
Regie (Dir) Tsai Ming-liang Buch
(Scr): Tsai Ming-liang, Yang Pi-ying,
Tsai Yi-chun Darsteller (Cast): Lee Kang-sheng, Miao Tien, Lu Hsiao-ling Länge (Running time): 124 Minuten
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