By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Tsai Ming-liang
Starring: Ann Hui | Chao-jung Chen | Kang-sheng Lee | Shiang-chyi Chen | Tien Miao | Yi-ching Lu
Original language title: He Liu
Country: taiwan
Year: 2001
Running time: 115
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119263/combined
Bruce says: “A college-aged boy is on the up escalator going to a big department store when he is spotted by a girl he hasn’t seen in two years who is on the adjacent down escalator. They begin talking and she convinces him to change his course and go with her.
“The girl has something to do with a film that is being made. As we approach the river bank, we see a corpse floating in the filthy, polluted water. The corpse has a problem. None of the filmmakers, particularly the director, feel the legs and feet are realistic enough. The corpse is a mannequin. With some heavy persuading, the young man is convinced to be an extra on the set and he becomes a body double for the mannequin in the floating corpse scene.
“Next we see the young man in agony; his neck and shoulder are paralyzed in pain. He cannot stand straight. Each day the pain gets worse and his body becomes more distorted. This young man lives with his mother and father and the three comprise a most dysfunctional family. The mother is prim and proper, wearing a white blouse and pleated skirt. She has a lover, a pornographer. When she tiptoes into his studio she catches a few frames of his latest videos before climbing into his bed and fondling him as he sleeps. The father is a fondler, too, but his fondling is done in the confines of the local gay bathhouses.
“The boy’s parents seem dedicated to identifying his malady. He is taken first to a traditional doctor, followed by visits to holistic
practitioners, acupuncturists, and spiritualists. No one can identify his ailment nor can any of the treatments cure it. The boy gives up and goes to one of the gay bathhouses himself hoping that sex will take his
mind off the pain.
“THE RIVER is very similar to Todd Haynes’ SAFE in which Julianne Moore has an unspecified ‘environmental sickness.’ Both the malady and its cause remain mysterious in THE RIVER. It may be clear to some viewers that the river itself is the culprit. I tend to be in that camp, but I am not quite sure, either. Like SAFE, this is not a film I’m likely to forget.
“Like the filmmakers’ camera invading the privacy of the corpse in the river, we seem to be eavesdropping on intimate moments involving all three family members. No one in the film has a name which creates an atmosphere of vagueness and uncertainty. Filmed with the director’s slow, deliberate style THE RIVER creates more of a mood than tells a story.
“Although made in 1997, THE RIVER was not released in the USA until 2001. 4 cats”