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The Hole Reviews
Taiwanese film is dystopian in the most minimalist way, yet vibrant in a more visible sense. Thanks be to really dreamy musical numbers that enchant even on a shoe-string budget.
An epidemic hits Taiwan, people who suffered from the disease become cockroach like in terms of their behaviour. A plumber created a hole in a man's apartment and the man and his neighbour began to suffer from the delusions and hallucinations of the effect of the disease. The hole represented the depression in a socially planned urban environment, everyone fills it with different methods. The hole is also a musical that juxtaposed the depression with cheerful tunes.
Shitty apartment building.
Tsai Ming-liang's films are always a challenge, and the epitome of obscure. However, this is almost accessible, inexplicably filled with 60's Chinese pop songs and dance routines. It's filled with Tsai's usual metaphors and symbols, but the songs are an interesting break from the routine.
How much does real life differ from this piece of minimalistic anarchy? Ever wondered why does the virus already involve the lowest behaviors any human could display (lowering its status to a cockroach)? "We are already living in an apocalypse", Ming-liang argues throughout with this spectacular oddity, "and we are already living as such". I'm not quoting him directly but trust me, it's much more fun to try to decipher what a director tells to us by our own rather than consulting the web or exclusive interviews. Kill some neurons! 97/100
Anyone who is familiar with Ming-Liang Tsai knows that his films are definitely not known for their brisk pace. The Hole takes place in an alternate reality (now at least) where the millennium virus is an epidemic that is slowly killing everyone in Taiwan. The main character's in our film live in a district that has been evacuated with the water being shut off permanently come January 1, 2000. The setting of the film is an extremely depressing, wet, rotting, apartment in this district. The story revolves around a young man who discovers/meets the woman who lives below him in the apartment complex after a plumber knocks a whole in the floor to try and stop a busted pipe. Their lives are empty and this small connection that one and other have to each other kinda serves as a distraction from the world around them. This can be seen in the music numbers which are sprinkled throughout the film which consist of the female lead singing upbeat 1950s style songs typically about falling in love and relationships in general. Ming-Liang Tsai's films are not particularly straight forward and this one is no different in that regard. Many casual viewers would definitely find this film boring but its really just a minimalistic experience which left me with a lot of questions and things to think about, which I don't believe at all to be a bad thing. For me, Tsai wants to show how fragile life is and how we are inherently lonely and weak individuals but the connections in which we can form with each other is what can make us strong. Another fascinating feature by Ming-Liang Tsai.
Awful. Slow. A purely boring series of long takes and nonsensical what the fuckery. Did not enjoy.
Interesting Take On A "Virus Epidemic" Film. Some Nice Metaphors Within The Film And A Satisfying Yet Albeit Somewhat Obvious Conclusion.
Heavily affected by the Aids-scare on the Taiwanese island in the late nineties, Tsai Ming-Liang's apocalyptic vision of a virus-infested and waterlogged Taipei is balanced against the absurdly comical pranks of Lee Kang-Sheng and his female opposite Yang Kuei-Mei, playng brilliantly against heteronormative clichà (C)s and conventions. Also sweetening the deal are the numerous musical numbers in the spirit of Grace Chang, redefining camp and breaking the dull monotony of modern life. The Hole remains an important work for Tsai, pointing forward to the director's satirical and political use of musical elements in The Wayward Cloud and, most recently, Visage.
A rather depressing vision of the near future, in which, in the midst of a plague-ravaged Taiwan, two neighbours meet through a hole knocked in the floor by the plumber. Bizarrely, in the midst of all the despair and angst, the movie is peppered with upbeat, colourful songs, like an Asian Singing Detective. Interesting stuff.
I never got into it. There was a lot of symbolism and metaphors. But when it comes down to it, it was just a simple love story. The faux-musical scenes were boring. But overall the film works together well and the last five minutes are great, but it wasn't worth it.
Directed by Tsai Ming-liang, "The Hole" reminds me of a story a friend told me about how in California people who would normally keep to themselves would work together to repair a wall after an earthquake, so they never had to speak to each other again. In this movie, there is an epidemic that causes people to act like cockroaches. Most of the population has been evacuated to quarantine camps but a few hardy souls stay behind. One of them(Yang Kuei-Mei) has her beauty treatment interrupted by dust from a hole in the ceiling that was not there before. Strangely enough, this does not lead to an increased amount of interaction with her upstairs neighbor(Lee Kang-sheng) who runs a store. Full of millenial angst, "The Hole" works in contrast to the director's "The Wayward Cloud" where there is a persistant drought. Here, it never stops raining and the infrastructure is collapsing. So, the musical numbers are a necessary place for the characters to escape into.
There's this guy who's never met the girl in the apartment below him until the day a plumber knocks a hole in his floor. Immediately there's some small connection between them. Are they living together now? Does that small breach in their otherwise isolated lives constitute a relationship? The two rarely speak, but there's something there. How do we know? Well ever twenty minutes or so we get a wonderfully upbeat musical interlude in which the girl lip syncs to Grace Chang songs shot and choreographed in a way reminiscent of the 1950s. (I'm not gonna pretend like I knew who Grace Chang was before I saw this; she's apparently a very famous 1960s Chinese Singer/Actress.) Anyway, so you got this love story that alternates between subtle and effusive. Meanwhile, this is all set against the extremely depressing, rotting, dirty, sopping wet, apocalyptic and surreal backdrop of a Taiwan in which a pandemic is slowly wiping out the entire nation on the eve of the millenium. It's some strange sickness that makes people act like cockroaches, go insane, and die; and on top of that, the rain just won't let up. It's a very slow film, but the anticipation of the next musical number and the just bizarre nature of the plot really keep it from ever becoming boring; not to mention there's a sly streak of comedy underlying it all (e.g. the pervasiveness of fire extinguishers in what seems like the dampest city in the world). All in all, it's a gorgeous and thoughtful film on so many levels. Definitely worth checking out.
Hole - essence of men. Everybody has hole, nobody's perfect. That's why people never cease to connect with others.
Two neighbors brought together when a hole appears in the floor/ceiling. In reversal of Ming Liang Tsai's Wayward Cloud where a city was caught in a debilitating drought, now the rain will just not stop falling. To make matters worse a strange disease is infecting the city which causes those afflicted to seek dark, moist corners, crawl around on all fours and show aversion to sunlight (basically they take on cock roach behavior; a Gregor Samsa stress disorder). The city has been evacuated aside from a few who can't/won't leave, but the water is soon to be cut off (water plays a vital role in WC as well). A slow minimalist deadpan comedy of alienation ensues, where the dilapidated apartments and ruined hallways double as the sights of garish musical numbers of Taiwanese pop songs from the 60's(though not as garish as The Wayward Cloud). The post-apocalyptic setting of the film is ironic counter part to the oeneric romance silently occurring between the two neighbors. The structure of the film flows back and forth between images of the banal daily activities of the "survivors" left in their apartments waiting to turn into insects, and the bright romantic songs that affirm life, love, and naivete amidst disaster. The Wayward Cloud had three types of scenes, adding in sex and meta-porn which is absent from "The Hole". Ming Liang Tsai was asked to make a film about the end of the millennium, and this is what he produced. A dryly funny, surreal, spared down, romance in a form that only he could make. Anyone who claims modern cinema is dead, has not been watching enough movies from Taiwan. The end is brilliant.
My favourite film by Tsai Ming Liang! It has all his trademarks - loooong takes, graphically bizarre scenes and an overall message of modern alienation. But more then any of his other films it offers hope at the end.
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