THE RIVER
Followed by Q&A with Tsai Ming-Liang and Lee Kang-Sheng. Moderator Tony Rayns.
Director: Tsai Ming-Liang
115 minutes. Taiwan. 1997. Subtitled. Colour. D-Cinema restored version.
Special Jury Prize, Berlin International Film Festival 1997.
Regarded as ‘one of the greatest films of the ’90s’, this is a rare screening of the restored version. Set in Taipei, it is a tense, challenging depiction of city life, dysfunctional families, alienation, and sexual tensions.
A young woman (Chen Shiang-chyi) working as part of a film crew, runs into an old friend, Hsiao-kang (Lee Kang-sheng). While hanging around the set, he is asked to play a dead body floating in the polluted Tamsui River. Soon after, Hsiao-kang develops chronic neck pain. Characterised by slow action and minimal dialogue, the symbolism of water (a recurrent theme in Tsai’s films) becomes apparent as Hsiao-kang’s mysterious neck pain could be related to his family circumstances, and also is mirrored by a water leak in the bedroom that gradually becomes more serious…
