The River

Director: Tsai Ming-liang, Tsai Ming-liang, Tsai Ming-liang, Tsai Ming-liang, Tsai Ming-liang

1997 / 118min / 35mm

In Tsai’s third feature, the trouble begins for actor fetiche Lee Kang-sheng when he agrees to play the part of a drowned corpse in a film (directed by legendary Hong Kong auteur Ann Hui!) and is afterwards stricken by chronic neck pain. Lee’s home life worsens along with his mystery affliction—plumbing nightmares, mom pursuing an affair with a pornographer, dad trawling the local bathhouse—as Tsai observes his family’s individual agonies collect in a steady drip that leads to inevitable overflow in the catastrophic catharsis of his film’s climax.